Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Water quality concerns are not new to the Great Lakes. They emerged early in the 20th century, in 1909, and matured in 1972 and 1978. They remain a prominent part of today's conflicted politics and advancing industrial growth. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, became a model to the world for environmental management across an international boundary. Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement recounts this historic binational relationship, an agreement intended to protect the fragile Great Lakes. One strength of the agreement is its flexibility, which includes a requirement for periodic review that allows modification as problems are solved, conditions change, or scientific research reveals new problems. The first progress was made in the 1970s in the area of eutrophication, the process by which lakes gradually age, which normally takes thousands of years to progress, but is accelerated by modern water pollution. The binational agreement led to the successful lowering of phosphorus levels that saved Lake Erie and prevented accelerated eutrophication in the rest of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Another major success at the time was the identification and lowering of the levels of toxic contaminants that cause major threats to human and wildlife health, from accumulating PCBs and other persistent organic pollutants

In the 19th century, as population and industry expanded in the Great Lakes region, and along other waterways adjacent to the international border, Canada and the United States began to encounter serious issues with respect to sharing the transboundary waters and the pollution of these waters. [...] The basic role of the IJC is to prevent and resolve disputes between the United States of America and Canada under the auspices of the Boundary Waters Treaty and pursue the common good of both countries as an independent and objective adviser to the two governments. [...] In the Great Lakes region, the IJC has a critical role in evaluating efforts by both countries to protect and restore the Great Lakes basin ecosystem and recommending actions to the two federal governments to implement the goals and objectives of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). [...] The following section provides a more detailed review of the history and content of the agreement and illustrates the application of the principles of interjurisdictional agreements as listed earlier. [...] There is clear recognition by the IJC and by other groups and agencies in the Great Lakes region that, while the GLWQA remains a key instrument for the restoration and protection of the Great Lakes, the vision, purpose, and many provisions of the agreement need to be updated and/or supplemented in the face of new and emerging environmental and socio-economic issues.

Today, however, other concepts need to be incorporated into the Agreement so that it can facilitate contemporary efforts to protect and restore The purpose of the Agreement is to "restore and the water quality of the Great Lakes system and maintain" the water quality of the Great Lakes. [...] The following are four areas the Commission to the development of the Agreement in the 1970s suggests be considered for the purpose and scope and its amendment in 1987:. [...] For purposes of the Agreement, the Commission However, the Commission believes firmly that is of the view that a definition of the ecosystem adopting the ecosystem approach should not lead approach should be developed that is appropriate to to broadening the purpose of the Agreement. [...] This the objectives of the Agreement and the conditions means that the scope of the new Agreement - that in the basin. [...] Because the Commission basinwide consultations conducted by is recommending that the Agreement be endorsed the Commission, of the triennial progress by the U. S. Congress and the Parliament of reports under the Binational Action Plan, Canada, it is of the view that its role should be set out in a formal reference pursuant to Article IX of and (b) the Commission's independent the Boundary Waters Tr.

"This publication celebrates the efforts and accomplishments of individual citizens, scientists, private and public sector organizations and institutions which have made a difference and contributed to environmental progress in the Great Lakes basin"--Preface.