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Great Lakes United Issue Briefings

A Service for Great Lakes United Members and the public!

Great Lakes United is pleased to announce a series of webinars about issues important to the Great Lakes region. This is a service to our members and to the public, and we hope you will attend. Click on the upcoming topics below for more information about each (content about future briefings will be updated as the dates approach).  

Next Free Public Issue Briefing: Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 12:00pm EDT

Fisheries Act: Proposed changes and environmental implications

Reserve your spot now by contacting Lauren Cheal at lcheal@glu.org.

Join us for a free issue briefing with special guest speaker Mark Mattson, president and founder of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. Mr. Mattson will speak to the impact of the sweeping amendments proposed to the Fisheries Act in Canada in a budget implementation bill (Bill C-38:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=5524772) being considered by Parliament.
 
Join expert Mark Mattson for a discussion about these potential changes, the impact they will have on fisheries and watershed across the Great Lakes and beyond, and what these changes may mean for the environmental community.
 
You must register for this event in order to receive the call-in information and presentation materials.

Reserve your spot now by sending an email to Lauren Cheal at lcheal@glu.org.

 
Fisheries Act: Proposed changes and environmental implications
The Canadian government has presented a new budget that includes sweeping amendments to the Fisheries Act. This is an issue that directly affects the quality of life of all Canadians, and greatly impacts the Great Lakes region. Habitat protections for fisheries help protect watersheds for people, and the Canadian government is seeking to substantially weaken those protections.
Amendments to streamline the Fisheries Act to promote industrial development and economic investment would replace the existing single, established, and largely effective national standard to protect fish and fish habitat with a patchwork of unknown provincial policies. In its haste to make changes, the government did not consult experts at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, scientists, experienced environmental lawyers, or hunting and angling groups. It’s not clear that they consulted First Nations. Many prominent environmental groups across Canada have spoken up to oppose the changes, as well as more than 600 scientists.
Mark Mattson is a prominent environmental lawyer whose love of water stems from his childhood summers swimming and fishing on Wolfe Island, near Kingston. Prior to forming Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, Mark Mattson founded a volunteer-based effort dedicated to identifying and prosecuting environmental offenders (the “Environmental Bureau of Investigation”) and served as a board member of Great Lakes United. He has acted as counsel for environmental and public interest groups at over fifty hearings, including the Walkerton Inquiry, the International Water Tribunal in Amsterdam, and the Ontario Energy Board. Mattson has been investigator and/or co-counsel on nearly every Fisheries Act private prosecution in Canada.
 
After ten years in the courtroom, Mark began to devote more time to developing institutions that will restore and protect watersheds for generations to come. He founded Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in 2001 and remains the organization’s full-time Waterkeeper and President.
 
This event is free and open to the public. Please feel free to pass the invitation on to anyone who would be interested in the topic.
 
Title: Fisheries Act: Proposed changes and environmental implications
Date: Thursday, May 17th, 2012
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Location: This is a virtual issue briefing, to participate you simply need a telephone and access to a computer capable of displaying a .pdf document.
Panelist: Mark Mattson, President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
 
This session will take place on Thursday, May 17th at 12:00pm EDT.  The session will be a conference call presentation with a visual component (a .pdf file, emailed to participants), as well as an interactive Q&A with Mark Mattson. You will receive further call-in information (by email) as the event approaches. All you need to participate in this event is a telephone (a landline, cell phone or soft phone (Skype or similar) will all work), and access to a computer that can display a .pdf file. 
Great Lakes United—Union Saint Laurent Grands Lacs is pleased to offer this service to the public. If you have any questions about this event, please do not hesitate to contact Lauren Cheal at lcheal@glu.org.


Look for these other issue briefings in the upcoming months!*  

June 5 - The Plant Watch Network in Quebec

September 11 - Nuclear Storage and Disposal

October 2 - Nuclear Power Plants: Expansion and Ongoing Threat

*The dates and topics for upcoming briefings are subject to change

Webinars will generally run on the first Tuesday of the month at 12:00pm Eastern. Bring your lunch and engage in discussions with experts from around the lakes on whichever topic interests you!

Past Webinars (click on the title of each webinar for more information)

The Coast Guard rule and Environmental Protection Agency Vessel General Permit: New ballast water regulatory developments in the United States

April 3, 2012

Invasive species from ballast water discharges are wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters. A litany of non-native invaders— including zebra mussels, quagga mussels, spiny water fleas and round gobies—have turned the Great Lakes ecosystem on its head, altering the food web and threatening the health of native fish and wildlife.

On March 23rd, the U.S. Coast Guard finalized its long-awaited ballast water discharge rule and set numeric limitations on the number of live organisms that can be discharged by most commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters. These numeric standards will require commercial vessels to install technology to treat ballast water before release, and remove or kill unwanted species carried in ships ballast tanks. The establishment and implementation of national ballast water discharge standards has been hotly debated for nearly two decades, and the final rule comes after a 10 year regulatory process. Moving in parallel to the Coast Guard is a regulatory development being undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency under the authority of the Clean Water Act. In November 2011 the EPA proposed to update its Vessel General Permit to strengthen restrictions on commercial vessel ballast discharges. The proposed EPA VGP largely mimics the Coast Guard rule, although some key differences exist.

