July/August 1996
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July/August 1996 |
by Geoffery Thornburn
Governments need to maintain their dedication to programs aimed at Great Lakes water quality in the face of threatened cutbacks to environmental programs and deregulation proposals in both countries, concludes the International Joint Commission in its Eighth Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. Continued commitment is needed to protect past progress in cleaning up and protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem and to implement additional programs necessary to achieve the objectives of the Agreement.
Since the Governments of Canada and the United States signed the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement 24 years ago, government actions based on the Agreement's goals, as well as private sector investments in pollution control and prevention, have brought impressive progress to restore the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. They are a model of cooperative environmental research and management for the rest of the world.
In its Eighth Biennial Report, the Commission commends both countries for a quarter century of progress, achieved in large part because of strong governmental leadership. It warns, however, that current proposals for cutbacks in environmental requirements and funding for environmental monitoring, enforcement and research could jeopardize these accomplishments as well as further progress. The Commission concludes that a continued commitment to the laws and regulations that set targets for action is still essential if adequate progress on the Agreement's goals is to be achieved, based on common goals and a coordinated, binational strategy. In addition, the Commission recognizes that a variety of voluntary programs by industry can help to achieve environmental goals and encourages their use as part of an overall program.
Persistent toxic substances should remain an important focus for remedial and preventive programs. The need for their virtual elimination and zero discharge continues to be reinforced by mounting scientific evidence about their impacts on human health and other facets of ecosystem health. The Commission believes these policies are achievable if society has sufficient will and has encouraged, along with the regulatory targets, a deliberate process of transition towards a more sustainable economy. This process should be led by Governments but involve all sectors of society.
The Commission reiterates the value of a binational strategy for persistent toxics, based on four key principles:
prevention of pollution is preferred to subsequent cleanup
precaution should be an underlying basis of decisions about persistent toxic chemicals and their impacts using a weight of evidence approach
managing groups of chemicals rather than single ones due to the large number of chemicals on the market and onerous processes to deal with them individually, and
reverse onus of proof whereby the burden is on proponents to prove chemicals safe, rather than on governments to prove they are harmful.
Several binational and national programs identified in the report begin to address these issues, including a Binational Persistent Toxics Management Strategy, the Lake Superior Binational Program, the State of the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conferences and restoration of Areas of Concern.
The Commission also highlights the growing importance of air pollution and its control as a critical component of Great Lakes environmental strategies. Air pollution comes from local and more distant sources in other parts of North America and even the globe. Other issues for increased attention under the Agreement include:
monitoring and management of radionuclides
long-term effects of climate change in a binational context
the control of ground level ozone, which has human health and ecological impacts
sustaining biological integrity, including programs to protect habitat and biological diversity and prevent additional exotic species invasions, and
improved environmental health information and training for health professionals.
The Commission's report is issued biennially as required in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Geoffrey Thornburn is the economics advisor to the International Joint Commission. To receive a copy of the Eighth Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality, contact the Commission's Washington, Ottawa or Windsor office.
What does the Commission mean by Transition?
Some things will need to change if our economy is to move away from its current, heavy demands for toxic chemicals without creating social and economic disruption. A deliberate, targeted process over a reasonable time period is needed. It should bring together the talents, goodwill, entrepreneurship and determination of all sectors at societal and individual levels. In some areas, producers, workers or consumers may find change difficult. Other issues can be resolved more quickly and easily with available technology, retraining and perhaps some incentives. Whatever the process, the Commission is convinced that it needs to occur in a planned and equitable way, and that the problem cannot be avoided without incurring even more costs later on from long-term environmental and health consequences.
The Commission has suggested that society, led by our governments, but also involving entrepreneurs, labour, scientists, educators and others, should and can be mobilized to deal with this challenge without destroying all that we enjoy. The plan should endeavour to protect, among other things, the vitality of business, the earning capacity of labour, the integrity of the natural environment, our health and the health of future generations.
The changes are expected to involve more than environmental regulations and conservation programs. Mechanisms should be put into place to protect and assist affected communities, where required, to avoid dislocations. They should involve regional, local and sectoral processes that take various environmental, social and cultural needs into account. In addition, new processes and other requirements of a major transition will involve costs that may not always be supported in highly competitive global markets. Thus, multinational transition initiatives will also be important, such as ways to monitor and eliminate production and trade of certain chemicals and the integration of these needs into international trade agreements.
Our Science Advisory Board, in its most recent report, strongly supported giving further attention to a transition planning process. It recommended that Governments incorporate transition planning where risks of dislocation may exist in their existing commitments to phase out toxic substances, such as those contained in the Lake Superior Binational Program and Canada-Ontario Agreement. The Commission believes that such a process, built on a foundation of basic laws and regulations, will be an important means of achieving more environmentally and humanly sustainable practices, and the objectives of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Revised: 14 February 1997
Maintained by Kevin McGunagle,
mcgunaglek@ijc.wincom.net