The Great Lakes contain over 95 percent of the nation’s surface freshwater supply for the contiguous 48 states and more than 20 percent of the world’s freshwater supply. The lakes provide water for drinking, transportation, power, recreation—such as swimming and fishingand a host of other uses for more than 30 million people who live in the Great Lakes Basin, roughly 10 percent of the U.S. population and more than 30 percent of the Canadian population. Spanning more than 750 miles from west to east, the basin encompasses nearly all of the state of Michigan and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Parts of the St. Lawrence River, the connecting channel between Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean, flow through the provinces of both Ontario and Quebec. Recognizing their mutual interests in the Great Lakes and other boundary waters, the United States and Great Britain signed the Boundary Waters Treaty in 1909, which provided the United States and Canada with a framework for dealing with future issues along the border. The treaty established the International Joint Commission (IJC), comprising three commissioners each from the United States and from Canada, to help the two governments resolve and prevent disputes concerning their shared boundary waters. Among other things, the IJC also assists the governments in the implementation of the GLWQA, reports every 2 years on implementation progress, and offers nonbinding recommendations to the two governments. Signed in 1972, the GLWQA focused on restoring and enhancing water quality in the lakes and controlling phosphorous as a principal means of dealing with eutrophication in the lakes. Under the terms of the GLWQA, the two governments are required to conduct a comprehensive review of the operation and effectiveness of the agreement every 6 years. The next review is scheduled to begin in 2004, and based upon the results, the two countries may decide to amend the agreement. The last review in 1999 found that certain sections of the agreement were outdated and revisions were needed. As amended, the GLWQA has 17 annexes that define in detail the specific programs and activities that the two parties have agreed upon and committed to implement. Most of the annexes specify pollution prevention strategies. Annex 11 of the GLWQA calls for the parties to implement a joint surveillance and monitoring program that, among other things, evaluates water quality trends, identifies emerging problems, and supports the development of remedial action plans for contaminated areas—- referred to as areas of concern—-and LaMPs for the open waters of each of the five lakes to reduce critical pollutants and to restore and protect beneficial uses. Specifically, Annex 11 calls for the monitoring program to include baseline data collection, sample analysis, and evaluation and quality assurance programs to assess such things as whole lake data including that for open waters and nearshore areas of the lakes as well as fish and wildlife contaminants; inputs from tributaries, point source discharges, atmosphere, and connecting channels; and total pollutant loadings to and from the Great Lakes system. The monitoring program under Annex 11 is to be based on the Great Lakes International Surveillance Plan (GLISP) developed before the current requirements for a surveillance and monitoring system. Developing the surveillance plan, which involved developing a separate plan for each lake, required extensive efforts by U.S. and Canadian officials over several years. However, according to one Canadian official involved in the process, the plans were not completed to the point where they could be implemented. The IJC’s Water Quality Board was involved in the management and development of the GLISP, but according to a binational review of the GLWQA in 1999, the IJC’s role was reduced after the GLQWA amendments of 1987 placed more of the responsibility for data analysis and reporting on the state of the Great Lakes environment with the two governments. IJC’s role today is one of assisting in the implementation of the agreement and evaluating the actions of the two governments in meeting the objectives of the GLWQA. After the GLISP effort, the governments reduced support for the surveillance and monitoring called for in the agreement, and abandoned the organizational structure created to implement the monitoring plan, leaving in place only one of the plan’s initiatives, the International Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN), a network of 15 air-monitoring stations located throughout the basin developed in response to the GLWQA requirement of a monitoring program to allow assessment of inputs from the atmosphere affecting the Great Lakes. In addition, under a separate annex in the GLWQA (Annex 2), LaMPs are required to include, among other things, a description of the surveillance and monitoring to be used to track the effectiveness of remedial measures and the elimination of critical pollutants. The agreement requires that updates to the LaMPs be submitted to the IJC for review and comment. IJC is considering whether to conduct a review of the LaMPs in 2004. The Water Quality Act of 1987 amended the Clean Water Act to state that EPA should take the lead and work with other federal agencies and state and local authorities to meet the goals in the agreement. It also established within EPA, GLNPO, to among other things, coordinate