Clean Production and Toxics
State of the Lakes? Not that Great
The US EPA and Environment Canada have released
their assessment of the Great Lakes on several indicators.
For much of the report, status is reported as mixed.
(click image to enlarge in new window)
This summer the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada released the State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights report. The document reports on progress to address several issues facing the Great Lakes, and indicates whether conditions are improving or worsening.
On the whole, the report finds that conditions in the region are mixed. Some areas, are improving, others deteriorating, and conditions range from poor to good.
Human health status is described as “mixed”, though whether this is improving or getting worse is “undetermined”. Similarly, biotic communities are described as of mixed status, and their trajectory undetermined.
However, the report has more information on biotic communities than human health. This failure to more seriously assess the impacts of conditions in the Great Lakes on human health conditions has long been a concern of community activists.
The most negative of the Great Lakes indicators is invasive species, which is given a “poor” status rating and a “deteriorating” trend by the governments.
Contamination is shown as being of “mixed” status and with an improving trend. For the contaminant phosphorus, however, nearshore conditions are found to be “poor” in all lakes except Lake Superior.
The report is produced following the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC), where scientific data is reported and discussed. These conferences pull together scientists, governments and activists from across the Great Lakes region.
Typically, they have been held every two years since 1994. However, in order to save resources, the governments have decided to now hold them every three years. This means that the next conference will be held in 2011 and the next report released in 2012.
To obtain a copy of the State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights report go to www.binational.net/solec/intro_e.html.
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© 2009 Great Lakes News. 
To me, the chart highlights the bankruptcy of the entire SOLEC process. After 15 years and who knows how many millions of dollars and person-hours, the best they can come up with is a conclusion that just about everything is “mixed”, and there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know much about? You’re doing a heckofa job, EPA and EC!
Even if the indicators were less mealy-mouthed, a fundamental problem with SOLEC is that there is no real audience for its output. Those of us who might be called eco-geeks know most of the underlying reality without SOLEC, because we participate in the listservs, subscribe to the journals, and go to lots of meetings. The rest of the world (to the extent they are paying any attention to SOLEC, which is negligible) gets the message that “things are kind of complicated and mixed up.” That sure sets a rousing agenda for action, doesn’t it?