Two Countries Collaborate to Reduce Toxicity from the Great Lakes Basin

Signed in 1997, the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy: Canada-United States Strategy for the Virtual Elimination of Persistent Toxic Substances in the Great Lakes (Binational Toxics Strategy) is an international agreement between Canada and the United States that seeks the reduction and virtual elimination of persistent toxic substances from the Great Lakes Basin. Battelle has provided strategic planning and technical support for the implementation of the strategy since its inception. Implementation has been a collaborative process involving Environment Canada (EC), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), and stakeholders from industry, academia, state/provincial and local governments, Tribes, First Nations, and environmental and community groups.

The Binational Toxics Strategy sets challenge goals to reduce 12 Level I substances within a 10-year time frame and identifies a number of Level II substances for which challenge goals are not specified but for which pollution prevention activities to reduce levels in the environment are encouraged. The Strategy also includes a specified four-step analytical process for the Level I substances that requires an assessment of sources and releases, programs and regulations, reduction opportunities, and implementation. The early focus of Battelle's support for the Binational Toxics Strategy included strategic planning of implementation activities, development of stakeholder recruitment materials, and facilitation and technical support for establishing chemical-specific workgroups and a cross-cutting Integration Workgroup. Substancespecific workgroups were created in 1998 to oversee the analytical process and to pursue opportunities for substance reductions both inside and outside the Great Lakes Basin.

For some of the substances, in addition to the requirement of applying the four-step analytical process, the Strategy includes target dates for reporting on the challenge goals. In the first few years of the Strategy, Battelle gathered information and drafted reports that formed the technical basis for both the four-step analytical process as well as the reporting on the challenge goals. As implementation proceeded, Battelle was responsible for: developing technical background papers to support workgroups, facilitating workgroup and other meetings to help EPA respond to technical questions, collecting and interpreting information to inform workgroup reports and decisions, compiling annual strategy implementation progress reports, drafting outreach materials, and assisting EPA in preparing for public meetings. Recent support includes developing a process for reassessing the status of Level I substances and also developing a process for nominating new substances that present threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem, as called for in the Strategy.

More information about the Binational Toxics Strategy is available at www.epa.gov/glnpo/bns or www.binational.net. For more information about Battelle's support for the Binational Toxics Strategy, please contact Ms. Amy Thomas at (614) 424-3431, thomasa@battelle.org.