Therefore be it resolved that Great Lakes United urge representatives of the basin’s First Nations, tribes, provinces, states, counties, regions, and municipalities to seek means by which their roles in Great Lakes protection are defined in any future revision of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and Be it further resolved that we urge the two federal governments to include the above by defining their role and relative responsibilities.

Therefore be it resolved that Great Lakes United calls on the Province of Ontario to take the necessary legal steps to defend the promise of the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt, starting with actions to defend the “in perpetuity” easements to which it is a party, on the lands in the Duffins-Rouge Agricultural Preserve, and Be it further resolved that Great Lakes United calls on the Federal Government of Canada and its elected representatives, as parties to COA to make its concerns known to the Province of Ontario with respect to the pressures that are coming to bear on the lands in the Duffins-Rouge Agricultural Preserve.

Great Lakes United urges the governments of Canada and the United States to: Assess all vectors of ANS introductions, including intentional and unintentional, into the Great Lakes and determine the relative risk of each vector. Develop an action plan to prioritize and prevent ANS introductions from all vectors with set implementation deadlines. Develop mandatory federal enforcement programs for implementation of the action plan insuring provisions for citizen suit. Set criteria and standards for ballast water treatment and management that are subject to guaranteed periodic review and revision and that effectively reduce transfers of invasive organisms into and within the Great Lakes. Create and implement a thorough and effective screening process to ensure all policies, treatments and technologies are environmentally sound (as defined in the National Invasive Species Act).

Therefore be it resolved that Great Lakes United calls for a moratorium on new permits for sunken log extraction in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.
Be it further resolved that Great Lakes United calls for environmentally sound scientific criteria for the issuance of permits across the wide range of aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.

Therefore be it resolved that Great Lakes United: Congratulates Canada and applauds its action to become the first country to ratify the
Stockholm Convention on POPs; Urges President Bush, through his staff and advisors, to expeditiously transmit the POPs Treaty to the US Senate for its “advice and consent” to ratification; Urges the United States Senate to ratify the Stockholm Convention in this first session of the 107th Congress so that the United States will also be one of the early countries to ratify the Convention and set an example of leadership for other countries to follow.

In response to the Binational Executive Committee’s (BEC) invitation to comment on their draft review of the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), the sixty-four groups who submit this brief congratulate the members of the binational Agreement Review Committee (ARC) for pulling together a summary that we believe fairly reflects the discussions carried out during 2006. Therefore, in this brief, instead of focusing on the ARC document, we present our preliminary position on revision of the Agreement. As the review and possible renegotiation continues over the next couple of years, we will present more details on these policy directions.

This report is to provide the United States delegates to the POPs treaty negotiations with an overview of relevant legal and policy issues that emerge from the Great Lakes experience and agreements, where work on POPs elimination has been underway for over two decades. Of particular concern in the current round of negotiations are a broad set of exemptions advanced by the US delegation which would be severe loopholes to the proposed treaty. This report evaluates relevant lessons learned in the Great Lakes and consistency issues between what has been done in the Great Lakes and the pending global POPs treaty. The report demonstrates that: 1) The "virtual elimination"; and "zero discharge" goals adopted in the Great Lakes region are necessary and practical policies to include in any POPs treaty. 2) The POPs treaty should include the precautionary principle. 3) The US-proposed exemptions are inconsistent with the policies adopted and lessons learned in the Great Lakes region.

Op-ed dispelling myths surround the Annex Agreements, and explaining why the agreements are a positive step forward for Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River protection.

Comments on the Great Lakes Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement.

Comments on the Great Lakes Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement.