Achievements and lessons learned from the 32-year old Canada-U.S. effort to restore Impaired Beneficial Uses in Great Lakes Areas of Concern

Abstract

Since 1985, governments and stakeholders have been developing and implementing remedial action plans to restore beneficial use impairments in polluted areas of the Great Lakes called Areas of Concern. Initially, progress was slow because of severity and geographic extent of the problems, lack of clarity on use of an ecosystem approach, time commitments for effective involvement of stakeholders, evolution of management programs, and need to secure restoration funding. Over time, many of these constraints have been overcome. Presently, as of 2017, seven Areas of Concern have been delisted, two have been designated as Areas of Concern in Recovery, and 18 have implemented all remedial actions deemed necessary for use restoration. Although progress has been made, much remains to be done to restore all impaired uses and delist all Areas of Concern. Notable achievements include: use of an ecosystem approach and requisite governance frameworks, contaminated sediment remediation, habitat rehabilitation, and control of eutrophication. Lessons learned are presented to help complete the cleanup of Areas of concern and help others restore degraded aquatic ecosystems worldwide.

Summer diet of juvenile lake sturgeon reintroduced into the Genesee and St. Regis Rivers, New York USA

“…The prey base and the prey in the diet were significantly different in each river. While there was concern about the quality of the macroinvertebrate community in the Genesee River during reintroduction, because the target area is in a degraded area of concern (Hartig et al., 2018), we found a diversity of prey taxa present in the summer. Although the observed summer diet of juvenile lake sturgeon in the Genesee and the St. Regis rivers were relatively species rich, in each river, diet was dominated by one to three taxa.…”

Evolving Institutional Arrangements for Use of an Ecosystem Approach in Restoring Great Lakes Areas of Concern

“…Our coding framework is based on eight key structural/functional characteristics associated with successful stakeholder involvement and use of an ecosystem approach in RAPs ( Table 1 ). These key characteristics summarize the organizational and process qualities necessary for long-term success of RAPs and were developed from a review of RAP literature [ 12 , 20 ] and other ecosystem-based work (e.g., [ 21 ]). These eight characteristics were used to help evaluate data from surveyed documents in the context of use of an ecosystem approach in RAPs and restoration of beneficial uses as called for in the GLWQA.…”

The US Blue New Deal: What does it mean for just transitions, sustainability, and resilience of the blue economy?

“…renewable energy) to consider ecological effects across various groups of citizens. Expansions as such are relevant across coastal communities, particularly those in the Laurentian Great Lakes region, who are impacted by legacy and current industrial pollution (Hartig et al, 2019; Steinman et al, 2017). The focus on a broader concept of justice within the Blue New Deal cannot exclude issues related to racial and economic inequality, another feature touted in the ‘blue economy’ — an improvement compared with the New Deal — whose tools and policies were often used to increase racial segregation (Boustan, 2010).…”