Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

A Canada–United States agreement, first signed in 1972, to restore and protect water quality and ecosystem health in the Great Lakes.

Areas of Concern: Great Lakes locations where severe environmental degradation has triggered focused cleanup and restoration programs. The agreement directs governments to identify and remediate these polluted locations.
Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin: The watershed draining into the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, shared by Canada and the United States. The agreement’s geographic scope covers this connected binational basin.
Phosphorus pollution in the Great Lakes: Excess phosphorus entering the Great Lakes, which can fuel harmful algal growth and low-oxygen conditions. Phosphorus control was a central early target and remains a major basin priority.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: A United States federal program funding restoration and protection projects throughout the Great Lakes basin. Its projects support priorities shared with the agreement, including toxic cleanup and habitat restoration.
Great Lakes Remedial Action Plans: Local strategies for restoring impaired beneficial uses at Great Lakes Areas of Concern. They translate agreement commitments into site-specific restoration work.
1964 Canada–United States Water Quality Agreement: A bilateral agreement addressing pollution in boundary waters, including the Great Lakes. It established an earlier framework that the 1972 agreement replaced and expanded.
Harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie: Dense growths of toxin-producing or oxygen-depleting algae in Lake Erie. The agreement supports coordinated efforts to reduce nutrient inputs behind these blooms.
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement indicators: Measures used to report on Great Lakes ecosystem condition and progress toward agreement objectives. The agreement relies on shared indicators to communicate environmental trends and implementation results.
Great Lakes Lakewide Action and Management Plans: Binational plans that identify ecosystem priorities and coordinate protection measures for each Great Lake. They organize lake-scale actions beyond individual polluted sites.
Cuyahoga River fire: A 1969 fire on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River that became a symbol of severe water pollution. The pollution crisis helped intensify public and political pressure for stronger Great Lakes controls.

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