Managing water levels for people and nature: Finding a Balance in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River

March 13, 2012

An event hosted by WWF-Canada and Great Lakes United

       

Managing water levels for people and nature: Finding a Balance in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River

Over the years, the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River region, for millions, has been a place to call home, build businesses, and take up leisure activities. Decades of shoreline development growth, new homes, summer cottages to year-round residences, shipping, and navigation, and recreational boating grew to become a significant economic activity throughout the entire region. But greater development also meant that greater impacts were felt from fluctuating water levels and extreme weather events.  By the 1990’s, it was clear that the regulation plan managing water levels was ill-equipped to deal with water supply scenarios of the 21st century.

In 2000, the IJC began a new International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study with financial support from the two federal governments. The five-year, $20 million study provided new insights into the shortcomings of the current water regulation plan, and outlined how system regulation might be improved.

After the study was released, the IJC proposed implementing a modified version of one of the water regulation plans recommended by the study. After holding extensive public hearings on the issue, the IJC elected to withdraw that proposal due to various concerns that were raised. Yet the underlying problems and challenges with the current regulation plan have remained.  After extensive, internal research and review conducted by Government of Quebec and Ontario, New York State, and both Federal governments the IJC has released an updated approach to managing water levels and flows that reflects what has been learned over the past fifty years, and better respond to the region's diverse and changing needs. 

The proposed regulation plan will specify the operational rules for managing Lake Ontario outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam. It is called Plan BV7.  To learn more join expert Bernard Beckoff, from the IJC who will be presenting the impacts and opportunities of this plan and fielding questions people from the region may have.

Sea Lamprey Control in the Great Lakes: A Unique “Good News” Story in Invasive Species Control

February 7, 2012, 12:00pm EST
 
Experts Dr. Marc Gaden and Dr. Michael Siefkes presented an engaging hour of material on the sucessfull control measures taken against the spread of the sea lamprey. 
 
Sea lampreys are exotic, parasitic, blood-sucking pests that invaded Lake Ontario in the mid-1800s and the upper Great Lakes in the 1920s. They are native to the Atlantic Ocean and spread into and throughout the system via shipping canals. They attach to fish with a suction-cup mouth and teeth and use their tongue to rasp through a fish’s scales and skin so they can feed on its blood and body fluids. A single sea lamprey will destroy up to 18 kgs (40 lbs.) of fish during its adult lifetime. Sea lampreys are so destructive that, under some conditions, only one out of seven fish attacked will survive. Sea lampreys prey on all types of fish, such as native lake trout, Atlantic salmon, whitefish, burbot, ciscoes, yellow perch, walleye, catfish, and sturgeon, and game fish such as brown trout and Pacific salmon.
 
In the 1940s and 1950s, sea lamprey populations exploded, as there were no effective control methods and no natural predators. This contributed significantly to the collapse of fish species that were the mainstay of a healthy fishery. The ecosystem was thrown badly off-balance, leading to massive fish die-offs and economic loss.
 
The good news is, sea lampreys can be controlled. In fact, of the 180+ non-native species in the Great Lakes basin, sea lampreys are the only species for which control techniques exist. (Alewives, another non-native species, can be managed through the stocking of predators like trout and salmon.) Since 1957, when sea lamprey control began, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and its partners—Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—have reduced sea lamprey populations by an astounding 90%, allowing for the protection and rehabilitation of native species, a healthy environment, and the resurgence of commercial, tribal, and sport fishing in the Great Lakes basin. The fishery today is worth $7 billion to the people of Canada and the United States and shorelines are again more pleasant places to visit.
 

Health Implications of Fracking for Natural Gas in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin 

Listen to this presentation or download the mp3 file by clicking here. 

To download the presentation material for this issue briefing, please click here. 

The U.S. EPA recently concluded that chemicals used in fracking for natural gas in Wyoming have been found in water supplies in the area at concentrations well above the Safe Drinking Water standard. Proposals to use fracking processes to obtain natural gas are rampant through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. These operations pose a major threat to the health of all life in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin.
 
Research by The Endocrine Disruption Exchange on the 353 chemicals used in various fracking processes found that 40-50% of these substances could affect the brain/nervous system, immune and cardiovascular systems, and the kidneys; 37% could affect the endocrine system; and 25% could cause cancer and mutations.
 
Presenters:
Dr Theo Colborn of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange
 
Kim Cornelissen of Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique 
 
John Jackson of Great Lakes United.

The Future of Mining on the Great Lakes (Co-hosted with Northwatch)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 12:00pm eastern
Experts Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch and Mike Ripley of Chippewa/Ottawa Resource Authority delivered an informative issue briefing on the mining landscape focusing on Lake Superior.

What to do about the Asian Carp in Canada?

July 12, 2011: 12:00pm eastern
Presenters: Join a discussion with Mary Muter from the Sierra Club-Ontario and Hugh Wilkins from Ecojustice to discuss the risk of an Asian carp invasion in Canada, and what options Canadians have to proactively help stop the carp. 

Victory! Great Lakes- St. Lawrence River Navigation Study takes a 180!
August 2, 2011: 12:00pm eastern

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