For Immediate Release

Binational Forum Hosts More Than 20 Workshops and Sessions on Great Lakes Issues

Come learn about and discuss Great Lakes issues and participate in government at work at the 1999 Great Lakes Water Quality Forum being held September 24-26, 1999 at the Midwest Express Center, Milwaukee. The meeting is being hosted by the International Joint Commission (IJC) as part of its biennial assessment of the programs and progress to clean up the Great Lakes by the governments of the United States and Canada. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Learn about and discuss the Great Lakes! 3-4 hour sessions on almost 20 hot and sometimes controversial Great Lakes issues will highlight the meeting. Topics include:

• achieving the goal of zero discharge of pollutants into Lake Superior;
• watershed and land management used as a tool to protect the Great Lakes;
• Great Lake water levels;
• several different sessions on toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes and their effects;
• air quality in the Great Lakes region;
• Lake Michigan issue;
• mercury;
• the fisheries decline in the Great Lakes;
• exotic (non-native) species; and
• pesticide use and water quality.

Specific information about each workshop and its agenda, speakers and topics can be found at: www.ijc.org/rel/milwaukee/programdetail.html(.)

Listen: Frank Lyons, Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5; and John Mills, Regional Director General, Ontario Region, Environment Canada will lead the presentation on programs and progress on both the domestic and binational fronts under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. A question and answer session with the public will follow.

Participate in public hearings providing a forum for the public to express their comments and concerns regarding programs and progress of the governments in cleaning up the Great Lakes.

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.