Federal Environmental Leaders to Open 1999 Forum on Great Lakes Water Quality

The International Joint Commission (IJC) is pleased to announce that Ms. Carol M. Browner, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Ms. Paddy Torsney, parliamentary secretary to the federal minister of the environment, will open the 1999 Forum on Great Lakes Water Quality at the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ms. Browner and Ms. Torsney will join Mr. Lawrence J. Washington, Jr., vice president of Dow Chemical Company, as guest speakers at the opening ceremony from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 24. Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist will also welcome participants and a member of the Bad River Chippewa Band of Indians from Lake Superior will give a Native American blessing.

Appointed by President Clinton in January 1973, Ms. Browner is now the longest-serving administrator in the history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Under her leadership, more Superfund sites have been cleaned up than in the entire remaining history of the program. Other significant actions under her tenure include proposed new national air quality standards to reduce health hazards associated with high levels of particulate matter (soot) and ground-level ozone, expansion of public access to information about chemical releases and the consistent evaluation of children's health risks in all scientific and standard-setting activities.

Ms. Torsney was first elected as Member of Parliament for Burlington, Ontario in October 1993 and appointed as parliamentary secretary to the federal minister of the environment in July 1998. For the past year, she has served as vice chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance and is a director of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group.

The International Joint Commission is a binational organization established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to help prevent disputes over the use of waters shared by the United States and Canada. One of its responsibilities is to provide a comprehensive assess every two years on progress toward meeting the goals of the 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the two countries. The forum culminates IJC's consultation process during the two-year reporting cycle.