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The following article is from an archived newsletter. See our Shared Waters newsletter.

Can Expert Surveys Help Assess Great Lakes Water Quality? Comments Requested

IJC staff
IJC
Water Matters - Boater on Lake Huron

There may be no Great Lakes questions more important to the public than whether the water quality is improving or deteriorating, and what role government programs play in that trend. 

Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Commission is charged with reporting on the extent to which government programs are improving Great Lakes water quality. The Commission’s first Triennial Assessment of Progress Report in 2017 will aim to answer that charge, and discuss progress toward meeting the objectives of the Agreement. 

A Commission consultant recently tested one potential tool for assessing the impact of government programs on Great Lakes water quality. In 2015, a team of researchers from the Great Lakes Policy Research Network, in partnership with the IJC, surveyed experts to solicit their views. 

One purpose was to discern whether such a survey could contribute to the Commission’s upcoming Assessment of Progress Report. The research report of the survey methodology and findings can be found here

Until March 4, the IJC is seeking comments on the report and the potential application of its findings. The comment page can be found here

Questions open to public comment

The survey methodology comes from a 2013 study commissioned by the IJC to identify and review various frameworks for assessing the effectiveness of government programs and other measures on Great Lakes water quality. 

The report called for surveys that ask identified subject matter experts to “grade” the status of achievement of objectives under the Agreement. In the test, the experts were surveyed on two Agreement objectives: 

“That the waters of the Great Lakes should allow for swimming and other recreational use, unrestricted by environmental quality concerns, and “that the Great Lakes should be free from the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species that adversely impact the quality of the waters of the Great Lakes.” 

Lake Huron. Credit: Matt MacGillivray 

Following recommendations in the 2013 report, the consultants converted responses into a numeric score. 

The resulting research report, “Testing a Framework for Assessing the Effectiveness of Programs and Other Measures under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement,” presents findings that indicate the evaluation framework is sound. However, some challenges and limitations related to applying the framework need to be considered. The report contains eight recommendations by the researchers related to use of the framework in future triennial progress reporting on the Agreement. 

Now that the survey has been conducted and the framework tested, we’d like to know what the public thinks about several questions. We welcome your thoughts.

IJC staff
IJC

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