GLIN==> habitat, species, & biodiversity and review of the great lakes water quality agreement

[Reg Gilbert <reg@glu.org>]

Dear member of the Great Lakes non-profit environmental
community,

We would like to invite you to participate in two or more phone
conversations over the next month to discuss habitat, species, and
biodiversity in the Great Lakes and the upcoming review and possible
renegotiation of the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement.

The agreement now focuses on toxic substances, but the agreement could
also be broadened to address other issues, including habitat. The review
and possible renegotiation are scheduled to take place starting in May
and continue through next year.

We are holding eight series of calls among environmentalists about the
separate issues already or potentially connected to the review. If you
would like to be involved in the calls on on habitat, species, and
biodiversity (or any of the calls, see the list below), please send an
email to Reg Gilbert at reg@glu.org indicating your time availability for
the period Friday, April 14, to Friday, May 5.

The review will look at how well the governments have lived up to their
existing commitments to limit, eliminate, and cleanup toxics releases,
but could result in recommendations to make entirely new
commitments  in other areas to better achieve the broad aims of the
agreement to protect the lakes. The purpose of this call (and the other
issue calls) is to empower citizens to participate in the review, and to
help us all figure out what positions to take during the review.

Please let us know of your interest in being on the call by the end of
the day, Wednesday, April 12.

Note: for now these calls are not intended for members of the basin
environmental community from government agencies or regional
industry.

For more information on the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, connect
to

http://www.greatlakesforever.org/html/glwqa.html

Issue calls being scheduled include:

(Current issues found in the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement:)

> Toxic substances
> Remedial Action Plans and contaminated sediment
> Monitoring and research
> Coastal health (mostly sewage and non-point discharges)
> Governance (structures to assure that governments fulfill the terms
of the agreement) 

(New issues that could possibly be included in the agreement:)

> Aquatic invasive species 
> Habitat, species, and biodiversity 
> Climate change 

Background

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was first negotiated in 1972
to control sewage discharges to the lakes. It was updated in 1978 and
1987 to address toxic substances and highly contaminated "Areas of
Concern" -- basin toxic hot spots. The Canadian and U.S. governments
are now in the process of reviewing how well they have fulfilled their
commitments under the agreement since their last review, held in 1999,
and to consider whether or not they should make changes
("revise" the agreement) and possibly even add entirely new
issues to the agreement ("renegotiate" the agreement).

The calls we are inviting you to participate in are not part of the
official review process -- they are not part of the public "Review
Working Groups" now being set up by the governments to carry out the
first stage of their review. See below for information on how to join the
official process, something we are also encouraging. The calls we are
inviting you to participate in are intended to inform and empower the
environmental community to participate in the official process.

The official Review Working Groups will include all
"stakeholders" and will begin work in May. The calls that are
the topic of this message are intended for the environmental community
only, and will begin work immediately.

We have written up a "guidance paper" on aquatic invasive
species and the review of the agreement. If you would like to see that
document, email Jennifer Nalbone at jen@glu.org for a copy. If you would
like to see any of the other seven documents we have prepared for the
other issues, email Reg Gilbert at reg@glu.org for a copy.

What should citizens advocate?

Activists who have monitored the agreement for years, and in some
cases decades, are divided over the wisdom of revision or renegotiation
of the agreement.

On the one hand the agreement has weaknesses, has not been well
implemented since the last revision in 1987, and does not address several
issues of serious binational environmental concern. This would argue
*for* revision or renegotiation of the agreement.

On the other hand, the federal governments in both countries are
currently in the hands of leaders without a notable interest in
environmental protection, and broadening the agreement beyond sewage and
toxic substances could weaken its power to make a difference on those
issues without necessarily doing much for other issues. This would argue
against revision or renegotiation of the agreement.

Thus there is a need for issue-specific calls that allow members of the
Great Lakes environmental community to discuss how well the agreement has
addressed or might address various environmental problems. This will be
followed by a discussion of the wisdom of changing or  broadening
the agreement to solve the problems raised.

With these conversations as background, hopefully activists will be
better prepared to participate in the official review process. Our hope
is that we can find substantial consensus that will allow basin
environmentalists to enter the review process with a unified position on
what outcomes we would like to have achieved by the official
review.

Please get involved

We want to encourage basin environmental activists to participate in
this review process to the greatest extent possible. There are two ways
to do this:

1) Join the issue-specific calls among environmental activists that is
the main subject of this email. The issues are listed above. If you would
like to be on one of the calls:

a) email Reg Gilbert at reg@glu.org
b) note the issue you are interested in (see list above)
c) list your time availability during the three-week period of Friday,
April 14, through Friday, May 5

Please send this message by the end of the day Wednesday, April
12.

We hope to have the largest number of people on these calls, so please be
as liberal as possible in listing your available times. For example,
please list times when you might be traveling, but are otherwise
available. Calls will be free to all participants.

2) You can also join the official government "Review Working
Groups." For more information and to join a working group, download
the 4-page government document at:

http://www.greatlakesforever.org/html/action/GLWQAWorkingGroupInvite.pdf
 . 

If the above Web link breaks across two lines and does not work
automatically, piece together manually in your address bar. The complete
address should have no spaces or hyphens.

The deadline for joining the official Review Working Groups listed in the
official materials has been extended to April 26. First calls or meetings
will be sometime in May.

Help us reach people

Please pass this message on to anyone you know is interested in this
issue.

Please send Reg Gilbert an email at reg@glu.org a message indicating the
issue (or issues) you are interested and your time availability by this
Wednesday, April 12.

We hope to hear you on the calls.

Signed,


Cameron Davis, Executive Director, Alliance for the Great Lakes
Derek Stack, Executive Director, Great Lakes United
Jeffrey Potter, Director of Communications Programs, Biodiversity
Project
Fe De Leon, Researcher, Canadian Environmental Law Association