Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

The Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy: A Canada-United States Strategy for the Virtual Elimination of Persistent Toxic Substances (GLBTS) was conceived in response to the International Joint Commission’s (IJC) 1994 Seventh Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. The IJC, an independent body of governmentally appointed commissioners with the responsibility to assist and evaluate U.S. and Canadian efforts under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), called upon the two governments to “adopt a specific, coordinated strategy within two years with a common set of objectives and procedures for action to stop the input of persistent toxic substances into the Great Lakes environment.” Signed in 1997, the GLBTS is an agreement between Canadaand the United States to virtually eliminate persistent toxic substances from the Great Lakes environment.

The continuing presence of these persistent toxic substances is the result of atmospheric deposition, release from contaminated bottom sediments, releases from various industrial processes, releases from non-point sources, and continuous cycling of naturally occurring and anthropogenic substances within the Great Lakes themselves. In some cases, there may also be illegal or accidental discharge of stored substances for which production and use has previously been cancelled or banned. All of these factors highlight the need for more to be done.

Environment Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and stakeholders from industry, academia, state/provincial and local governments, Tribes, First Nations, and environmental and community groups have worked together toward the achievement of the Strategy’s challenge goals of preserving and protecting an invaluable ecosystem, which comprises over 20 percent of all fresh surface water world-wide and over 80 percent in North America.

For more information on the GLBTS, please visit our website at http://www.binational.net.