GLIN==> RELEASE: Great Lakes still under seige from toxic pollution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Release

April 21, 2010

 

Canadian Environmental Law Association | Environmental Defence

Great Lakes United | National Wildlife Federation

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 

Great Lakes Green Chemistry Network

 

Great Lakes Still Under Siege 

from Toxic Pollution

New report signals need to step up binational commitments for pollution
prevention efforts renegotiation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

 

Reporting facilities released just over 460 million lbs (209 million kg) of
pollutants in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin in 2007, according to a new
report released today by Great Lakes-area environmental groups. The report,
Partners in Pollution 2:  An Update on the Continuing Canadian and United
States Contributions to Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Ecosystem Pollution,
is based on a matched dataset of 2007 data compiled by the Canadian National
Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory
(TRI). 

 

"Imagine 17,000 dump trucks pulling up to your beach and tipping their toxic
load straight into the drinking water of 40 million people," said John
Jackson, Director of Clean Production and Toxics at Great Lakes United.
"These ongoing toxic discharges are a smear on one of the world's greatest
sources of freshwater. We need to move beyond promises and put more serious
effort into stopping this pollution in the first place."

 

Lake Michigan basin had the second largest number of facilities in the basin
(25% of all facilities) that reported to the U.S. TRI and contributed a
fifth (approximately 21%) of total releases of pollutants in the Great Lakes
basin.  

 

Meanwhile, the Lake Erie basin is being particularly hard hit. Including the
industrial facilities that straddle the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and
the Detroit River, Lake Erie had the most facilities (over 1,300 facilities
representing 35% of all facilities) that reported to Canada's NPRI and U.S.
TRI. These facilities contributed half of the total releases that affect
this watershed. This is particularly troubling considering that Lake Erie is
the smallest, shallowest, but most biologically productive lake in the Great
Lakes system.

 

"We need to shift away from an 'end of pipe' mentality and toward a strong
commitment to pollution prevention," said Lin Kaatz Chary, Project Director
of the Great Lakes Green Chemistry Network. "This includes an emphasis on
the promotion of 'green' chemistry to help companies design and manufacture
products that eliminate or reduce the toxicity of chemicals used in
production, while also preventing unnecessary waste." 

 

This prevention focus has long been a principle of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement, an historic pact between Canada and the U.S. to curb
pollution to the lakes. Pollution Watch 2 is being released as the United
States and Canadian governments renegotiate this landmark agreement, which
sets goals for reducing pollution on both sides of the Great Lakes basin.

 

Table:  Total Reported Releases for 2007, by Basin, NPRI and TRI


Basin

Total Reported Releases 

On- and Off-site

% of Total


 

NPRI

TRI

Total

NPRI

TRI

Total


 

(kg)

(kg)

(kg)

(%)

(%)

(%)


Lake Erie

16,393,329

87,895,455

104,288,784

25

62

50


Lake Michigan

0

43,928,218

43,928,218

0

31

21


St. Lawrence River

25,474,031

468,418

25,942,449

38

0

12


Lake Ontario

18,806,189

5,019,145

23,825,334

28

4

11


Lake Huron

3,890,057

2,864,266

6,754,323

6

2

3


Lake Superior

1,896,341

2,308,007

4,204,348

3

2

2


Total

66,459,947

142,483,508

208,943,455

100

100

100


Note: Includes only facilities reporting 204 chemicals common to both NPRI
and TRI from selected industrial and other sources. Includes transfers of
metals and metal compounds to energy recovery, treatment, sewage and
disposal.

 

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement committed the U.S. and Canadian
governments to the virtual elimination of persistent toxic chemicals. The
Agreement has helped to reduce some persistent contaminants (lead, mercury,
PCBs, dioxins and furans), but does not address scores of emerging
contaminants of concern, such as phthalates, BPA and others found in
products such as musks used in fragrances, pharmaceuticals, flame
retardants, surfactants, paraffins and pesticides. and has not stemmed
continuing releases of these chemicals of concern into the Great Lakes.
Because many of these pollutants originate from non-point sources, they are
largely not captured in the pollutant release inventories, especially for
the U.S., and are therefore not reflected in this report.