EPA’s actions aimed at improving Great Lakes water quality both at headquarters and at the affected EPA regional offices, and to coordinate EPA’s actions with the actions of other federal agencies. As of 2003, GLNPO’s budget was $16 million, including $5 million allocated for program costs, which includes 47 full-time EPA staff and 13 non-EPA staff. The remaining costs included about $4.3 million per year for monitoring and monitoring-related reporting, which included about $1.4 million to operate GLNPO’s research vessel, the Lake Guardian. For Canada, Environment Canada (EC) is the lead agency, which works in cooperation with the provinces of Ontarioin which parts of four of the lakes are locatedand Quebec, which administers the St. Lawrence River. Coordination between EPA and EC is achieved through the Binational Executive Committee (BEC). Subsequent to the GLQWA amendments of 1987, the BEC was formed to coordinate programs and policies of the two parties to facilitate GLWQA implementation. BEC, co-chaired by EPA and EC, meets twice a year and membership includes federal, state, and provincial officials from organizations involved in Great Lakes activities. The BEC does not have authority to direct that projects or programs be implemented but rather makes recommendations regarding certain activities, such as the development of SOLEC. Funding provided for BEC operations is limited, and it relies on funding from other organizations to implement its recommendations. In addition to the BEC, several organizations serve coordinating roles, offer policy perspectives, or financially support restoration activities for the Great Lakes, including the following: Council of Great Lakes Governors, a partnership of governors from the eight Great Lakes states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, encourages and facilitates environmentally responsible economic growth throughout the Great Lakes region. Great Lakes Commission, an organization promoting the orderly, integrated, and comprehensive development, use, and conservation of water and related natural resources of the Great Lakes Basin and the St. Lawrence River, includes representatives from the eight Great Lakes states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Great Lakes United, an international coalition group dedicated to preserving and restoring the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River ecosystem, promotes effective policy initiatives, carries out education programs, and promotes citizen action and grassroots leadership for Great Lakes environmental activities. The coalition’s member organizations represent environmentalists, conservationists, hunters and anglers, labor unions, communities, and citizens of the United States, Canada, and First Nations and Tribes. United States Policy Committee, a group of senior level representatives from federal, state, and tribal government agencies with environmental protection or natural resource responsibilities in the Great Lakes Basin. The group meets semiannually to coordinate agency actions and commitments associated with the Great Lakes Strategy 2002. Great Lakes Fishery Commission, a binational commission created by the Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries between the United States and Canada in 1955, whose primary objectives are to coordinate fisheries management and research, and to control sea lamprey. The U.S. Department of State and Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans provide funding for the commission. Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, an organization created within EPA by executive order to provide coordination of federal activities and promote regional collaboration within the Great Lakes Basin and among other things, to develop outcome based goals for the Great Lakes system. Assisting the task force is a working group composed of regional federal officials with GLNPO providing resources for both groups. Current EPA monitoring efforts do not provide comprehensive information on the condition of the Great Lakes, and the coordinated joint surveillance and monitoring program called for in the GLWQA has yet to be fully developed. Other ongoing monitoring efforts by federal and state agencies yield information that is limited to specific purposes and geographical scope. The joint efforts by the United States and Canada to develop information on Great Lakes indicators through the SOLEC process does not fulfill the monitoring requirements of the GLWQA or adequately assess basin-wide conditions of the lakes. Further, the information reported from SOLEC is of questionable value to officials making restoration decisions because it is not based on their decision- making needs. Additionally, current monitoring efforts of federal and state organizations do not, by design, provide comprehensive information on the overall conditions of the Great Lakes. Most of the information collected under these monitoring activities is designed to meet specific program objectives or is limited to specific geographic areas as opposed to providing an overall assessment of the Great Lakes Basin. Annex 11 of the GLWQA calls for the United States and Canada to develop a joint Great Lakes system-wide surveillance and monitoring program to, among other things, provide information on restoration progress and whether the objectives of the agreement are being achieved. This program, however, has not been fully developed.