MEDIA ADVISORY            April 24, 2003

IJC to host news conference on progress to restore Great Lakes Areas of Concern

WHO:	The The International Joint Commission (IJC)
WHAT:	Release of its Special Report on the Status of Restoration Activities the Great Lakes Areas of Concern. Telephone news conference announcing the Commission's findings and recommendations from its current review of restoration efforts in each of the 41 Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
WHEN:	Thursday, May 1, 2003 from 10:30 - 11 a.m. EDT
HOW:	To participate on the conference call please dial 1-888-265-0464 at 10:20 a.m., ten minutes prior to the start of the news conference. Although not required, an R.S.V.P. is appreciated to make sure phone lines are available.

Please call or e-mail Jennifer Day at 519-257-6733 or http://www.ijc.org/en/contacts/contacts.htm to confirm participation.

Because of the importance of the Special Report , all six IJC Commissioners will be available to discuss the report's contents and answer questions from the media. The full report, news release and matrix of information on each Area of Concern will be available at 7 a.m. on May 1, 2003.

IJC is a binational Canada-United States organization established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to help the two governments prevent and resolve disputes over use of waters along the U.S. and Canada boundary. Under the 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement , IJC assesses progress by the two counties to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem.

Since 1987, 43 Areas of Concern were designated because they contained contaminated sediment, inadequately treated wastewater, nonpoint source pollution, inland contaminated sites or degraded habitat to a greater degree than the rest of the Great Lakes.