Water quality concerns are not new to the Great Lakes. They emerged early in the 20th century, in 1909, and matured in 1972 and 1978. They remain a prominent part of today's conflicted politics and advancing industrial growth. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, became a model to the world for environmental management across an international boundary. Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement recounts this historic binational relationship, an agreement intended to protect the fragile Great Lakes. One strength of the agreement is its flexibility, which includes a requirement for periodic review that allows modification as problems are solved, conditions change, or scientific research reveals new problems. The first progress was made in the 1970s in the area of eutrophication, the process by which lakes gradually age, which normally takes thousands of years to progress, but is accelerated by modern water pollution. The binational agreement led to the successful lowering of phosphorus levels that saved Lake Erie and prevented accelerated eutrophication in the rest of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Another major success at the time was the identification and lowering of the levels of toxic contaminants that cause major threats to human and wildlife health, from accumulating PCBs and other persistent organic pollutants
Of findings and recommendations ; Background ; Great Lakes Basin and the 1978 agreement ; Enrichment ; Toxic contaminants ; Institutional arrangements ; Ecosystem approach and sustainable development -- Great Lakes as a system and its binational accords ; Physical and biological characteristics ; Great Lakes studies, 1912-1951 ; Background to the 1972 agreement ; 1978 agreement -- Ecosystem approach: an integrative theme of the Great Lakes water quality agreement ; Roots of the ecosystem approach ; Emergence of the ecosystem approach ; 1978 Great Lakes water quality agreement and the ecosystem approach ; Definitions and boundaries of the system ; Interdependencies of the subsystems -- Nutrients issues ; Introduction ; Control objectives and current condition of lakes ; Rationale for phosphorus control ; Phosphorus control programs ; Municipal sewage sources ; Industrial and nonpoint sources ; Problems in the nearshore area ; Monitoring and surveillance -- Toxic contaminants issues ; Introduction ; 1978 agreement goals and objectives ; Sources of toxic chemicals in the lakes ; direct industrial and municipal discharges ; Inputs from runoff and waterways ; In-place pollutants ; Groundwater ; Atmospheric deposition ; Significance of toxic chemicals being detected ; Significance for human health ; Significance to ecosystem health ; Progress in remediation ; Actions on specific toxic substances ; Hazardous wastes ; Aquatic ecosystem objectives ; Areas of concern ; Data, modeling, and risk assessment ; Monitoring, surveillance, and the problem of incomplete data ; Transport and fate modeling for toxic chemicals ; Role of tissue and sediment banks ; Toxicity testing and risk assessment ; Toxicity testing for evaluating human health risks ; Limitations of risk assessments ; Toxic chemicals management strategies ; Alternative approaches and principles for management of toxic waste management -- Institutional arrangements under the agreement ; Introduction ; Joint institutions under the agreement ; History and organization ; Existing joint institutions ; Present responsibilities ; Data collection, analysis and distribution ; Advice and recommendations by the joint institutions ; Assistance in the coordination of joint activities ; Investigations ; Public information ; New responsibility- Dispute resolution ; Other binational arrangements in the Great Lakes ; Federal, provincial, and state governments ; Parties ; State and provincial governments -- Ecosystem approach and sustainable development ; Introduction ; Depth and breadth of the problems: regional scope ; Intergenerational equity ; Information base: relationship to efficacy, cost-effectiveness and equity ; Economic significance ; Early warnings and surprises ; Network of Great Lakes ecosystem researchers and managers ; Deepening the understanding of societal components of the basin ; Further exploration of reforms -- References -- Glossary -- Abbreviations -- Appendixes -- Text of the 1978 Great Lakes water quality agreement -- Table: progress on commitments -- Subcontracts -- Biographical sketches of committee members.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Subcommittee on Oceanography, Gulf of Mexico, and the Outer Continental Shelf
