Attend 2007 Great Lakes Biennial Meeting and explore what
cities can do to improve water quality
IThe International Joint Commission invites you to
attend its 2007 Great Lakes Biennial Meeting and
Conference June 6- 8, 2007 on the campus of the
University of Illinois in Chicago. The event provides
you with opportunities to learn about cutting-edge
scientific and policy initiatives, to discuss your
views on Great Lakes water quality and to interact
with scientists, policy makers and other engaged
stakeholders from across the basin.
Flowing from the theme of "Sustainable Cities,
Healthy Watersheds," several sessions will
investigate the connection between current
challenges, best urban practices and the health of
the Great Lakes, including:
- Effective Urban Policy: Lessons for Sustainable
Cities;
- Green Building and Sustainable Development: Measuring Success;
- Protecting and Enhancing Human Health in our Urban Environments;
- Deteriorating Sewer and Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure: A Challenge to Sustainability?
- Remedial Action Plans and Lakewide Management Plans: Industrial and Municipal Contributions to
Restoration;
- Can invasive carp be stopped? Status of the Electric Fish Barrier; and
- Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources: Supply, Demand and Aquifer Protection.
Special opportunities for public involvement will
include a Great Lakes Town Hall Meeting and
a session on the current review of Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement. One new feature this
year will be an interactive stakeholder forum called
"Municipalities Matter" that will focus on strategies
for action at the municipal and regional levels. In
addition, the Commission will present the 2007
Biennial Award for Great Lakes Science to honor a
scientist who contributed to the improvement of the
Great Lakes in an outstanding manner.
Full details, including registration, hotel and other
travel information, can be found on the IJC web site
at www.ijc.org.
We look forward to seeing you in Chicago!
IJC recommends accountability framework for Great Lakes water quality
While previous biennial reports covered multiple
topics, the IJC chose to focus its 13th Biennial
Report on Great Lakes Water Quality on a single
theme: accountability for protecting, restoring and
maintaining Great Lakes water quality.
"The time has come to make bold binational
commitments and to accelerate actions to restore
and protect our lakes," said the Commissioners
in their 13th Biennial Report. "Central to all such
commitments and actions, and to achieving the
objectives of the United States and Canadian
governments’ Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, is an accountability framework that is
clear, potent and workable."
Establishing a framework for accountability
requires the definition of commitments, roles and
responsibilities for agreed-upon goals. The report
recommends that the two federal governments
implement a framework for Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement accountability and suggests a
four-step process.
- Develop a rigorous plan: The governments
should identify and prioritize the actions needed
to realize the Agreement’s goals and specify who
should be responsible for which actions and how
they will coordinate their work.
- Monitor and assess: Accurate, comprehensive
monitoring is required to evaluate progress and to
provide a basis for reliable reporting that helps to
inform and prioritize actions. A limited number of
indicators should be used so that the monitoring
for each can be adequately funded and indicators
should be designed to contribute information
about Agreement progress.
- Report: Without objective reporting of information
useful to decision making, and a credible,
independent review procedure to assess progress
toward achieving stated objectives, the public has
neither an accounting of specific progress toward
identified goals, nor confidence that any reports
tell the full story.
- Use reports to review and adjust plans: An
important step toward achieving accountability is
a fair and informed review of the results reported
by involved partners.
For its part, the IJC commits to forming a
task force to assist it in consulting with the
governments on a practical and effective
accountability framework as well as convening,
in collaboration with governments and others,
a Great Lakes accountability summit in the
summer of 2008.
Copies of the 13th Biennial Report on Great Lakes
Water Quality are available from an IJC office or on
the website at: www.ijc.org.
Commissioners’ Corner
by Commissioner Jack Blaney
Al Olson and I really enjoyed our work as lead
Commissioners on the 13th Biennial Report.
Departing from the norm of advising the
governments on an array of matters, this report
focused on one core idea: that the governments
should be more clearly accountable for achieving
the objectives of the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement.
All commissioners thought this departure was a
good idea. We were used to reporting on how well
or how poorly the governments were performing
on their overall obligations, but we were often
frustrated because the governments could not give
us all the data we needed. As a consequence, we
could not give the public a full picture of how well
the Agreement’s objectives were actually being
achieved. For many objectives, efforts to measure
and monitor were spotty, often uncoordinated
across the basin, or simply disbanded. We found that our frustration was shared by many officials inside,
or recently out of government. And we all want to
do better.
When Al and I went to the SOLEC meeting in
Milwaukee, we both were surprised and pleased by
the enthusiasm voiced for theme of the upcoming
biennial report. And the mayor, Tom Barrett, gave
us a perfect opening line: "With this great blessing
comes a great responsibility."
Most importantly, this enthusiasm was shared by
the residents of the Great Lakes basin. When we
commissioners, almost two years ago, toured the
basin seeking advice on the governments’ review
of the Agreement, citizens told us – loud and clear
– that the governments should be more accountable
for progress on protecting and restoring the quality
of their lakes’ water. They also told us that the
governments should be commended for signing
such a far-sighted pact in the first place and that
they were pleased that it was being reviewed. Such
grassroots comment assured us that we were on the
right track with the 13th Biennial Report.
