WASHINGTON – Fifty years ago, the United States and Canada first signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a commitment to work together to restore and protect our increasingly valuable resource. Since 1972, the Convention remains a framework for strong regional cooperation and new ways of environmental action.
Today, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada jointly published two reports required under the Convention: the Great Lakes Country 2022 Report and the 2022 Progress Report of the Parties.
“Over the past 50 years, the United States and Canada have made great strides working together to protect the Great Lakes and support a thriving global economy. Through our strong partnership with Canada and increased funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, we remain committed to protecting this shared resource for current and future generations,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“Protecting the Great Lakes can only be achieved by working together. With our American friends and neighbors, we have had incredible success in cleaning up Great Owls from pollutants, while reducing farm pollution and protecting endangered species. This has been made possible through action and mutual encouragement, but much still needs to be done. As we celebrate 50 years of environmental cooperation for our Great Lakes priority, the published reports and the upcoming Public Forum will help us engage communities and stakeholders on our future priorities,” said Stephen Guilbeault, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.
State of the Great Lakes 2022 Report (SOGL)
The SOGL report provides a summary of the health of the Great Lakes using indicators of ecological health, such as drinking water, fish exploitation, and shoreline closure. More than 120 Great Lakes scientists and other experts worked to collect the available data and prepare the Great Lakes survey. Based on the SOGL indicators, the Great Lakes are evaluated together as “Fair” and “Unchangeable.” There have been significant advances in the restoration and conservation of Great Owls, including the reduction of toxic chemicals, and the reduction of the introduction of new non-aquatic species. A further analysis of the indicators shows that there is still a great danger to the Great Lakes ecosystem, including the loss of nutrients, especially in Lake Erie and other coastal areas in the other Great Lakes, and the impact of invasive species. Climate change is increasing other climate threats.
2022 Progress Report of the Parties
The Progress Report of the Parties describes recent progress in restoring and maintaining Great Lakes water quality and ecosystem health. Over the past three years, government officials have made significant progress in implementing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Unprecedented progress has been made to remediate and restore Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs), including remediating over 1,280,000 cubic yards of contaminated sewage and legally restoring and removing two AOCs. Reducing excess phosphorous input into Lake Erie remains a priority. The United States reduced agricultural and municipal phosphorus inputs to irrigated Lake Erie by more than 3 million pounds (1,361 tonnes) between 2015 and 2020; Canada reduced phosphorus loading to water with 44,093 pounds (20 tonnes). State agencies continue to reduce the number of silver and bighead carp in the Illinois River and take other measures to prevent these predators from being established in the Great Lakes. Hundreds of projects that restore the health of Great Lakes waters, beaches, and aquatic habitats have been implemented.
Content from these two reports will be discussed at the 2022 Great Lakes Public Forum in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada from September 27 to 29, 2022. The Forum provides an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on the state of the lakes. and progress made under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, as well as talk about future priorities for science and practice.
For more information and to register, visit https://binational.net/2022/05/26/great-lakes-public-forum-2022/.
Both reports can be found at www.binational.net.
