Water flows through a single cycle from air to surface water and groundwater, or from land to lakes and streams, evaporating and beginning its journey all over again.
Groundwater
Because it’s largely unseen, it may be difficult to imagine that the volume of groundwater in the Great Lakes basin is about equal to the volume of Lake Michigan.
What do Midwesterners do in a drought like the one that some of our region is experiencing? Turn on the lawn sprinklers and irrigators? That is an approach of the water-rich when faced with brown grass or a compromised crop.
It’s natural to stand on the shoreline of one of the Great Lakes and admire their vastness and majesty. But another abundant water resource in the basin is out of sight and rarely commands such appreciation.
Now more than ever, it’s time to embrace binational cooperation to ensure that the waters and people of the Great Lakes basin are healthy.
This broadcast will be live from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET Thursday, December 10, 2020.
The IJC’s first Triennial Assessment of Progress report was released in November 2017, as well as a Highlights report, a Technical Appendix and a Summary of Public Comment Appendix.
The International Joint Commission's 2020 Second Triennial Assessment of Progress (TAP) Report on Great Lakes water quality.
New Harmonized Data Helps Track Nutrient Pollution Sources in Great Lakes and Red-Assiniboine Basins
The Data Harmonization Task Force was created by the IJC in 2008 to harmonize and combine Canadian and United States datasets of transboundary watersheds to make mapping and analyzing these watersheds easier for public and private researchers.