November/December 1996
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November/December 1996 |
| Commissioner Pierre Béland was named acting chair of the International Joint Commission's Canadian Section in early September following the departure of Adèle Hurley as Canadian Section chair. | Le commissaire Pierre Béland a été nommé président intérimaire de la section canadienne de la Commission mixte internationale au début de septembre depuis le départ d'Adèle Hurley du poste du président. |
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The International Joint Commission welcomes new members it
recently appointed to its boards and thanks those who have
completed their service. Colonel Michael S. Meuleners, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, was appointed to the International St. Croix
River Board of Control. Meuleners succeeds Colonel Earle C.
Richardson as board member.
Gary K. Running, Canadian Coast Guard, was appointed to chair the Canadian Section, International St. Lawrence River Board of Control. He succeeds Robert J. Kingston. Vic Shantora, Environment Canada, was appointed to chair the Canadian Section, Great Lakes Water Quality Board. Kelvin A. Burch, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources was appointed as a member to the board. Burch succeeds James D. Rozakis. Andrew P. Gilman, Health Canada, and Dale Henry, Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy, were appointed to the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers. Constantine G. Tjoumas, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was appointed to the International Niagara Board of Control. Tjoumas succeeds Ron Corso. Dr. Frank Quinn, Environment Canada, was named a member of the International Souris-Red Rivers Engineering Board. |
La Commission mixte internationale souhaite la bienvenue à ses
nouveaux membres récemment nommés à ses conseils, et elle tient à
remercier ceux qui ont terminé leur mandat. Le colonel Michael S.
Meuleners, du Corps of Engineers de l'armée américaine a été
nommé membre du Conseil international de contrôle de la rivière
Sainte-Croix. M. Meuleners succède au colonel Earle C. Richardson
au sein du Conseil.
Gary K. Running, de la Garde côtière canadienne, a été nommé président de la section canadienne du Conseil international de contrôle du fleuve Saint-Laurent pour succéder à Robert J. Kingston à ce poste. Vic Shantora, d'Environnement Canada, a été nommé président de la section canadienne du Conseil de la qualité de l'eau des Grands Lacs. Kelvin A. Burch, du Department of Environmental Protection de Pennsylvanie, a été nommé membre du Conseil; il succède à James D. Rozakis. Andrew P. Gilman, de Santé Canada, et Dale Henry, du ministère ontarien de l'Environnement et de l'Énergie, ont été nommés au Conseil des gestionnaires de la recherche des Grands Lacs. Constantine G. Tjoumas, de la Federal Energy Regulatory Commission américaine, a été nommé au Conseil international de contrôle de la rivière Niagara. M. Tjoumas succède à Ron Corso. Frank Quinn, d'Environnement Canada, a été nommé membre du Conseil technique international des rivières Souris et Rouge. |
Kathy Prosser joined the International Joint Commission in July as secretary to the U.S. Section. Prosser previously served as commissioner for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management from 1989 to 1996, where she was responsible for environmental protection statewide. During that time, Indiana reduced its total toxic emissions to the environment and dropped its national ranking for total toxics releases from fourth to eighth. Prosser was instrumental in putting some of the nation's most stringent surface water quality standards into place and she created programs to encourage voluntary efforts as well. From 1990 to 1996, Prosser was a member of the International Joint Commission's Great Lakes Water Quality Board. Before holding these positions, she served as deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, lobbyist for the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government and chief of staff for Senator John Glenn of Ohio.
Prosser was also founding president of the Environmental Council of States, an association of state environmental directors created to manage the devolution of power and control from the federal government to states. She served as chair of the National Leadership Conference of Women Executives in State Government and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC.
It was with great sadness that we learned about the July 8th death of two Limno-Tech, Inc. (LTI) employees. Paul Rodgers and Kathy Feist died in a helicopter accident while on LTI work in eastern Ohio. Paul was an environmental scientist who participated in numerous International Joint Commission activities, including a modeling exercise that evaluated the effects of load reductions on bioaccumulation of contaminants in Lake Michigan fish, a workshop on monitoring strategies for Great Lakes Areas of Concern, an exercise to quantify "How clean is clean?" for degraded areas of the Great Lakes and a feasibility study for developing an integrated ecosystem model for the Great Lakes.
Both Paul and Kathy made significant contributions to Canada-United States cooperation on Great Lakes issues, including publication of the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment in 1994, a systematic assessment of all stressors on the Great Lakes and their relative importance.