 

"Recognizing that many emerging contaminants in the Great Lakes today
originate from consumer products, better regulation of toxic chemicals from
industrial emissions and improved regulation of toxic chemicals in products
in the U.S. could go a long way toward preventing many Great Lakes
pollutants. A hopeful sign is the recent introduction of the Safe Chemicals
Act of 2010, which seeks to strengthen the regulation of industrial
chemicals in the U.S.," said, Kathleen Schuler, Senior Policy Analyst in the
Food and Health Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in
Minneapolis, where she is also involved in issues affecting Lake Superior
and the Great Lakes.

 

Other key findings from the report include: 

*	Over 34 million lbs (34,876,008lbs or 15,819,491 kg) of known
reproductive/developmental toxins were released by 1,834 facilities in the
Great Lakes basin.
*	Over 165 million lbs (165,346,697 lbs or 75 million kg) of
pollutants were released into the air from matched NPRI and TRI facilities. 
*	About 11 million lbs (11,023,113 lbs or 5 million kg) of pollutants
under Canada's NPRI and US TRI were released to water. However, this is
likely a large underestimate of the pollutants released to water because
wastewater treatment plants do not report to TRI and, therefore, are not
included in the matched dataset. On a per facility basis, NPRI facilities
released to the air over twice the quantities of reproductive/developmental
toxicants as TRI facilities. 

*	Total air releases of known carcinogens in 2007 from matched NPRI
and TRI facilities in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin was almost 9
million lbs (8,818,490 lbs or 4 million kg). On a per facility basis,
Canadian facilities reported more carcinogens released into air than U.S.
facilities. On average, NPRI facilities released almost triple the amount of
carcinogens into the air than TRI facilities (ratio 2.9).
*	Canadian facilities make up only about 34% of facilities reporting
releases to air of known carcinogens, but reported 60% of total air
carcinogen releases in Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin in 2007.
*	Over 22 million lbs (22,046,226 lbs or 10 million kg) were disposed
of through underground injection, with two U.S. facilities in the Lake Erie
basin accounting for over 96% of the total. Five of the six facilities
reporting underground injection in 2007 are US based facilities.

 

"This report shows that the United States and Canada still have work to do
to address toxic chemical pollution," said Michael Murray, Ph.D., Staff
Scientist with the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office. "Our
countries can better coordinate solutions to restore and protect the health
of people and wildlife through an updated and strengthened Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement that can keep pace with both historic chemicals and those
of emerging concern."

 

Environmental groups working to protect and restore the Great Lakes basin
ecosystem are recommending that governments in Canada and the US develop and
implement a strengthened binational strategy for elimination and reductions
of persistent toxic chemicals and other chemicals of concern as part of a
strengthened Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.. These chemicals include
traditional substances of concern such as carcinogens, but increasingly also
include reproductive and developmental toxicants, endocrine disruptors, and
even nanoparticles. The groups also call on the governments to quantify and
report on an annual basis the pollution loadings to the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence River basin.

 

Partners in Pollution 2 is a joint production by the Canadian Environmental
Law Association and Environmental Defence and is available to download for
free on the PollutionWatch web site (www.PollutionWatch.org).

 

About PollutionWatch (www.PollutionWatch.org): PollutionWatch is a
collaborative project of Environmental Defence and the Canadian
Environmental Law Association. The web site tracks releases and transfers of
pollutants across Canada based on data collected by Environment Canada
through the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and emissions of
greenhouse gases based on the federal government's mandatory Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Reporting Program.  NPRI and the Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Reporting Program do not include data from all pollutants or sources.  

-30-

For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

 

Fe de Leon, Canadian Environmental Law Association

(416) 960-2284 ext. 223; (416) 624-6758 (cell); deleonf at cela.ca

 

Jennifer Foulds, Environmental Defence

(416) 323-9521 ext. 232; (647) 280-9521 (cell);
jfoulds at environmentaldefence.ca 

 

Kathleen Schuler, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

(612) 870-3468; kschuler at iatp.org    

 

John Jackson, Great Lakes United

(519) 744-7503; jjackson at glu.org 

 

Michael Murray, National Wildlife Federation

(734) 887-7110; murray at nwf.org 

 

Lin Kaatz Chary, Great Lakes Green Chemistry Network

(219) 938-0209; lchary at sbcglobal.net

 

 

_________________________________________________________
Brent Gibson
Director, Communications
Great Lakes United
613-482-1324 x509
 <mailto:bgibson at glu.org> bgibson at glu.org |  <http://www.glu.org>
www.glu.org

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Represented by UAW Local 55

 

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