With the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement as a platform, our two governments should take the lead nationally and globally to eliminate these substances from human use and from circulation in the environment.
Most pollutants found in Great Lakes waters originate on land from human activity.
Much of that activity is under local control, through zoning, drain codes, sewer bylaws, pesticide use and garbage disposal practices, brownfield policies and, generally, identification and protection of environmentally sensitive and unique areas. Great Lakes mayors must begin to work together and with community groups on this shared responsibility. They are demanding clean production technology and process changes that eliminate, not simply reduce, the production and release of long-lived toxic substances. They are calling for an end to the blackmail that makes pollution the dues a community must pay to keep jobs. Northern European countries are far ahead of us in challenging their manufacturers to redesign consumer goods so they can be returned to their makers and their components recycled.