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.