6.2 INDICATORS

- "Are the Great Lakes getting better? Can we swim there, drink the water and eat the fish? What data and information do we need to evaluate progress towards these and other goals? How do we know when the goals have been reached? These are challenging questions, but managers, legislators and interested citizens must frequently come to terms with them. - M.P. Bratzel, Jr. in "Focus" March/April 1996

In 1993, the International Joint Commission (IJC) established an Indicators for Evaluation Task Force to identify indicators to evaluate progress under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In its final report, Indicators to Evaluate Progress under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Task Force provided a framework the IJC could use to fulfil its obligation to evaluate Agreement progress and develop advice to governments. The framework consists of nine carefully defined desired outcomes (Table 13). Associated with each desired outcome are indicators chosen, based on several criteria with special relevance to the Agreement, scientific completeness and public understandability. The desired outcomes incorporate the 14 beneficial uses listed in Annex 2 of the Agreement.

IJC adopted the Task Force's report and will use the nine desired outcomes as one of the organizing principles for its Ninth Biennial Report. In addition, the next State of the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC '98) organized by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada will focus on the use of indicators.

To examine applicability of the proposed indicators and implement the recommendations of the Task Force, IJC, in 1997, created an Indicators Implementation Task Force. This new task force, composed of academics and government personnel, has begun a pilot study in cooperation with government agencies to inventory and assess cost, availability, format and quality of historical data for the proposed indicators. This pilot study focussed on two desired outcomes -- "fishability" and "virtual elimination of inputs of persistent toxic substances" for lakes Erie and Superior. IJC requested the federal governments to assist in identifying and providing the needed data. After completion of the pilot study in 1997, the Task Force will make recommendations regarding implementation, compilation, assessment and evaluation of the remaining desired outcomes and their associated indicators for all the Great Lakes.

IJC likely will make indicators one of its priorities for the 1997-99 biennial cycle and use indicators to evaluate the Parties' progress under the Agreement. Although IJC will work cooperatively with government and the SOLEC initiative, it will maintain its independence to review and assess progress. Eventually, all nine desired outcomes will be addressed on each of the Great Lakes to determine their overall quality, trends and progress toward achieving the Parties' purpose in the Agreement, "to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem."

Copies of Indicators to Evaluate Progress Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement may be obtained from the Commission's Windsor, Ottawa or Washington offices, or via Internet on the IJC's home page: http://www.ijc.org(.)

Table 13. Desired Outcomes for the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem

1. Fishability. There shall be no restrictions on the human consumption of fish in the waters of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem as a result of anthropogenic (human) inputs of persistent toxic substances.
2. Swimmability. No public bathing beaches closed as a result of human activities or, conversely, all beaches are open and available for public swimming.
3. Drinkability. Treated drinking water is safe for human consumption; human activities do not result in application of consumption restrictions.
4. Healthy Human Populations. Human populations in the Great Lakes basin are healthy and free from acute illness associated with locally high levels of contaminants, or chronic illness associated with long-term exposure to low levels of contaminants.
5. Economic Viability. A regional economy that is viable, sustainable and provides adequate sustenance and dignity for the human population of the basin.
6. Biological Community Integrity and Diversity. Maintenance of the ability of biological communities to function normally in the absence of severe environment stress (ecosystem health) and to cope with changes in environmental conditions which impose stress, i.e. to be able to maintain their processes of self-organization on an ongoing basis (ecological integrity). Maintenance of the diversity of biological communities, species and genetic variation within species.
7. Virtual Elimination of Inputs of Persistent Toxic Substances. Virtual elimination of inputs of persistent toxic substances to the Great Lakes system.
8. Absence of Excess Phosphorus. Absence of excess phosphorus entering the water as a result of human activity.
9. Physical Environment Integrity. Land development and use compatible with maintaining aquatic habitat of a quantity and quality necessary and sufficient to sustain an endemic assemblage of fish and wildlife populations.

URL: http://www.ijc.org/rel/boards/iitf/pr9597.html