Great Lakes Areas of Concern and Pollution Management

Great Lakes Areas of Concern and Pollution Management  (Individual Assignment)

 Introduction

The Great Lakes contain 20% of the fresh surface water on the Earth covering a total area of 246,463 square kilometres. In this lab you will be looking at the role of the International Joint Commission (IJC), created by the Canada and the USA as the two countries realized that “each country is affected by the other’s actions in lake and river systems along the border” (IJC 2019). The IJC is guided by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between the two nations. In addition you will be investigating Areas of Concern (AOC) that have been identified by the IJC around the Great Lakes and considering different categories of pollution management.

List of Acronyms you will come across:

IJC – International Joint Commission (agreement signed by Canada & USA) AOC – Areas of Concern (43 identified around the Great Lakes in 1987) RAP – Remedial Action Plans (plan to address problems of the AOC) BUI – Beneficial Use Impairments (list of 14 – e.g. beach closings, at least one BUI applies to each AOC) You will be given time to work on this Assignment during the Lab. You can work with a partner on the research but you must submit your own unique/individual write up. If two students’ submissions are identical, the papers will fail. The papers are examined through TurnItIn. Towards the end of the Lab we will hold a class discussion.

Part A – Background to the IJC Instructions: Use the information on the IJC Website below and the websites listed in specific questions to answer the following questions: International Joint Commission Website: https://ijc.org/en IJC Questions:

1. Using the “Who We Are” Tab on the IJC website, what are the main activities of the International Joint Commission?

2. Using the following website explain what is the relationship between the IJC and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. (Note click on the link at the bottom of the page “History of the Great …” to go to the next page.) https://ijc.org/en/what/glwqa-ijc

3. From June 17-19 of 2019 the US/Canada Great Lakes Forum was held. The following website lists the three day agenda for the conference/public forum. https://binational.net/2019/02/27/glpf-2019/ If you had the opportunity to attend, which topics would you be most interested in hearing about and why? (Chose your top 3 areas of interest to write about).

Part B – Areas of Concern (AOC) in the Great Lakes The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement established 43 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes which are the most polluted. Of the ACOs, 26 are in the USA, 12 are in Canada and 5 are binational (shared between both countries). Instructions The following website provides a list of the Canadian AOCs https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/great-lakesprotection/areas-concern.html

1. Select one of the Canadian Areas of Concern from the above website. Briefly outline why the area was listed as an AOC and what has been accomplished so far. If possible make reference to the BUIs and the RAP for your selected AOC.

2. Find a recent news/media article about your AOC online. For example search with key words like “Hamilton Harbour pollution”. Summarize the article within 100 words and indicate any new perspectives raised on the AOC.

3. What do you think is the biggest challenge for your selected AOC and why? Do you agree/disagree with what has been done so far? If you were in government what would you do differently and why?

Part C – Categories of pollution management

 Instructions

Use the Diagram by Rutherford and Williams (2015) found below on Pollution Management Model Targeted at Three Different Levels to answer the question.

1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three major approaches to pollution management as suggested by Rutherford and Williams (2015)?

2. Reflect on your selected Canadian AOC you wrote about in Part B. What stage of the approaches to pollution management as suggested by Rutherford and Williams (2015) is your selected AOC at? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this model in relation to your AOC?

 Pollution Management Model Targeted at Three Different Levels

 Process of Pollution HUMAN ACTIVITY PRODUCING POLLUTANT Level of Pollution Management Altering human activity The most fundamental level of pollution management is to change the human activity that leads to the production of the pollutant in the first place by promoting alternative technologies, lifestyles, and values through: • • • •

• Campaigns Education Community groups Governmental legislation Economic incentives/disincentives Controlling release of pollutant RELEASE OF POLLUTANT INTO ENVIRONMENT Where the activity/production is not completely stopped, strategies can be applied at the level of regulating or preventing the release of pollutants by: •

• Legislating and regulating standards of emission Developing/applying technologies for extracting pollutants from emissions Clean-up and restoration of damaged systems IMPACT OF POLLUTANT ON ECOSYSTEMS Where both of the above levels of management have failed, strategies may be introduced to recover damaged ecosystems by: Extracting and removing pollutants from ecosystem

• Replanting/restocking lost or depleted populations and communities Rutherford, J. and Williams, G. (2015) Environmental Systems and Societies, Oxford: Oxford University Press pages 52-53)

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