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An Invitation to Comment
The International Joint Commission invites public comment on progress by the United States and Canada in reducing transboundary air pollution under the 1991 Agreement on Air Quality as reported by the Governments' Air Quality Committee in its 1996 Progress Report. The purpose of the Agreement is to establish a practical and effective instrument to address shared concerns on transboundary air pollution. Please send comments in writing by January 15, 1997 to either address below or contact us if you have any questions or would like a copy of the report: |
Commentaires souhaités
La Commission mixte internationale invite le public à formuler ses commentaires concernant les progrès réalisés par le Canada et les États-Unis dans la réduction de la pollution transfrontalière dans le cadre de l'Accord Canada-États-Unis sur la qualité de l'air signé en 1991, progrès énoncés dans le rapport d'étape de 1996 préparé par le comité intergouvernemental sur la qualité de l'air. L'objet de l'Accord est d'établir un outil pratique et efficace permettant d'atténuer les inquiétudes communes concernant la pollution transfrontalière. Prière de nous faire parvenir vos observations par écrit d'ici le 15 janvier 1997 à l'une des deux adresses mentionnées ci-dessous, ou de communiquer avec nous si vous avec des questions ou désirez obtenir un exemplaire du rapport. | ||
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International Joint Commission United States Section 1250 23rd Street, NW Suite 100 Washington, DC 20440 Telephone: (202) 736-9000 Fax: (202) 736-9015 Email: bevacquaf@washington.ijc.org |
International Joint Commission Canadian Section 100 Metcalfe Street 18th Floor Ottawa, ON K1P 5M1 Telephone: (613) 995-2984 Fax: (613) 993-5583 Email: baileyt@ijc.achilles.net |
Commission mixte internationale Section canadienne 100, rue Metcalfe 18e étage Ottawa (Ontario) K1P 5M1 Téléphone : (613) 995-2984 Télécopieur : (613) 993-5583 Courrier électronique : baileyt@ijc.achilles.net |
International Joint Commission United States Section 1250 23rd Street, NW Suite 100 Washington, DC 20440 Téléphone : (202) 736-9000 Télécopieur : (202) 736-9015 Courr. électr. : bevacquaf@ijc.achilles.net |
In August 1996 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada released a draft Canada-United States Strategy for the Virtual Elimination of Persistent Toxic Substances in the Great Lakes Basin. The intent of the strategy is to provide a framework for actions to reduce or eliminate persistent toxic substances, especially those which bioaccumulate, from the Great Lakes basin. In addition to promoting the sound management of chemicals consistent with Agenda 21: A Global Action Plan for the 21st Century, the strategy will also be guided by the principles articulated by the International Joint Commission's Virtual Elimination Task Force. The strategy will provide a framework for existing and proposed regulatory and nonregulatory initiatives, and will also identify additional actions needed to complement these initiatives. Both countries will confirm by 1997, that there is no longer use, generation or release to the Great Lakes of five bioaccumulative pesticides (chlordane, aldrin/dieldrin, DDT, mirex and toxaphene) or the industrial byproduct octachlorostyrene. Timelines to meet specific challenges in each country are also included. While the scope of the strategy focuses primarily on the Great Lakes basin, cooperation will be sought to address persistent toxic substances coming from outside the basin. The public comment period closed November 8, 1996 and a final strategy will be released in 1997. The draft strategy may be downloaded via internet from http://www.epa.gov/glnpo or obtained from Elizabeth LaPlant (312)353-2694, Deborah Siebers (312)353-9399 at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or from Susan Nameth (416)739-4937 at Environment Canada.
Results of two human health studies have been published that further support the International Joint Commission's concerns about health effects of persistent toxic substances and the policy of Canada and the United States to virtually eliminate the thier discharge to the Great Lakes. Drs. Joseph L. Jacobson and Sandra W. Jacobson reported in the September 12, 1996 New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 335, Number 11) that IQ and achievement testing of eleven year-old children who were exposed to small amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other Great Lakes pollutants while in the womb revealed lower intelligence scores and reading comprehension, as well as difficulty staying focused. In this latest study, the Jacobsons retested 212 children they have followed since birth. The children's mothers had eaten Lake Michigan fish contaminated with PCBs. They concluded that in utero exposure to PCBs, at concentrations slightly higher than those in the general population, can have a long-term impact on intellectual and behavioral functioning.
Further support for the Jacobsons' findings comes from another cohort assembled in upper New York State by Dr. Ed Lonky and coworkers at SUNY Oswego, revealing behavioral differences in newborn infants whose mothers had eaten Lake Ontario fish known to be contaminated with a wide range of persistent toxic chemicals such as PCBs, mercury, dioxin, hexachlorobenzene, DDE and mirex. The report in Volume 22, issue two of the 1996 Journal of Great Lakes Research shows that newborns in high-exposure groups had poorer scores in tests of their reflex, stress and stimulation reactions.
