Great Lakes Basin (GLB) Monitoring and Surveillance

The Great Lakes Basin (GLB) Monitoring and Surveillance program under the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has been operating since 1990 as a result of provisions called for in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between Canada and the United States. The1987 revision called for the determination of the loadings of toxic contaminants to the Great Lakes, and the renewed GLWQA of 2012 calls for the assessment of atmospheric loadings of chemicals of mutual concern (CMCs).

The GLB program works in collaboration with the United States Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (US IADN) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to monitor the spatial and temporal atmospheric trends, and atmospheric loadings of a number of CMCs to the Great Lakes basin. Atmospheric concentrations are measured in particles, vapour, and precipitation. These chemicals include persistent organic pollutants (POPs), metals, and other anthropogenic pollutants. Currently this list includes chemical classes such as organochlorine pesticides, flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); however the target chemical list will evolve as new chemicals are added to the CMC list of the GLWQA.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated January 16, 2026, 20:46 (UTC)
Created January 16, 2026, 20:46 (UTC)
contains_pii non
crisis_categories Fortes pluies
criticality_level Faible
data_formats CSV; HTML; PDF
fair_openness Level 2 - Machine-readable
geographic_scope Canada
sensitivity_level Faible
source_inventaire Inventaire_W
source_url https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/5d8548c5-e284-4e85-aed4-c22536de615a
subject nature_and_environment
update_frequency unknown
year_most_recent 2021-07-30 17:43:39.473000
year_start 2016-12-19 18:20:59.520000