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Thunder Bay, Ontario, October 25, 2005

Key points presented at the public meeting

Welcome from Mayor Lynn Peterson

• Thunder Bay's position at head of Lake Superior gives us a keen sense of the importance of a healthy Great Lakes basin.
• We are proud to do our part and to work with our neighbors in the United States to restore and protect Lake Superior and address mutual challenges.
• We are very aware that everything we do affects not only ourselves, but all who share this magnificent body of water.
• As a statement by the Lake Superior Forum points out, water is life and the quality of water determines the quality of life.
• We are one of the few cities to introduce a full user-pay rate structure for both drinking water and waste water treatment. When their bills went up, this was not popular with communities, but it has created a significant reserve for upgrading infrastructure.
• We have recently commissioned a new secondary sewage treatment facility. Next year's plan is to covert from chlorine treatment to ultra violet treatment, thus eliminating the discharge of chlorinated compounds.
• We will also build a facility for generating energy from the methane gas resulting from the sewage treatment process to help meet the city's commitment to under the Kyoto Protocol.

Public

• There is a need to test the water around the Northern Wood Preservers site to determine how effective the clean up has been. The IJC should recommend that the findings are made public.
  
  
• It is important that a new Agreement Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement be endorsed and implemented in a timely way.
  
  
• We just experienced the warmest summer on record on Lake Superior. This may be linked to global warming trends, which can have a major impact on water bodies.
  
  
• It is essential to get a prohibition on out-of-basin diversions into the Agreement. The Agreement must also prohibit the transfer of water from one Great Lake to another.
  
  
• Recommend that the Commissioners read two influential books: Our Stolen Future by Theo Colburn, and Water by Marq de Villiers.
  
  
• Outreach to the community is important. We all have a personal responsibility to protect the water.
  
  
• Concerned about widespread spraying of "vision," an herbicide used by forest companies. We need to find out the impacts.
  
  
• The intrabasin transfer of water is a possibility that we need to guard against.
  
  
• I have walked around Lake Superior with a pale of water from Lake Superior, around Lake Michigan with a pale of water from Lake Michigan and Lake Huron with a pale of water from Lake Huron. Next year, I will walk around Lake Ontario.
  
  
• I have seen the devastation of our waters. Twenty years ago, you could see way to the bottom of Lake Superior. Now you are lucky if you can see fish.
  
  
• There is no First Nations representative on the IJC. It is always an afterthought. We have traditional knowledge. If you would take us into consideration, we could give you advice on protection of the waters.
  
  
• If you went without water for one day, you would know how precious it is.
  
  
• Since 1987, you have missed reviewing the Agreement three times. There must be consequences so you are held accountable to the people when you write agreements.
  
  
• I don't want to stand beside you in this agreement and find that six years later, nothing has been done.
  
  
• If you do not respect the water, it will fight back. Nature has a way of getting back if we don't treat it right.
  
  
• My walk is a petition to everybody in the world, we need to stand up and protect our waters.
  
  
• The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement drives the Canada-Ontario Agreement. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement must be very specific and provide very little "wiggle room" for the province. Firm targets are needed to measure progress against.
  
  
• We may have the opportunity now to make a commitment that would transfer to the Canada-Ontario Agreement to reinvigorate and fund the Remedial Action Plans.
  
  
• Thunder Bay wants to move to Stage 3, but that would require funding for monitoring and environmental impact studies.
  
  
• Without pressure by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, we may see Remedial Action Plans languish again.
  
  
• When water gets diverted from Lake Superior to the Mississippi, how much will be aboriginal water and will they be compensated?
  
  
• What will be done to protect against nuclear waste transport and the accidents that will happen?
  
  
• I heard that a U.S. community was going to pass a bylaw to allow raw sewage into the lake. What can the Commission do about it? (Response: The IJC is not aware of this situation and would appreciate further information. Communities may seek to waive requirements for accidental spills, but cannot legally discharge raw sewage as a standard operating procedure.)
  
  
• We need to reinvigorate the Remedial Action Plans. We developed guidelines for our part of the process. The problems have not changed. It is just a matter of getting the work done.
  
  
• On Nipigon Bay, Domtar Mill put money into secondary treatment.
  
  
• The communities of both Nipigon and Red Rock are in financial trouble. They simply cannot afford to upgrade from primary treatment to secondary treatment. It is a matter of political will for the province to finance these upgrades.
  
  
• Governments are quick to press industry to solve its pollution problems, but when it comes to the municipalities, nothing is done.
  
  
• In a January 1981 report, the IJC listed chemicals for immediate control. What happens when you put 43 chemicals into a jar?
  
  
• Who pays the scientists? Is it public funding or from interests such as Monsanto? (Response: Different scientists are paid from different sources.)
  
  
• I recognize that First Nation representation on the IJC is out of your control, but can the IJC make the recommendation?
  
  
• Only one small component of the Agreement deals with airborne toxic substances: Annex 15.
  
  
• We are becoming more and more concerned about air contaminants.
  
  
• Can the IJC tackle the use of coal, and the differences in use between the United States and Canada? (Response: The International Air Quality Advisory Board is active provides advice to the IJC. In addition to Annex 15, the IJC can report under other authorities and under its alerting, alerting function.)
  
  
• The only date mentioned in annex 15 is for the International Atmospheric Deposition Network, a research effort. There does not seem to be any concerted effort to address air deposition.
  
  
• Does the IJC try to tie together the findings from its Great Lakes Water Quality Board and International Air Quality Advisory Board? (Response: Yes, all of the IJC's Great Lakes Boards meet together.)
  
  
• It is hard to tell a country like China to reduce emissions when your own backyard is not in order.
  
  

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