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Great Lakes Initiative: EPA Needs to Better Ensure the Complete and Consistent Implementation of Water Quality Standards

GAO-05-829 Published: Jul 27, 2005. Publicly Released: Aug 26, 2005.
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Highlights

The virtual elimination of toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes is a goal shared by the United States and Canada. While some progress has been made, pollution levels remain unacceptably high. The Great Lakes Initiative (GLI) requires stringent water quality standards for many pollutants in discharges regulated by states administering National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit programs. As requested, this report examines the (1) GLI's focus and potential impact on water quality in the Great Lakes Basin, (2) status of GLI's adoption by the states and any challenges to achieving intended goals, and (3) steps taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for ensuring full and consistent implementation of GLI and for assessing progress toward achieving its goals.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency To better ensure the full and consistent implementation of the Great Lakes Initiative and improve measures for monitoring progress toward achieving GLI's goals, the EPA Administrator should direct EPA Region 5, in coordination with Regions 2 and 3, to issue a permitting strategy that ensures a more consistent approach to controlling mercury by the states.
Closed – Not Implemented
EPA disagreed that it was worth devoting the resources necessary to develop a permitting strategy to improve consistency among states' efforts to control mercury emissions.
Environmental Protection Agency To better ensure the full and consistent implementation of the Great Lakes Initiative and improve measures for monitoring progress toward achieving GLI's goals, the EPA Administrator should direct EPA Region 5, in coordination with Regions 2 and 3, to ensure the GLI Clearinghouse is fully developed, maintained, and made available to the Great Lakes states to assist them in developing water quality standards for pollutants covered by GLI.
Closed – Implemented
EPA's Great Lakes Initiative (GLI) Clearinghouse now has a database framework and web page containing criteria information and supporting data made available to EPA by the Great Lakes states.
Environmental Protection Agency To better ensure the full and consistent implementation of the Great Lakes Initiative and improve measures for monitoring progress toward achieving GLI's goals, the EPA Administrator should direct EPA Region 5, in coordination with Regions 2 and 3, to gather and track information that can be used to assess the progress of implementing GLI and the impact it has on reducing pollutant discharges from point sources in the Great Lakes Basin. In particular, EPA should consider collecting better information on the impact of discharger programs to minimize pollutants that are exceeding GLI standards.
Closed – Implemented
Among the actions EPA has taken to gather and track information that can be used to assess the progress of Great Lakes Initiative (GLI) implementation are the tracking of permits issued with mercury limits and PMP requirements for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in the Great Lakes Basin, and the evaluation of permit compliance data on mercury concentrations in POTW sludge and on the quantity of sludge generated to determine sludge mercury levels for POTWs. EPA also tracks effluent quality to determine whether PMPs affect POTWs' ability to comply with water quality requirements.
Environmental Protection Agency The EPA Administrator should direct EPA Region 5 to increase efforts to resolve the disagreements with the State of Wisconsin over the implementation of provisions to ensure the equitable and timely implementation of GLI among all Great Lakes states.
Closed – Implemented
Among the steps taken to resolve disagreements between EPA and Wisconsin are agreements between the two parties on correcting Wisconsin's Aquatic Life Criteria for copper, nickel, endrin, and selenium, and on procedures the state uses for determining whole effluent toxicity Reasonable Potential.

Full Report

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Topics

Environmental monitoringLakesNonpoint source pollutionPerformance managementPerformance measuresPollutantsProgram evaluationStandardsToxic substancesWater pollutionWater pollution controlWater qualityWater quality standards