Publications

IJC publications contain both board and corporate documents, including reports, fact sheets, infographics, and presentations. Contractor reports are created on behalf of or in coordination with the IJC or its boards by a separate entity, including individuals, companies, and governments. Government reports are documents developed by US or Canadian local/provincial/state/federal government that are of interest to the IJC or board.

IJC Content

Displaying 1 - 50 of 76.

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2023 Consultant Report and Summary Letter In 2021, the IJC’s Water Quality Board launched the Manure Nutrient Management Collaborative (Collaborative) with representatives from agriculture, conservation, business, environmental science and government leaders, working toward protection of water...
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The GLAM Committee is developing a Phase 2 strategy to guide the collection of critical information needed for the Board to evaluate the performance of Plan 2014 in response to extreme high and low water levels and the variability exacerbated by climate change and make a recommendation to the IJC on...
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Following up on its 2019 report “ Use of Modeling Approaches to Affect Nutrient Management Through Adaptative Management”, this IJC Great Lakes Science Advisory Board-Research Coordination Committee report focuses on progress to date in implementing the Lake Erie Nutrient Adaptive Management...
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This white paper presents the results of a collaboration between the International Joint Commission’s Health Professionals Advisory Board and the Great Lakes Beach Association to assess the binational extent, experience and effects of Great Lakes Beach Sanitary Surveys in the United States and...
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This report looks at efforts to manage nutrients in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario by assessing federal, state and provincial Domestic Action Plans and their implementation, reviewing eight previous IJC reports on nutrient management, and assessing the extent to which key IJC recommendations have been...
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The Great Lakes Science Strategy for the Next Decade (the Science Strategy) summarizes the science gaps and related resource needs identified by hundreds of knowledge-holders convened by the International Joint Commission (IJC). This Summary Report provides an overview of the project and integrates...
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Semi-annual report of progress from March 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022.
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In January 2019, the Committee published its 2018 phase one report that recommended the development of a Great Lakes groundwater and surface water conceptual framework. The latest report from the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board-Research Coordination Committee describes the scientific, technical...
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In 2021 the WQB produced a report (updated August 2023) on the topic of decommissioning nuclear power plants in the Great Lakes basin, which identified potential opportunities in the decommissioning process to reduce threats to the Great Lakes environment. The WQB recommends binational alignment of...
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Semi-annual report of progress from 1 September, 2021 through February 28, 2022.
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Reports The Great Lakes Water Quality Board completed its third Great Lakes Regional Poll in 2021. The 2021 Great Lakes Regional Poll results provide a snapshot of Great Lakes residents' views on topics including: the importance to protect the Great Lakes environmental health and water quality, and...
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View related Phase 1 content, or open the PDF version below.
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This document provides the collective wisdom of the 18 member Public Advisory Group in terms of summarizing their contribution to the Phase 1 effort of the Expedited Review of Plan 2014, the challenges and limitations of the process and their recommendations for future public engagement.
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The connecting waters are vital links in the economic and ecological network of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, but they are threatened by multiple stressors. Present monitoring activities are insufficient to adequately inform the management of these connecting waters. The Great Lakes...
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The Health Professionals Advisory Board conducted a proof-of-concept pilot study to assess whether it is feasible to collect comparable, binational water quality and population health data for locations around the Great Lakes, and whether such data could be used to generate conclusions and examine...
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Creation of the PAG An 18-member Public Advisory Group, or PAG, was formed to ensure that the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee was exposed to a wide range of observations and opinions about the impacts of extreme high water as they worked on Phase 1 of the...
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How the expedited review began In February 2020, the International Joint Commission (IJC) ordered an expedited review of Plan 2014, the management plan for Lake Ontario outflows. The review is being done by the IJC’s Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee, known as the GLAM...
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What is the Decision Support Tool? The Decision Support Tool is an interactive, computer-based tool that brings together a collection of data to help inform decisions regarding outflows from Lake Ontario when water levels are at extremes in the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River basin. It was created...
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Purpose of the Phase 1 study The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee, or GLAM Committee, has completed Phase 1 of the expedited review of Plan 2014. Since February 2020, the GLAM Committee has obtained and analyzed a great deal of additional data on the impacts of extreme...
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In 1913, a ground-breaking IJC monitoring study linked untreated sewage pollution to widespread disease in the Great Lakes. One hundred years later, the question remains whether nearshore fecal bacterial/microbial water quality is getting better or worse. While technology to prevent and track this...
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This paper describes a flexible strategy developed by the GLAM Committee for the on-going evaluation and improvement of the regulation plans through the use of adaptive management. Adaptive management is a structured, iterative cycle for improving actions through long-term monitoring, modelling, and...
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An environmental stressor is any factor whose presence adversely affects individuals, populations, or ecosystems. Often but not necessarily the result of human activities, examples include many different pollutants, excess nutrients, habitat loss and invasive species. Recognizing that interactions...
