Cutbacks ‘enormous challenge’ to Great Lakes
ALLAN BENNER
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
The International Joint Commission’s draft report of Great Lakes water quality identified several areas of concerns, such as algae growth and phosphorus infiltrating the water system from farm land.
But there is another challenge threatening the Great Lakes that Lana Pollack hasn’t overlooked.
“The issue of governance is of enormous concern, regardless of whether you’re in Canada or the United States,” said Pollack, chair of the IJC’s United States Section. “Each country at different times depending on who the government is maybe more environmentally supportive or less. And that is like a teeter-totter because we’ve seen it go both ways.”
But recent environmental cuts on the U.S. side of the border has again tilted the teeter-totter.
“Do we have concerns about what’s happening in the United States now? Of course we do,” Pollack said during an interview, while attending a public meeting on the Great Lakes held at the St. Catharines Rowing Club, Wednesday.
“We recognize that the money that’s been invested in the last three years – at minimum it’s been $300 million a year – in the Great Lakes Recovery Initiative,” Pollack said. “But that’s only part of the money that the government has put in.”
She said additional funding is earmarked for Great Lakes protection through the Environmental Protection Agency budget.
“All of that has been wiped out – maybe,” she added.
But through public interest in the quality and protection of the Great Lakes — demonstrated through the near capacity attendance at the public meeting in St. Catharines — as well as the previous five meetings held throughout March in Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, Sarnia, Toledo, and Buffalo — organizers are hoping governments will take notice.
Southbrook Vineyard’s owner Bill Redelmeir, who was at the event to discuss sustainable farming techniques his business uses, pointed out the need for public involvement.
“The government is going to pay no attention to the IJC, unless they realize there’s a whole bunch of other people, here at this level, interested, involved and talking about it,” he told the nearly 100 people in attendance.
The IJC’s Canadian Chair Gordon Walker said progress has been made restoring the lakes in the past, adding Lake Erie was “virtually a dead lake” in 1972 when the commission was formed as a result of the initial Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
“We’ve come here because we want to know what you’re saying with respect to the progress, with respect to what you think the situation is on the Great Lakes, what you think it is just outside here whether it’s Port Dalhousie, or we’re over on Lake Erie, Port Colborne, whatever it is we want to know your views,” he said.
In addition to sharing their views through individual roundtable discussions, participants also heard from organizations working to restore and protect the waterways, including Paul General from Six Nations of the Grand River, as well as Niagara College professors Mike Duncan and Patrick Robson.
General said the Six Nations property can be seen “from 500 miles out into space … because we still have 50 per cent forest cover, and we’re surrounded by agriculture.”
“Six Nations is the last, largest stand of Carolinian forest left in Canada.”
He said the Grand River flows through that property before emptying into Lake Erie.
In addition to deforestation in the past 200 years, General’s concern was also on cumulative impacts of industrial development, landfill, urban sprawl and farming.
“We can’t go out and hunt like we did before, we can’t go out and gather medicines like we did in the past, and we can’t drink the water anymore. There’s even a lack of trust for the water,” he said.
“There are people who don’t believe you can even swim in the river anymore, let alone eat the fish that are out of it.”
Duncan discussed computerized mapping software that offers a solution to runoff from agriculture polluting the lakes.
He said farmers who invested in seed and fertilizer that is washed into watercourses “wants this problem gone more than you do, because that’s farm revenue, and farms aren’t necessarily doing that well these days. Farms are going bankrupt at a furious rate and if we can solve how to keep them from losing money and losing productivity, that will help a great deal.”
Despite her concerns, Pollack hasn’t lost hope that U.S. government support for Great Lakes protection may continue.
She said there is “some considerable rebellion, even in the Republican Party because they don’t want to go back to their constituents having done that (eliminated funding).”
Although the St. Catharines meeting was the last of six public meetings, people can still share their comments with the IJC online at participateIJC. org, by e-mail to participateIJC@ottawa.ijc.org, or by sending mail to the IJC at 234 Laurier Ave. West, 22nd flood, Ottawa, On, K1P6K6.