IJC’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board Releases Lake Erie Nutrient Management Report

The Great Lakes Water Quality Board has released a report, Evaluating Watershed Management Plans – Nutrient Management Approaches in the Lake Erie Basin and Key Locations Outside of the Lake Erie Basin, which presents recommendations on how watershed management plans should be used to control nutrient pollution in Lake Erie. The report identifies several key success factors that should be included in these plans to achieve meaningful nutrient load reductions.

This report was developed by its Legacy Issues Work Group and is the result of their efforts over the past two years to develop advice and recommendations to the IJC regarding legacy contaminants.

The findings and recommendations from this report, along with the expected outputs from the Science Advisory Boards’ project to assess the contribution of fertilizer and manure use and their implications for nutrient management and the International Joint Commission’s ongoing watershed nutrient source mapping project to identify causes of eutrophication, support the Commission’s work under its Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP). They can also be useful to the Parties and others in their efforts to achieve a 40% total phosphorous reduction in the western basin of Lake Erie.

The report is available at WQB Lake Erie report. For more information about the IJC and its Great Lakes advisory boards, go to www.ijc.org.