Chapter 1 - The State of the Great Lakes

1. IJC Recommendation:

Develop reliable data and accessible information to support indicators for the three desired outcomes of Drinkability, Swimmability and Fishability (fish that are safe to eat). This action should have priority status in the indicator process.

Canada agrees with the intent of this recommendation. The Parties recognize the overall purpose of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) " ... to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem." Of the multiple Great Lakes indicators identified through the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) process, nine are grouped in the category of "Human Health", three of which are focused on the desired outcomes in the recommendation, namely:

1. those assessing the quality of drinking water;
2. the number and duration of swimming advisories due to elevated bacterial levels in the water, and;
3. the concentration of bioaccumulative chemicals in edible fish tissue.

These three issues are widely recognized and are popular with the public.

The Parties agree that "reliable" data are essential to the assessment and reporting process, and considerable efforts are involved in the collection and evaluation of data to support the three desired outcomes mentioned. Quality assurance is part of the process. The Parties also fully cooperate with the Commission to encourage the appropriate agencies to provide the underlying data that are collected to support these indicators.

2. IJC Recommendation:

Expand indicator development and reporting on additional desired outcomes only where resources are sufficient to access scientifically valid and reliable data.

Canada agrees in part with the intent of this recommendation. The Great Lakes indicators were selected under the general criteria of "necessary, sufficient and feasible." There is no hierarchy of "key" or "priority" indicators followed by less important ones. One of the goals of the SOLEC process is to "strengthen decision making and management." Because the Great Lakes ecosystem is so complex, any one component can be influenced by a variety of management activities. Therefore, a considerable amount of information is required to make better, more informed decisions about potential management interventions. The Parties do not consider a detailed assessment of only a few environmental components to be sufficient to meet the requirements of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Through the SOLEC process of identifying candidate indicators for the major ecosystem components, existing and future data needs can be identified. The Parties can then determine how those data can be obtained, whether through existing monitoring programs or through new efforts. The Parties agree that the quality of underlying indicator data are important and have a direct bearing on subsequent management decisions that may be made based on those data.

Development and reporting efforts for Great Lakes indicators have attracted the interest of several organizations who are now eagerly assisting the Parties. For example, the Great Lakes Forest Alliance has provided leadership to select a subset of extensive forest indicators for reporting through SOLEC. Fostering this type of partnership between the Parties and non-government or quasi-government groups benefits the comprehensive assessment of the Great Lakes by providing information on previously unreported ecosystem components with minimal additional resource expenditures by the Parties.

3. IJC Recommendation:

Improve public information and decision-making by:

1. increasing funding, technology and staff for monitoring, surveillance and information management to support the SOLEC indicator reporting;

Canada supports the intent of this recommendation. The SOLEC process itself is not a monitoring program. To date, all of the information provided for the assessment of Great Lakes indicators has been supplied by existing monitoring programs or other data collection activities that were established for other (though perhaps similar) purposes. The Parties recognize that better coordination of monitoring efforts among the various jurisdictions and agencies could be achieved, implying that conserved resources would then be available to obtain additional information. A concerted effort has already begun to develop a basin-wide monitoring inventory; to identify monitoring drivers and existing coordination mechanisms; and to discuss possible means of improving binational monitoring coordination.

2. making the findings from indicators and their supporting databases generally available to decision-makers and the public, and;

Canada agrees with this recommendation. The Parties prepare and release a biennial report based on the findings from the indicators. The most recent issue, State of the Great Lakes 2001, provided indicator assessments and lake basin assessments in clear, easy to read, language. The report was widely distributed and remains readily available on line at www.binational.net. The Parties intend to prepare the State of the Great Lakes 2003 in a similar style, and distribute it widely along with simplified highlight reports. The Parties continue to explore additional approaches to communicating the findings to environmental decision makers and managers at all levels of governance and to the broad interested public.

Making the supporting databases generally available will remain problematic at this time. For many of the indicators, the data reside with the cooperating agency or organization, and the indicator reports are prepared by the subject matter experts who have access to the underlying data. The indicator reports acknowledge the report authors and the data sources so that the reader can inquire directly about the underlying data. As part of the process for preparing the State of the Great Lakes 2003 report, a detailed technical reference document will also be assembled and made available. This technical report will provide contact information, data sources, literature citations, and quality assurance references for the indicator data and/or information. The Parties will continue to investigate more satisfactory solutions to providing the underlying data to secondary users.

3. coordinating the databases in both Canada and the U.S. and linking significant Great Lakes databases.

Canada agrees with the intent of this recommendation. Information management will continue to be a central issue to the success of reaching the goals of the GLWQA. The Parties agree that, "We cannot overstate the enormous task of organizing a broad diversity of data and information from an array of organizations into a system that is accessible to and useable by a variety of audiences." Unfortunately, the linking of various databases is not easily undertaken, and issues remain to be resolved concerning the security of computing systems that grant public access, and the integrity of the data that are provided. SOLEC organizers will continue to explore means to provide access to indicator data in a timely manner for multiple users.

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