Great Lakes Water Quality Board
Summary of Discussion for 172nd Meeting
Channel Inn, Washington D.C.
Monday, April 14th – Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
| U.S. Members Present | |
| Gary Gulezian Interim Co-chair | U.S. EPA, Chicago, IL |
| David Ullrich | Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Chicago, IL |
| Terry Cosby | USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service, Columbus, OH |
| George Elmaraghy (for C. Korleski) | Ohio EPA, Columbus, OH |
| Suzanne Hanson | Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Duluth, MN |
| Canadian Members Present | |
| Jim Vollmershausen Co-Chair | Environment Canada, Toronto, ON |
| David Boerner | Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON |
| Craig Mather | Aurora, ON |
| Louise LaPierre | Quebec Min. of Sustainable Dev. Of Environment & Parks, Quebec, QC |
| Peter Meerveld | OMAFRA, Guelph, ON |
| Observers | |
| Steven Davis | USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service, Findlay, OH |
| Ash Kumar | Environment Canada, Toronto, ON |
| Liaison | |
| Joel Weiner | International Joint Commission, Ottawa, ON |
| Secretary | |
| John E. Gannon | International Joint Commission, Windsor, ON |
| Other IJC Staff | |
| Doug Bondy | International Joint Commission, Windsor, ON |
| Angad Bhullar | International Joint Commission, Windsor, ON |
3.0 Review of Minutes and Action Items of WQB 171st Meeting
3.1 Action Items
Gannon informed the WQB members that the IJC section offices are concerned about inconsistency on the IJC website as some of the boards post the minutes of their meetings and some don't; the WQB has not done so since fall 2004. He further informed that this issue has been controversial for years. The main concern is whether to have attributed minutes. At the WQB 171st meeting, the Board decided to have attributed minutes for internal use only and to post on the website a summary discussion record of action items. This now may need to be revisited since the IJC section office secretaries have requested all boards to post their minutes on the IJC website. The IJC legal advisors stated several years ago when this issue was raised that it was illegal to have two sets of minutes for the same meeting. The uncertainty and confusion over posting minutes on the IJC website is the reason Gannon ceased posting WQB minutes several years ago.
Action Item: Continue attributed WQB minutes for WQB internal use and post a summary of discussion on the IJC website.
4.0 2005-2007 Priorities: Update
4.1 Land-Water Linkages Report
Gannon told the attendees that Angad Bhullar has put together a first draft of the WQB Land-Water Linkages report by condensing the reports of the four WQB workshops in 2005-2007 priorities cycle. The recommendations of the report were presented to the WQB for feedback ,in order to condense and prioritize and give a sense of direction to the report. He also stated that at this point these recommendations were from the workshops but with input from the WQB, they will become consolidated recommendations from the WQB to the Commission.
Action Item: Revise the draft report based on the input received on the draft recommendations and circulate draft report to WQB for review and comment.
4.2 Agreement Review Contracted Reports
Gannon informed the attendees that Angad Bhullar has been editing the WQB contracted reports on the Agreement review and the WQB members will be receiving the final draft of these reports soon. The reports provide perspective pertinent the agreement review. These reports will be web publications and will be posted on the IJC website as and when they are ready. The reports will include a standard disclaimer that the views expressed in the reports are those of the authors and not necessarily of the WQB or the IJC.
Action Item: Circulate the contracted reports upon completion of editing with recommendation to post as web-only publications.
4.3 Urbanization Report
Gannon provided a synopsis of the development of this report, beginning as an SAB land-use activity and then morphing into a multi-board activity. The WQB was critical of the first draft that focused on best management practices (BMPs) for land-use but had little connectivity with Great Lakes water quality. A second draft was therefore commissioned and Dr. Ray Tomalty (University of Montreal) refocused the report towards Smart Growth, including implications for Great Lakes water quality. Some of the other IJC advisory boards were disappointed that important information in the first draft was dropped in the second draft. Consequently, SAB secretary, Peter Boyer, volunteered to write a third draft that will include material from both previous drafts. Gannon further noted that Peter found comments on the second draft from WQB members particularly helpful in guiding his thoughts on redrafting the report.
Action Item: Third draft of the Urbanization report formulated by Peter Boyer will be forwarded to the WQB members upon completion for review and comment.
6.0 2007-2009 Priorities: Nearshore Initiative Update
The WQB members were provided an update regarding the 2007-2009 priorities. Gannon distributed a document that contained the objectives, activities to date, future activities and deliverables for all the 2007-2009 priorities.
Gannon also said he attended as requested the WQB co-chairs, the fish consumption advisory scoping session at the Detroit Airport in March. This led to a further discussion about someone from the WQB to co-chair the group.
Action Item: WQB Co-Chairs to confer with Backus and Fisher, respectively and with each other on who should co-chair the fish consumption advisory group on behalf of the WQB.
It was also noted that the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has interest in this issue. Hence it was recommended that Marc Gaden (GLFC) should be added as a correspondent or member of this group.
Action Item: Contact Great Lakes Fishery Commission and inquire about their interest in serving on the fish consumption advisory group.
8.0 Next Meeting
There was a discussion regarding a Binational RAP meeting during the middle of September, 2008. The possible locations discussed were Toronto or Niagara/Buffalo region.
It was felt that such a meeting could be an opportunity to link LaMPs and RAPs, and promote nearshore issues and land-water linkages. Inviting a few Conservation Authorities to the meeting was also proposed.
Action Item: Make contact about potential for a WQB AOC/LaMP/watersheds/nearshore consultation in the Toronto area.
