BOUNDARY WATERS TREATY
U. S., Canada agree to update pact on water quality
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — The United States and Canada vowed Saturday to update a key agreement to guard the Great Lakes from invasive species, new chemicals, the impact of climate change and any other potential threats.
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which was last amended in 1987, is no longer sufficient, said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during Saturday’s 100th anniversary commemoration of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, which created an international commission to settle water-related disputes between the two countries.
“We have to recommit ourselves to strengthening this partnership,” Clinton said. “It’s crucial that we honor the terms of the Great Lakes agreement as it stands today, but we also have to update it to reflect new knowledge, new technology and, unfortunately, new threats.”
Clinton announced the deal to revise the agreement with Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon during an appearance on the Rainbow Bridge. The event — Clinton’s first return to the region as secretary of state—drew about 400 people.
The agreement commits both countries to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem. Levels of chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins, have dropped, and bald eagles and other species have returned to the lakes since the agreement’s 1972 signing, it was noted.
Environmentalists and officials of Great Lakes states and provinces have become concerned over the past few years that the cleanup had lost momentum despite threats of climate change and population growth.
“The Great Lakes are still at risk and more needs to be done,” Cannon said. “[The lakes] face a number of new challenges and as a result, we are taking new steps to protect them. We will work together to make sure that citizens of both countries have access to safe, clean, healthy water.”
The impact of this agreement is similar to that of the Boundary Waters Treaty, Clinton said, who referred to Canada’s historically strong friendship with the United States.
She noted that $1.6 billion in goods travel across the border daily.
“The people who understood this significance of our relationship and the beauty of national surroundings were farsighted and visionary,” Clinton said of the leaders who signed the original treaty in 1909. “The rivers, the lakes, the streams, the watershed on our boundaries do not belong on one side or the other, but to both of us, to everyone.”
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