July/August 1997
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July/August 1997 |
by Joe Lozon
"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
About a year ago, an article in Focus reviewed the findings of the International Joint Commission's Indicators for Evaluation Task Force, as presented in its final report, Indicators to Evaluate Progress under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The task force had been created to answer questions, such as those posed above, related to the health of the Great Lakes. It was given the charge to select indicators the Commission could use to evaluate progress toward meeting the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and to advise the governments of the United States and Canada on further actions they need to take to meet these goals. The approach developed by the task force will be used as an organizing principle for the Commission's next biennial report on progress under the Agreement.
Other organizations also are developing indicators to assess how ecosystems are being improved or degraded. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed 12 national goals along with indicators to assess environmental quality. Several European nations are using environmental indicators and, in their next State of the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) in 1998, Canada and the United States also will focus on the use of indicators.
In its report, the task force recommended that the Commission use indicators to assess progress towards nine desired outcomes (see sidebar) that were based on Agreement provisions and components of the Great Lakes ecosystem that are highly valued by the public. The indicators were chosen for their relevance to the Agreement, scientific completeness and ease of being understood by the public.
To further examine the applicability of the proposed indicators and implement the recommendations of the task force, the Commission created an Indicators Implementation Task Force. This new task force is co-chaired by Douglas Dodge of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Gary Gulezian of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and includes members from academia and government.
The Implementation Task Force has begun a pilot study in cooperation with government agencies to inventory and assess the cost, availability, format and quality of current and historical data for the proposed indicators. The pilot study will focus on two of the desired outcomes -- fishability and virtual elimination of inputs of persistent toxics -- for lakes Erie and Superior. After completing the pilot study in August 1997, the Implementation Task Force will make recommendations to the Commission on the implementation, compilation, assessment and evaluation of the remaining desired outcomes and their associated indicators for all of the Great Lakes.
It is likely that the Commission will make indicators one of its priorities for the 1997-1999 biennial reporting cycle and will use indicators to evaluate progress by the governments under the Agreement. The Commission has requested that the governments assist it in identifying and providing the needed data. Although the Commission is working cooperatively with all levels of government and the SOLEC initiative, it will maintain its responsibility to independently review and assess environmental progress. Eventually, the approach will be used to determine overall quality, trends and progress towards achieving all nine desired outcomes on each of the Great Lakes.
Joe Lozon is a research assistant to the International Joint Commission's Indicators Implementation Task Force at its Great Lakes Regional Office. Copies of Indicators to Evaluate Progress Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement may be obtained from the Commission's Windsor office , or at http://www.ijc.org/php/publications/html/ietf.html.
"An indicator provides a clue to a matter of larger significance or makes perceptible a trend or phenomenon that is not immediately detectable."
Fishability
The presence of fish consumption advisories and the total number of sports and commercial
advisories for each lake
Swimmability
Beach closings, measured in median number of consecutive days for a given year
Drinkability
Bacterial counts in treated drinking water, number of warnings of water consumption
limitation,
taste and odour problems, and treatment plant closures
Healthy Human Populations
The number of people affected by waterborne microbial disease, toxic levels in human tissue
and
breast milk, and hospital admissions for acute respiratory distress in children
Economic Viability
Total employment reported in the Great Lakes basin
Biological Community Integrity and Diversity
The presence and abundance of key species, quantity and quality of particular habitat types
and
the number of both endangered and exotic species
Virtual Elimination of Inputs of Persistent Toxic Substances (PTS)
Quantity of PTS used and produced, loadings of PTS to the Great Lakes, concentrations of
PTS
in key species and programs undertaken to reduce PTS use
Absence of Excess Phosphorus
Ambient phosporus concentrations in selected areas, algal blooms and phosphorus loading to
the
Great Lakes
Physical Environmental Integrity
Quantity and quality of key habitats, wetlands, stream base flow and land use
Sommaire
Il y a environ un an, le Groupe de travail sur les indicateurs d'évaluation de la Commission mixte internationale a présenté son rapport final, intitulé Indicators to Evaluate Progress under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Son mandat consistait à proposer des indicateurs à la Commission dans le but d'évaluer les progrès accomplis vers les objectifs fixés dans l'Accord relatif à la qualité de l'eau dans les Grands Lacs.
La Commission a créé un Groupe de travail sur la mise en oeuvre des indicateurs, qu'elle a chargé d'examiner l'applicabilité des indicateurs proposés. Ce groupe a entrepris une étude pilote en collaboration avec des organismes gouvernementaux afin de déterminer le coût, la disponibilité, le format et la qualité des données actuelles et antérieures sur ces indicateurs. L'étude sera axée sur deux des résultats visés : assurer l'élimination virtuelle des apports de substances toxiques persistantes et la qualité halieutique dans les lacs Érié et Supérieur.
Revised: July 7, 1997
Maintained by Kevin McGunagle,
mcgunaglek@ijc.wincom.net