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2020 Report In June 2020, the International Joint Commission’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) completed a report entitled Understanding Declining Productivity in the Offshore Regions of the Great Lakes. The report includes a number of findings and a recommendation aimed at improving coordination...
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The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (the Agreement) charges the International Joint Commission (IJC), supported by its Great Lakes advisory boards, with several responsibilities including identification of emerging issues facing the Great Lakes. To help fulfil this responsibility the IJC’s Great...
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On November 5 th, 2019, the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee, a sub-committee of the International Joint Commission's (IJC) International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board (ILOSLR Board) hosted a meeting in Montreal, QC. The intent of the meeting was to...
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Annex 10 (Science) of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement assigns the International Joint Commission (IJC) and its Science Advisory Board (SAB) a role in providing input to the Parties on priority science issues on a three year basis. The Parties’ initial Draft Priorities for Science and Action...
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The purpose of this document is to compile unbiased background information about nuclear energy production, the nuclear regulators, the decommissioning process, radioactive waste management, and status of the nuclear power facilities in the Great Lakes basin. The background report is also...
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This report presents the findings and recommendations of the project, Use of Modeling Approaches to Affect Nutrient Management through Adaptive Management, led by the International Joint Commission's (IJC) Great Lakes Science Advisory Board - Research Coordination Committee (SAB-RCC). The objective...
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In January 2017 the WQB produced a Climate Change and Adaption in the Great Lakes project summary that focused on the need for coordinated binational action in developing a climate adaption and resiliency strategy for the Great Lakes. The WQB undertook follow-up work to explore ways to advance...
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The objective of this appendix is to provide the background material that was previously presented in the semi-annual reports of the former International St. Lawrence River Board of Control to the International Joint Commission (IJC). Providing the material in this manner allows the semi-annual...
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This document provides a general summary of the questionnaire responses from 2017 with a focus on flooding impacts, erosion impacts, shore protection impacts, business impacts and overall impacts. The GLAM Committee will continue to improve model assessment tools and understanding of shoreline...
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This is a special report of the International Joint Commission’s (IJC) Great Lakes – St Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee covering the hydroclimate, flows and water level conditions, as well as their impacts on multiple interests, experienced in 2017 throughout the Great Lakes-St...
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The International Joint Commission’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) Science Priority Committee undertook a synthesis of the science related to observed and potential impacts of crude oil on Great Lakes water quality and ecosystem condition and identified additional research, monitoring and information...
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This report by the International Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence River Board (the Board) describes the causes of the record high water levels in 2017 on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, as well as the regulation of outflows by the Board during this event. The Board is appointed by the...
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A report by the Great Lakes Water Quality Board that presents the key findings of a poll conducted in 2018 of U.S. and Canadian citizens in the Great Lakes basin related to Great Lakes Water Quality. The poll was the second conducted by the WQB and follows the first poll which was completed in 2015.
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The purpose of this project was to assess the flow of information to decision makers in the Great Lakes, identify barriers to the flow of this information, and provide recommendations to the IJC and the Parties to address these barriers.
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This report presents the recommendations of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board on the topic of how watershed management plans should be used to manage nutrient pollution in Lake Erie. The implementation of effective watershed management plans is an important tool in a holistic approach to reducing...
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This report provides the recommendations of the Water Quality Board to address the challenges in seeking alternatives to the use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as flame retardants, and avoiding the release of PBDEs during product use, recycling and disposal through the implementation of...
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Cyanotoxins are an unfortunate consequences of harmful algal blooms in fresh water systems in both Canada and the United States. This report is a literature review of the state of ecological and epidemiological science of cyanobacterial toxins with an emphasis on its relevance to conditions in the...
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The SAB-RCC, through contractors, thoroughly assessed Great Lakes indicators’ data availability and accessibility and identified potential improvement for indicators used to report progress in meeting the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement objectives.
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This document summarizes the SAB’s advice to the Parties on their Draft 2017-2019 Binational Priorities for Science. This advice benefited from input provided by the IJC’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board. General comments that apply to all Agreement Annexes are presented first, followed by general...
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This report presents the recommendations of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board's Legacy Issues Work Group on the topic of how watershed management plans should be used to manage nutrient pollution in Lake Erie.
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The IJC identified a suite of 16 ecosystem indicators composed of 41 metrics to assess progress towards achieving the objectives of the 2012 GLWQA. In April 2014, the IJC asked the SAB - Science Priority Committee (SPC) to identify a smaller set of indicators and metrics from this existing set that...
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