Sunshine and the Water Quality Agreement

Robert Steingraber: A Wavy Day on Ontario ~Enlarge

This is a good time to go to the library or order from an independent bookseller a very important book that too few in the Great Lakes region have read.  Its title is Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and you have to hope a few people in the U.S. and Canadian governments have read it, or will soon.

This book's sudden importance results from the announcement June 13 by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon that the two nations will update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. After nearly 22 years, the framework for U.S.-Canadian cooperation, goal-setting and accountability on Great Lakes cleanup is going to get new clothes.

It seems like ancient times, but less than two decades ago the Agreement, and especially the biennial meetings of the International Joint Commission to review progress under the Agreement, were center stage. The meetings attracted hundreds of environmental and business advocates to spar over such issues as the goal of "zero discharge" of toxic chemicals in the Lakes.

In one way, the very high profile and stormy nature of the IJC's biennial meetings worked against the Agreement. Derided as circuses by some industries, the sessions ultimately were scaled back, and the Agreement seemed to collect dust on a shelf.

What good can come of reviving and updating it now? Plenty, if the process is done right. The Agreement needs to help guide the new dollars that may pour into Great Lakes cleanup toward measurable, agreed-upon goals. And most of all it needs to provide the mechanisms for the public to hold the governments accountable for their progress on cleanup, or lack of same. The public is the original force and the only constituency that counts when it comes to the health of the Lakes.

So let's hope the renegotiation itself is a process that welcomes citizens and the ideas and passion they bring to Great Lakes protection. Sunshine is not only the best disinfectant, but it's the best way to build public confidence in the difficult measures that need to be taken.