PCB production in the United States was banned in 1977, however every major harbor in the country continues to have dangerous levels of PCBs or similar toxic chemicals. These new studies support the need to remediate sediments and landfill sites contaminated with persistent toxic substances as well as other measures to prevent their release to the Great Lakes as outlined in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and Commission reports.
Elimination of industrial processes that produce dioxin could greatly reduce contamination in the Great Lakes region with little or no loss in economic activity or jobs, according to two reports issued in June by the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queen's College, City University of New York. Center Director Barry Commoner and researcher Mark Cohen were team leaders of the two-year study to evaluate the technological and economic feasibility of eliminating the major sources of dioxin in the Great Lakes region. Their findings suggest that zeroing out incinerators and other dioxin-producing sources nationally, as well as in the Great Lakes basin, is not only technologically sound and economically achievable, but an urgent environmental necessity.
The reports, Dioxin Fallout in the Great Lakes and Zeroing Out Dioxin in the Great Lakes: Within Our Reach, are available from the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY 11367. (718)670-4180; fax (212)670-4189.
At the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's 41st Annual Meeting this past June in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, fishery managers announced a major victory: lake trout are again self sustaining in large areas of Lake Superior. After decades of restoration efforts, stocking lake trout in the lake will no longer be required from the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin to Grand Marais, Michigan. For further information, contact Marc Gaden, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, 2100 Commonwealth Boulevard, Suite 209, Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1563. (313)662-3209; fax (313)741-2010.
The World Water Council was created this year on World Water Day, March 22, in Marseilles, France. The Council is a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization designed to serve as a neutral independent forum on water issues for its members and, through them, the world community. The Council's mandate is to "promote awareness about critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decisionmaking level and the general public, and to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on this earth." To obtain further information on the council, including membership applications, contact M. Abu-Zeid, Chairman of the Interim Board of Governors of the World Water Council, c/o NWRC, Shoubra El-Kheima, Cairo 13411 Egypt. Telephone +20+2+220-4360; fax +20+2+220-8219.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), 1,740 water bodies in 47 U.S. states were under fish consumption advisories in 1995. This is a 14 percent increase from the previous year and includes all the Great Lakes and their connecting waterways as well as "a large portion" of U.S. coastal waters. Fish advisories are an attempt to limit the consumption of certain species of fish exposed to chemical contamination in their habitat. The 1995 advisories included 46 pollutants and a wide variety of fish, with almost 95 percent of the advisories due to mercury, PCBs, the pesticides chlordane and DDT or dioxin.
U.S. EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner said that mercury "is responsible for more fish-consumption advisories than any other contaminant. That is why, under this administration, U.S EPA has taken the most aggressive actions ever to sharply limit mercury and other contaminants from their primary source -- incinerators."
U.S. EPA's fish advisory fact sheet (number EPA-823-F-96-006) or diskette (number EPA-823-C-96-011) containing fish advisory data are available from the National Center for Environmental Publications and Information, 11029 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242. (513)489-8190; email waterpubs@EPAmail.EPA.gov.
During the mid to late 1980s, the Great Lakes basin experienced rapid urban growth resulting in increased stormwater runoff. Poor stormwater management was identified as a major contributor to the degradation of water quality, loss of water uses and destruction of fish habitats. The Stormwater Assessment Monitoring and Performance (SWAMP) Program will evaluate new and conventional stormwater management technologies in an ecosystem context. A combination of field monitoring and computer modeling techniques are used to evaluate the ability of each stormwater management technology to mitigate impacts of urban development. The four-year program began in 1995 and is an initiative of Environment Canada's Great Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy, The Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and host municipalities. To date, wet pond/wetland systems, underground detention tanks, flow balancing systems, exfiltration systems and oil/water interceptors have been identified for inclusion within the program. For more information, contact Weng Liang, Ministry of Environment and Energy at (416)235-5825.
The Wayne State University Department of Chemical Engineering has expanded its Hazardous Waste Management Certificate and Masters Degree Programs to Grand Rapids and Flint, Michigan.
Courses will be offered on hazardous waste management, thermal processes of hazardous waste management, transportation and emergency spill response, public issues of hazardous waste and various other topics. More information about the program can be obtained from Andrea Eisenberg, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202. (313)577-3716; fax (313)577-3810; email aeisen@chem1.eng.wayne.edu.
Revised: 14 January 1997
Maintained by Kevin McGunagle,
mcgunaglek@ijc.wincom.net