2011 2: State of the Environment

Question 1

When was the Great Lakes Quality Agreement

Answer 1

1972:

Question 2

IMPROVEMENT OVER TIME: KNOW THIS

Answer 2

1972: Great lakes water quality agreement: lake erie/phosphorous loadings
1978 GLWQA: toxic contaminants, virtual elimination/zero discharge
1987 GLWQA: AOCs and RAPs

Question 3

1972

Answer 3

• 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
o Lake Erie
o Phosphorous Loadings
o Once we stopped adding them the lake started to recover, but whatever was still there is very hard to get rid of and doesn’t break down, it just spreads around

Question 4

T or F: Overall loading have been reduced

Answer 4

TRUE, but they are increasing again

Question 5

T or F: Level of toxicity continues to decline

Answer 5

FALSE, leveled off and increasing:

Question 6

T or F: End-of-pipe is under control

Answer 6

FALSE, point source discharges are increasing: its not illegal to dump: its illegal not to REPORT whats been dumped… bad sign

Question 7

T or F: Non-point sources are being regulated

Answer 7

TRUE, but there is little information

Question 8

Pollution in the Great Lakes

Answer 8

is still rising despite the cleanup efforts; industrial releases of toxic materials took off from 1998 to 2002

Question 9

Between 1998 and 2002?

Answer 9

amount of pollution increased by 21% in these THREE YEARS
o 23% at US companies
o 13% at Canadian companies
Finding was unexpected! Billions of dollar have been spent trying to clean this up! This is an increase in point source

Question 10

Why have we not solved the water pollution problem?

Answer 10

Reasons are not clear why we haven’t solved the water pollution problem. Governments stopped extensive monitoring of pollutant releases because the great lakes were believed to be returning to good health, but clearly not; there is a big lack of attention being paid to the Great Lakes.

Question 11

Governments involvement?

Answer 11

• Governments stopped extensive monitoring of pollutants releases because the Great Lakes were believed to be returning to good health. But if discharges are rising again, the lack of scrutiny is misplaced, according to one of those who worked on the report
• The failure of governments to compile this data is a “real indictment of the lack of attention being paid to Great Lakes issues”

Question 12

Top 10 Facilities Releasing to Water

Answer 12

• The top 10 places releasing to water; most of them are sewage treatment plants A LOT ARE OWNED BY GOVERNMENT
• Toronto Ottawa Hamilton Toronto Toronto Guelph London Windsor (9 of the top ten: sewage treatment plants!!

Question 13

Top 10 Releasing to Air

Answer 13

• Top 10 releasing to air; most of them are power plants, or paper companies
• Ontario Power generation (burning fossil fuels to make energy: lets stop doing this!! Bad for climate), pulp and paper companies, GM< , steel THESE ARE THINGS WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SOLVE!

Question 14

What is under both lists?

Answer 14

Copper Cliff

Question 15

2006 Data

Answer 15

• Ontario ranks #1 for air release of toxic pollutants, #1 for air release of carcinogens, #1 air releases of toxic pollutants associated with reproductive and developmental effects. Most of this comes from industries.

Question 16

2010 Data

Answer 16

• 285 million kg of pollutants were released into the water in the great lakes st. Lawrence river basin 2007 (NPRI, TRI)
• Approx. 75 million kg of pollutants were released into the air (NPRI, TRI facilities)

Question 17

Canada VS US

Answer 17

• Canada emitted into the air on average almost 3 times more known carcinogens and 2 times the reproductive/developmental toxins than the US.

Question 18

Most Impacted Places (Air and Water)

Answer 18

Lake Erie, then Lake Michigan, St Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Superior (Consider which of these are most populated)

Question 19

Great Lakes Report updates

Answer 19

State of the Great Lakes Report; supposed to report every 2 years but it is not totally up to date. 2009

Question 20

How are things changing?

Answer 20

For the following: are they improving/unchanging/getting worse, etc

Question 21

Non Native Invasive Species

Answer 21

deteriorating (asian carp) we are getting more and more invasive species!! Many things affect this: climate change/environment changes/ lost of things that make it easy for invasive species to thrive

Question 22

Sea Lamprey

Answer 22

Superior: improving
Michigan: Deteriorating
Ontario: unchanged
Erie: unchanged
Huron: unchanged

Question 23

Release of Targeted bio-accumulative toxic chemicals

Answer 23

improving

Question 24

Release of phosphorus

Answer 24

some improving or unchanged but mostly unknown (confusing map… this should be the easy stuff to fix!! this is what caused people to not be able to drink their water)

Question 25

Human Health

Answer 25

unknown

Question 26

Resource Utilization: water, energy

Answer 26

unknown

Question 27

Changes to landscape (land use)

Answer 27

unknown

Question 28

Takeaway….

Answer 28

what we have tried to do has not been successful. We came up with a few management plans (end of pipe thing was wring) we stopped… for both persistent and non persistent… we haven’t added anything MAJOR in terms of pollution. Aimed for VIRTUAL ELIMINATION in ‘78. next thing: clean up!!! in 87. And after establishing that we only managed to do FIVE OF FOURTY THREE!
Long answer: how we got here and where w need to go