What is the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement?
Cited as an international model for how two or more countries can work together for the common good of a shared resource, Canada and the United States established the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972. During the past 33 years, the agreement has driven important public health and water quality improvements for Great Lakes residents, such as phosphorus reductions and cuts in toxic pollution. Today, experts point to the agreement as critical in calling for the "zero discharge" of toxic pollutants that harm people, fish and wildlife. In an effort to clean up the most polluted areas in the Great Lakes, the United States and Canada amended the agreement in 1987, committing both countries to cooperate with state and provincial governments to ensure that Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) are developed and implemented for 43 designated Areas of Concern within the Great Lakes basin. The amendment defines these AOCs as "severely degraded geographic areas within the Great Lakes Basin," where use of the water is likely to be impaired, as is the water's ability to support aquatic life.  | | Great Lakes Areas of Concern |
On November 2, 2005, the Alliance recommended that the agreement set binational goals and objectives, with the United States and Canada determining how best to achieve them within their own policy processes. The report advocated that a revitalized agreement must: Anticipate and prevent future challenges, not simply react to past problems; Include built-in compliance mechanisms so that the new policy does not, like the current one, become increasingly irrelevant over time; and Be results oriented, unlike the current version, which has a heavy emphasis on planning that does not necessarily result in ecological restoration outcomes.
On March 9, 2009, the Alliance called on the Council of Environmental Quality to take on a meaningful role in binational planning efforts. On February 15, 2010, the Alliance and a coalition of other groups provided comments to the United States and Canada on governance issues to be considered during renegotiation of the Agreement. These comments stated that if the governments fail to reform governance issues -– those rules and systems by which the United States and Canada and their agencies work together on Great Lakes challenges -– their ability to make genuine progress on issues such as toxics, invasive species and climate change will fall short of what the lakes need. On July 9, 2010, the Alliance and the coalition submitted addtional comments covering many substantive issues under discussion in the renegotiation.
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