# Presentation: 457638

## Who We Are
What I Do

**What I Do**

**Great Lakes Commission**

## Great Lakes Basin

**Great Lakes Basin**

## Great Lakes Commission

**Binational agency representing Great Lakes states and provinces**
**Formed in mid 1950s via U.S. state and federal law: provincial associate membership in 1999**
**Promotes the informed use, management and protection of the water and related natural resources of the Great Lakes Basin and St. Lawrence River**
**Addresses resource management, environmental protection, transportation and sustainable economic development issues**
**Functions are information sharing, policy research and development, and advocacy**
**“****Information and research broker” that focuses on hydrologic, rather than geo-political boundaries**

## Great Lakes-St. Lawrence System Water Resources: An Overview

**Largest system of freshwater on the face of the earth**
**6.5 quadrillion gallons of water over 95,000 square miles of lake surface**
**20% of world’s supply of fresh surface water; 90% of United State’s supply**
**Basis for multi-billion dollar industries in every state and province**
**Intensive, multiple use under a complex multi-jurisdictional management structure**
**989 billion gallons withdrawn/ used in-stream daily; 59 billion excluding hydroelectric**

## Public Policy Significance of Great Lakes Water Resources

**Regional/Global Prominence**
**Centerpiece of Basin Ecosystem**
**Role in Advancing/Sustaining Regional, National and Binational Economic Development**
**Sensitivity of Great Lakes System to climatic, management and socio-economic changes**

## State of the Lakes

**Control of conventional pollutants and point source discharges has been a success story**
**Emergence of nonpoint source pollution as a priority: urban and agricultural runoff, air deposition**
**Enhanced understanding of the land use/water quality linkage**
**Challenge of addressing legacy of the past (e.g., contaminated sediments, brownfields) – “Areas of Concern”**
**Heightened concern over environmental quality/human health connection**
**High profile issues include water quantity management and biological pollution **

## Vision Statement
	“Our vision is a Great Lakes Basin that offers a prosperous economy, a economy, a healthy environment and a high quality of life for its citizens by applying principles of sustainable development in the use, management and protection of water, land and other natural resources”   		       	
    ~ 2000 Strategic Plan

**	****“****Our vision is a Great Lakes Basin that offers a prosperous economy, a economy, a healthy environment and a high quality of life for its citizens by applying principles of ****sustainable development**** in the use, management and protection of water, land and other natural resources”****   ****	****	****       ****	**
**    ****~ 2000 Strategic Plan**

## Org Structure

**Governed by Board of Commissioners from each GL state (MN-west to NY-east), plus associate members from Ontario and Quebec**
**Exec Director & ~ 25 staff**
**5 Program Areas**
**Environmental Quality**
**Resource Management**
**Transportation & Sustain Dev**
**Data & Information Management**
**Communications & Internet Tech**
**Great Lakes Information Network**

## What I do

**Project Manager – mainly monitoring coordination, of note:**
**Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium**
**Implementation Plan to EPA-GLNPO by Sept. 30**
**Set of indicators/metrics/protocols**
**Macroinverts, Fish, Plants/Veg,**
**Birds & Amphibs, Landscape**
**GL Coastal Wetlands Inventory/Class **
**Who will implement and how – funds needed**
**Just submitted proposal to EPA-REMAP Region 5 for similar project to do similar project for inland depressional wetlands + more CW**

## What I do

**Lake Michigan Monitoring Coordination Council**

## LMMCC Background

- Council was formed in 1999
- Formal charter was developed and approved
- Serves as a regional forum to coordinate and support consistent, credible monitoring methods and strategies
- Purpose: to define a regionally-coordinated agenda for Lake Michigan basin monitoring, with improved collaboration and data comparability
- Council meets twice per year around the Lake Michigan basin
- Great Lakes Commission provides technical/organizational support

## Membership 

- Broad membership encouraged, including representatives from:
- Federal agencies
- State agencies
- Local governments
- Basinwide organizations
- Tribal authorities
- Nonprofit watershed organizations
- Industry
- Academia/Sea Grant

**Notes:**
I’m thinking of GLC and GLFC here.

## Air

Aquatic nuisance species

Fisheries

Groundwater

Land use

- In 2001, the Council framework was modified to better take advantage of the logical interactions between resource-based monitoring entities:

**Air**
**Aquatic nuisance species**
**Fisheries**
**Groundwater**
**Land use**

**Open lake**
**Recreational waters**
**Tributaries**
**Wetlands**
**Wildlife**

## Workgroup Issues 

- Monitoring objectives
- Gap assessment
- Network design (spatial, temporal, common parameters/indicators)
- Methods comparability
- Quality assurance / Quality control
- Data management considerations (e.g. metadata)
- Data analysis approaches
- Reporting