November/December 1995
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November/December 1995 |
Prior to 1983, the International Joint Commission met annually with its Great Lakes advisory boards -- the Water Quality and Science Advisory Boards -- and the public to hear technical presentations from each board. As the meetings grew in size and then switched to the biennial format, the reports of the boards and the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers on the state of the Great Lakes quickly became overshadowed by other groups and meeting agendas. However, their reports continue to be a primary source of information for the Commission on Great Lakes issues, and are considered carefully as it prepares its biennial report on progress under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
This year's board and council reports, organized for the first time in one volume, include 36 recommendations addressing five areas the Commission asked them to investigate over the past two years: ecosystem health; scientific challenges to decisionmaking, including the use of weight of evidence; a review of toxic reduction programs; the impact of changes on the Lake Erie ecosystem; and an assessment of research in the basin. Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) and Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs) were also reported on, as part of its ongoing responsibilities under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
In the area of ecosystem health, the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board (SAB) concluded that certain chemicals in the environment can cause a range of effects on the endocrine systems in animals. Further research is required to determine if these effects are observed in or can be extrapolated to humans by identifying sources, types and levels of toxic contaminants for which humans are exposed, as well as any links between such exposure and effects on human development. Emphasis should be placed on identifying those exposures that have the potential to affect the endocrine system, which regulates most of the body's reproductive, developmental and immune system functions, and at what stage of development humans are most susceptible to these effects.
The SAB also recommended that, in the area of decisionmaking, the risk of non-action be included in deliberations on risk management, as well as the potential indirect consequences of the action under consideration. Risk management and weight of evidence decisions must be clear as to the evidence, assumptions and values used to reach those conclusions.
The Great Lakes Water Quality Board (WQB) focused its efforts over the past two years on a review of toxic reductions programs, and in particular pollution prevention initiatives. It recommended in its report that standard binational mechanisms and criteria be developed to assess toxic chemical management approaches, including legislation, programs and data collection activities addressing toxic loadings to the Great Lakes basin. The WQB also suggested that the Commission recommend to the Parties to the Agreement (Canada and the United States) that greater emphasis be placed on pollution prevention, and to quantify reductions gained via this route. Efforts in the pulp and paper industry to measure and reduce discharges of dioxins, dibenzofurans and adsorbable organic halogens, pesticide use and groundwater protection were also reported on by the board.
Changes in the Lake Erie ecosystem were explored by all the
Great Lakes advisory groups, including the Council of Great Lakes
Research Managers and the Lake Erie Task Force, created
specifically for this priority area of research. An ecological
model prototype was developed by the task force to highlight
interactions among stressors to the lake ecosystem and to assist
Lake Erie managers in developing policy decisions, particularly
for the fishery. The council also continued development of an
ecosystem framework and applied it to the issue of zebra mussels
in Lake Erie, in order to select research priorities and policy
options. The inventory of Great Lakes research was continued
during the 1993-1995 cycle and is now available online at:
Copies of the advisory groups' report, 1993-1995 Priorities and Progress Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, were provided to all biennial meeting participants and are available free of charge from any of the Commission offices.
Revised: March 14, 1997
Maintained by Kevin McGunagle,
mcgunaglek@ijc.wincom.net