The Great Lakes Face a Challenge, Canada and USA, Enough Blame To Go Around

A recent study titled "Up to the Gills: Pollution in Great Lakes Fish" shows that many of the smaller varieties of fish are now demonstrating higher levels of mercury contamination that used to be found only in larger, older fish. The fact that the Great Lakes are experiencing this increased stress from industrial mercury emissions is alarming but not surprising. Anyone who has been following this issue sees the trends nationally and internationally.

What bothered me was the finger pointing in the articles I read that was blaming Canada for not doing enough. From the editorial page of The Record this,

It is not enough to blame Great Lakes pollution problems on the United States. On a per-facility basis, Canadian factories around the Great Lakes emit 93 per cent more pollution than their U.S. counterparts.

Between 1998 and 2002, air pollution from Canadian industries in the Great Lakes basin increased by three per cent, while U.S. facilities decreased their pollution by 24 per cent.

In 2004, President George W. Bush pulled together regional, state and federal agency officials, together with top members of his cabinet, to address health and environmental concerns in the Great Lakes. Major funding for cleanup efforts has followed and a bipartisan bill in Congress would earmark $20 billion for additional measures.

Canada has done almost nothing to match this effort, with the result that, for the first time, the United States is poised to move unilaterally on Great Lakes management.

That is from an editorial by Aaron Freeman the policy director for Environmental Defence, the same group that did the study. Now, I don't doubt the data showing the increased levels of mercury and other toxics, what I have a problem with is holding the Bush administration up as some benchmark environmental advocacy group. They have done little, in my mind, to earn that praise. Everyone, Canada and the US can do a lot better job of caring for one of the greatest fresh water resources in the world.