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Duluth, Minnesota, October 24, 2005

Key points presented at the public meeting

Welcome by Mayor Herb Bergson

• I am happy to see that so many citizens have come out this evening despite your having so much else to do.
• As a member of the Great Lakes Mayors' Initiative, I pledge to serve you.
• Please let me know you thoughts and wishes.

Welcome by Great Lakes Commission Chair Tom Huntley

• I was in Phoenix two nights ago; they would love to have our water.
• There are many policy initiatives in play right now from Annex 2001 to the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.
• I'm happy the IJC is here to listen to the public.

Public

• Governments protect the electric power industry through subsidies to fossil-fuel and nuclear plants, even though these technologies pollute and are wasteful.
  
  
• A free market would favor capturing heat through cogeneration.
  
  
• Federal government gives grants to local governments for waste water treatment rather than making the polluter pay.
  
  
• Governments promote the introduction of exotic species by providing subsidies to shipping and cargoes, including grain.
  
  
• The IJC needs an ecology and economy advisory board to put these ideas need on the table.
  
  
• Government planning by itself will not work. The fall of the Soviet Union demonstrated this.
  
  
• 1400 barrels of waste from arms production by the Honeywell Corporation have laid on the bottom of Lake Superior in Duluth.
  
  
• Tests show that some contain benzene, cadmium, barium, lead and PCBs.
  
  
• The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has no further plan to test the barrels without an indication that they threaten drinking water and health.
  
  
• Further testing is urgent. Earlier tests show that the barrels are eroding.
  
  
• Hope the Cities of Superior and Duluth will press again for testing.
  
  
• Getting the next generation excited about the Great Lakes is critical.
  
  
• The IJC should continue effort to engage youth through vivid electronic curriculum.
  
  
• GIS mapping is one tool that has sensory appeal.
  
  
• An exciting curriculum could use GIS mapping to dramatize the situation with the barrels or the Areas of Concern.
  
  
• For defense and homeland security the budget has gone up; for education and environment, it has gone down.
  
  
• I do not trust what happens when information provided by the public gets back to the governments.
  
  
• As a previous IJC Commissioner said, we must continue to write letters and work for the community, rather than leaving it up to the IJC.
  
  
• Many people have worked for as long as 20 years on restoring the Area of Concern.
  
  
• Lake Superior has less development and pollution than on the other Great Lakes. Because of this, the IJC recommended special protection status for Lake Superior.
  
  
• The IJC should encourage the governments to act to protect Lake Superior.
  
  
• The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement should focus on protection.
  
  
• Protection is more effective and less costly than restoration.
  
  
• If good water quality is not maintained in Lake Superior, it will impact all of the downstream lakes.
  
  
• People have been working with dentists, sewage treatment plants and citizens to reduce mercury inputs to the lake.
  
  
• Mercury inputs from small users have come down, but inputs from industry have stayed the same or gone up.
  
  
• We should not be pleased with the attendance tonight; huge numbers of people should be here to express dissatisfaction with pollution controls and mercury controls.
  
  
• A balanced approach to the issue of water quality is needed.
  
  
• We all want to live on the Great Lakes and to have jobs, and we still want to have perfectly clean water.
  
  
• Individual responsibility is important: I drove here by car and have lights in my house.
  
  
• We need policies that integrate transportation, energy and social and economic considerations.
  
  
• I just attended a conference on stormwater and public education. In almost every case, they were talking about restoration.
  
  
• We already have good water quality on Lake Superior and we need to protect it.
  
  
• There must be adequate funding for protection.
  
  
• We are concerned about beach closings, fish consumption advisories and mercury from coal burning power plants.
  
  
• We have good laws on books in the United States, but they are not being enforced or funded.
  
  
• The IJC should work to put some teeth into the laws that we have worked so hard to pass.
  
  
• Citizen meetings are important, but people need to feel they are being heard.
  
  
• I am a little leery of opening up the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
  
  
• In the United States, we seem to be backsliding on major legislation such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
  
  
• There needs to be more emphasis on the precautionary principle in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
  
  
• More emphasis is also needed on the watershed and tributaries.
  
  
• Exotic species are a huge threat. The Governments should be pushed to treat exotic species as pollutants.
  
  
• The Areas of Concern have been identified for a long time and governments need to re-energize efforts to restore them. Local citizens have invested a huge amount of time in the Remedial Action Plans. When the process drags on and stalls, you lose citizen involvement.
  
  
• Swimming in the lake is my favorite activity, yet I have stopped because of concerns over the beach closings.
  
  
• Is there enough money to monitor the beaches adequately?
  
  
• Invasive species, both aquatic and landborne, are the silent killer.
  
  
• Increased runoff from impervious surfaces is a critical issue. We must educate people about their activities on the land.
  
  
• We must focus on preservation. If we protect Lake Superior, we will not have to spend large sums to restore it.
  
  
• Consider incorporating the precautionary principle into the ecosystem approach: preemptively identify threats and take preventive action; shift the burden of proof to the proponent of an activity rather than continuing to treat the lake as a sink; increase public participation in decision making.
  
  
• The public will turn out for meetings when they see that their comments bear fruit; the Duluth community has turned out for a lot of meetings on water quality.
  
  
• We need to talk about the impact of climate change on the Great Lakes.
  
  
• We took samples and the temperature of the deep waters in Lake Superior is rising.
  
  
• Our community has been active for over 30 years; it began with concern over the dumping of mine tailings.
  
  
• Today's problems, such as atmospheric deposition, are less visible.
  
  
• The United States and Canada need to take meaningful action to reduce mercury emissions for benefit of people today, our children and generations to come.
  
  
• Sustainable development is something people talk about but do not put into practice.
  
  
• There are millions being invested to extract copper and palladium from the Iron Range. The main concern of Minnesota State is make sure the permits go forward.
  
  
• Local governments implement rules established by other levels of government.
  
  
• We appreciate public meetings, but local governments also need to be consulted on a day-to-day basis.
  
  
• I came to live here because of Lake Superior. Want my children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy this environment.
  
  
• More attention must be paid to mercury and PCBs. We've done a lot of work to develop restoration plans. To see the restoration effort dissolve is disheartening.
  
  
• The IJC needs to be our voice.
  
  
• In the 1960s, people complained when bright red water was discharged by a dynamite manufacturer on the south shore. The company added 30 feet to pipe.
  
  
• Others complained about white discharges through a trench from another company. They put boards over the trench so you could not see it anymore.
  
  
• The Soviet approach to pollution in Lake Baikal was to deny its existence. I hope that will never be our solution here.
  
  
• The topography of Duluth is such that everything runs downhill.
  
  
• Any pollution on the land goes into the lake, even cigarette buts.
  
  
• Education is a win-win situation. We must start before our children go to school.
  
  
• Our council has just decided to develop to place 72 homes on a 68-acre parcel of land.
  
  
• When there is a heavy rain, the water has an opportunity to filter through the ground now.
  
  
• If these homes are built, it will be equivalent to putting e a longer pipe to the lake.
  
  
• Government controls point source pollution with NDPES permits, but do not control nonpoint source pollution.
  
  
• When I change the oil in my car, no one will take the used oil. Used oil is a resource. The market is not working.
  
  
• Residents around Lake Superior have a higher rate of cancer than anywhere else in the United States. What is in the water? Does it have anything to do with the dumping of barrels in Lake Superior? I understand the containers are rusted. Where can we find information about the health impacts in our community?

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