In fact, some activities will be accomplished more effectively at the community level by private citizens and local governments, while others will require more international cooperation. The Great Lakes contain almost 20 percent of the fresh water on the planet and provide drinking water to more than 25 million people in the U.S. and Canada. While there has been a reduction in pollutants entering the lakes over the last 30 years, complex problems remain. Each lake has its unique concerns, but certain problems affect all the lakes - contaminated sediments, exotic species, and airborne pollutants. Many of these problems originate outside the Great Lakes basin.
Pesticides blow in from thousands of miles away.
Exotic species such as zebra mussels stow away in the ballast water of ocean going ships docked in far away ports. The ships then dump this ballast water and the exotic species it contains into Great Lakes. Proposed solutions are as varied as the problems they attempt to solve. There are ongoing attempts to control critical pollutants in waste water discharges and clean up local hot spots. New solutions include ballast water controls, use of new air pollution models to identify emission sources, pesticide clean sweeps, control of urban and agricultural runoff, and promotion of private stewardship of the environment.