The basin residents really care about their lakes, as
do the people in our governments. In different ways,
we all have to be more accountable for our lakes. As
my colleague, Al Olson says, "more responsible, too."
IJC deliberates on Lake Ontario-
St. Lawrence River regulation
The IJC is now weighing how the outflows from
Lake Ontario in the international section of the
St. Lawrence River should be regulated in the
future based on the report of its International
Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study Board,
approximately 400 public comments on the report
and other considerations.
Regulation of water levels in the Lake Ontario-St.
Lawrence River system affects a large number of
interests including the environment, recreational
boating, shoreline communities, navigation,
hydropower production and municipal and industrial
water users. The five-year study vastly improved
the understanding of how these interests could
be affected by different flow regimes through the
international hydropower project at Cornwall,
Ontario and Massena, New York, which was
approved by the IJC in the 1950s.
The IJC is considering, but is not limited to the
different proposals submitted by the Study Board.
In addition, the IJC must reach a judgment on which
actions would be consistent with its responsibilities
under the Boundary Waters Treaty. The need for an
adaptive management strategy to monitor impacts
and provide a basis for future changes in regulation,
as well as possible changes to the institutions that
manage regulation are also being discussed. The
IJC intends to release a proposed decision and hold
public hearings this year. Copies of the Study Board
final report are available from the IJC’s Washington
and Ottawa offices, or online at www.ijc.org.
IJC appoints Upper Great Lakes
Study Board
The IJC appointed a 10-member board in February
to undertake its Upper Great Lakes Study. The
five-year study seeks to determine whether
the regulation of Lake Superior outflows can be
improved to address the evolving needs of users on
lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie.
The outflow from Lake Superior is regulated with
works in the St. Mary’s River at Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The IJC
approved the works in 1914 when hydroelectric
power plants were developed at those locations.
The Upper Great Lakes Study will:
- determine the factors that affect water levels and
flows in the upper lakes;
- develop new regulation plans and test their performance;
- assess the impacts of these plans on the ecosystem
and human interests; and
- incorporate climate change scenarios into the analysis.
Physical changes in the St. Clair River will also be
investigated early in the study as one factor that might
be causing lower water levels in lakes Michigan and
Huron, and affecting vulnerable areas such as eastern
Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Depending on the
nature and extent of the physical changes, and their
potential impact on water levels and flows, the study
may also explore potential remediation options.
The IJC will appoint a Public Interest Advisory Group
(PIAG) to assist the study board with communication
and outreach activities. The recently-appointed study
board members are:
Canadian Section
Ted R. Yuzyk, co-chair, International Joint Commission, Ottawa, Ontario
James P. Bruce, PIAG co-chair, Ottawa, Ontario
Donald H. Burn
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
Allan Chow
Ministry of Natural Resources, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Jon H. Gee
Sciences Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario
U.S. Section
Eugene Z. Stakhiv, co-chair, Institute for Water Resources, Alexandria, Virginia
Kay Felt, PIAG co-chair, Dykema Gossett PLLC, Detroit, Michigan
Richard C. Bishop, Madison, Wisconsin
James Bredin
Office of the Great Lakes, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Lansing, Michigan
John W. Bulkley
School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Back Row (left to right):
Richard Bishop, Jonathan
Bulkley, James Bredin,
Jon Gee, Gene Stakhiv
(U.S. co-chair). Front Row
(left to right): Ted Yuzyk
(Canadian co-chair), Allan
Chow, Jim Bruce, Kay Felt.
Missing from the photo is
Donald Burn.
Photo credit: Syed Moin
International Red River Board watches
for exotic species from Devils Lake
The IJC’s International Red River Board began
a monitoring program in September 2006 to
determine the presence and prevalence of fish
parasites and pathogens in fish from Devils Lake, the
Sheyenne River, Red River and Lake Winnipeg. The
program aims to help assess the risks of the transfer
of such parasites and pathogens from Devils Lake to
these downstream aquatic ecosystems.
Devils Lake, which lies in a closed basin in North
Dakota, has caused significant flooding in recent
years. In response, North Dakota built an outlet that
connects Devils Lake with the Hudson Bay drainage
system. There is significant public concern that the
outlet could transfer fish parasites and pathogens
into the Hudson Bay watershed and harm fish
populations, especially commercial and sport fish
populations in the Red River and in Lake Winnipeg.
In August 2005, the outlet began operations for a
short period.
Devils Lake
Negotiations among
Canadian and U.S.
federal, state and
provincial authorities,
including the White
House Council on
Environmental Quality,
in 2005 resulted in
the installation of a
temporary gravel filter
at the outlet to act as
a barrier against the
transfer of fish and some
plants into the Red River
system. The barrier
would not protect
against viruses and
other foreign organisms
smaller than about two millimeters in diameter.
