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Chapter XI: Control of Eutrophication under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972
- The University of Akron Press
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while the united states and canada were responding separately to the recommendations of the International Joint Commission (IJC) concerning the eutrophication of the lower Great Lakes, at the same time, and prompted by the IJC reports, they began negotiating with one another to fashion a cooperative approach to protecting the quality of Great Lakes waters. The negotiations would result in their signing, in 1972, a unique international environmental agreement, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, in accordance with which, among other things, a cooperative assault on the eutrophication of the Great Lakes would be mounted. In December 1965, as noted, the IJC issued its first interim report in connection with the 1964 reference concerning the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. In it, the commission recommended that the governments of the U.S., the Great Lakes states, Canada, and Ontario take action as soon as possible to ensure the maximum possible removal of phosphates from wastewater discharged into the lower lakes and their tributaries ; prohibit the construction of combined sanitary and storm sewers; initiate a program to separate existing combined sewers; and sample effluents regularly. At a Canada-United States ministerial meeting in 181 Control of Eutrophication under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 172 C H A P T E R X I Washington, in March 1966, the parties agreed to support the commission ’s recommendations and to coordinate efforts in both countries to deal urgently with the pollution of the Great Lakes.1 Three months later, the Canadian minister of Mines and Technical Surveys (soon to be of Energy , Mines, and Resources) and the United States’ secretary of the interior met in Ottawa to discuss further reducing the pollution of the Great Lakes. They stressed the importance of their governments keeping in touch about developments relating to pollution control. When, in April 1970, the IJC issued its third interim report, the “stark implications of continued deterioration of the Great Lakes emerged fully.”2 In the United States, Russell E. Train, chairman of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), was made head of a presidential task force charged with drafting a U.S. response to the IJC report.3 About the same time, the CEQ and Canada’s Ministry of External Affairs arranged a bilateral meeting for May 25 to discuss the report and consider possible action . A ministerial conference ensued in Ottawa on June 23, 1970.4 The United States delegation was led by Train and included Adolph Schmidt (U.S. ambassador to Canada), Carl L. Klein (assistant secretary of interior for water quality research), Rear Admiral Robert W. Goehring (chief of operations, U.S. Coast Guard), and senior officials from the Departments of State, Interior, and Transportation, and the CEQ. The Canadian delegation was led by Mitchell Sharp (secretary of state for external affairs) and included Joseph J. Greene (minister of Energy, Mines, and Resources), Jack Davis (minister of Fisheries and Forestry), Herb Gray (minister without portfolio), George Kerr (Ontario’s minister of Energy and Resources Management ), and other officials. The IJC’s third interim report served as a basis for discussion. The ministers agreed that, in order to arrest and reverse eutrophication in the Great Lakes, inputs of phosphorus should be reduced. Greene outlined the section of the Canada Water Act which would permit the Canadian government to implement the IJC’s recommendations for reducing and then eliminating phosphates from detergents . In response, the United States’ representatives confirmed their undertaking to remove 80 percent of all phosphates from municipal and industrial sewage (including phosphates contributed by detergents) by 1973, two years in advance of the target date of 1975 recommended by the IJC. 182 Control of Eutrophication [54.81.185.66] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 12:57 GMT) They added that the United States government was continuing its intensive review of the matter of removing phosphates from detergents. The ministerial conference created the Canada-United States Joint Working Group on Great Lakes Pollution for the purposes of considering common water quality objectives and implementing programs proposed to it by either government. The group was to report back to the ministerial conference, which would be reconvened subsequent to the issuance of the IJC’s final report. The group was composed of representatives of the two federal governments and the governments of Ontario and the Great Lakes states.5 It first met in Washington on September 24–25, 1970. The Canadian section was led by Ambassador...