Priority Challenges and Recommendations

In this first section, the International Joint Commission focuses on three priority themes.

The first chapter focuses on the development and use of reliable ways to measure spacial and temporal trends in the levels and effects of pollutants, and on using those indicators to help convey both the current quality of the Great Lakes ecosystem and the trends in that quality.

The second chapter focuses on the restoration of the chemical integrity of damaged ecosystems in the Great Lakes basin, and particularly on preventing toxic chemicals from continuing to move from contaminated sediment into the wildlife and fish in the ecosystem and, all too often, into human tissues. The chapter points to an urgent need for programs to remediate contaminated sediment, an urgency heightened by the growing evidence of harm from these contaminants to human health.

The third chapter focuses on alien invasive species. These species can significantly and irreversibly damage the biological integrity of the Great Lakes, while imposing large fiscal burdens on those who must respond to their damaging effects.