As a result of these negotiations, oversight for
post-diversion monitoring is being coordinated by
the International Red River Board. In July 2006, the
board completed a monitoring proposal that was
developed in consultation with experts from the
United States and Canada to ensure a scientifically
defensible undertaking.
The project plan assigns technical and financial
responsibility to Canada for the collection and
analysis of biological data in the Canadian portion
of the basin and to the United States for like work
carried out in its portion of the basin. Environment
Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada
committed funds for Canadian work carried out
in 2006 and the U.S. Section of the IJC provided
funding for the U.S. component. Funding for future
work remains uncertain.
Additional efforts in the board’s current threeyear
work plan will build on the IJC’s International
Watershed Initiative and continue to expand scientific
knowledge of the Red River aquatic ecosystem
by assessing communities of fish and bottomdwellers,
the distribution of exotic species and plant
community structures and trends.
IJC urges immediate action
to complete the CSSC fish barrier
In an unusual move, IJC Commissioners wrote to U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on February 7
to request that she lend her strong voice to support
immediate action on legislation that would complete
an electric fish dispersal barrier system designed to
prevent the spread of aquatic invasive fish species
such as Asian carps to and from the Great Lakes.
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal connects the
Chicago and Illinois rivers. It was constructed in the
1890s to allow navigation and wastewater to pass
between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.
Scientists warn that the canal also opens the door
to the transfer of aquatic invasive species between
these two major watersheds. Electrodes across the
bottom of the canal create an electrical field in the
water to disperse fish that try to cross the barrier.
"Rarely does the Commission endorse specific
legislation, but in this case, we believe that quick action
to address this imminent threat is paramount in order
to protect a $4.5 billion fishery and other interests vital
to both countries," according to the letter.
The IJC is concerned that adequate preventive
measures are not in place to keep Asian carps from
invading the Great Lakes. Authorization and funding
for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete
work on an electric fish dispersal barrier southwest
of Chicago have been held up, while a demonstration
dispersal barrier has exceeded its planned life and is
failing. As a result, Asian carps that are currently in
the Illinois River could reach the Great Lakes as soon
as this spring, creating the potential for an economic
and environmental disaster.
Commissioners said that providing funds for the Army
Corps of Engineers to complete the barrier system
should not be delayed; next year may be too late.
People
The IJC welcomes recent appointments to its boards and expresses its
gratitude to those who contributed their time and talent to assist Canada and the
United States with managing transboundary environmental issues.
*
Council of Great Lakes Research Managers
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| Welcomes : |
| |
Dr. John Lawrence
Co-chair, Canadian Section
Aquatic Ecosystem Management Research Branch
National Water Research Institute
Canada Centre for Inland Waters
Environment Canada
Dr. Leon M. Carl
Center Director
Great Lakes Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Paul Horvatin
Program Manager
Great Lakes National Program Office
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Dr. Edward L. Mills
Director/Professor
Department of Natural Resources
Cornell Biological Field Station
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Great Lakes Science Advisory Board
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| Welcomes : |
| |
Dr. Pierre Filion
School of Planning
University of Waterloo
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| Completing Service : |
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Dr. Scott Brown (Deceased)
National Water Research Institute
Glenn Fox (Resigned)
Canadian Wildlife Service
Dr. Isobel Heathcote (Resigned)
Guelph University
Dr. Mohamed Karmali (Resigned)
Public Health Agency of Canada
|
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International Air Quality Advisory Board
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| Completing Service : |
| |
Micheal Brauer
University of British Columbia
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| |
Dr. Paul Lioy
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
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International Niagara Board of Control
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| Completing service : |
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Constantine "Gus" Tjoumas, P.E.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
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International Kootenay Lake Board of Control
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| Welcomes : |
| |
Colonel Michael McCormick, Chair U.S. Section
District Engineer
Seattle District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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| Completing Service : |
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LTC Debra M. Lewis
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
|
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Health Professionals Task Force
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| Welcomes : |
| |
Dr. Raymond Cope
Victoria, British Columbia
Dr. Monica Campbell
Environmental Protection Office
Toronto Public Health
Patrick Levallois, M.D.
Direction des risques biologiques, environnementaux et occupationnels
Institut national de santé publique du Québec
Dr. Russell Lopez
Research Assistant Professor
Environmental Health
Boston University School of Public Health
|
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International Osoyoos Lake Board of Control
|
| Welcomes : |
| |
Colonel Michael McCormick, Chair U.S. Section
District Engineer
Seattle District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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| Completing Service : |
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LTC Debra M. Lewis
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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*
International Rainy River Water Pollution Board
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| Completing Service : |
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John Merriman, Chair, Canadian Section
Environmental Conservation Branch
Environment Canada
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International Red River Board
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| Welcomes : |
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Dr. Susan Ellen Cosens
Acting Environmental Science Division Manager
Central and Arctic Region
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
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| |
Dr. L. Gordon Goldsborough
Department of Botany
University of Manitoba
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| Completing Service : |
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Mr. Terrence Shortt
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
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| |
Syed M. A. Moin
Meteorological Service
Environment Canada
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