I'll just touch on a few things that Theresa mentioned.
With respect to the loading to the Great Lakes, currently there is no database or inventory of pollutant loadings to the Great Lakes. We wrote a report back in 2010 for which we measured using the national pollutants release inventory and the toxic release inventory in the U.S. to determine the partial loadings to the Great Lakes. We found that in 2007, 285 million kilograms of pollutants were released or transferred in the Great Lakes basin, which demonstrates that those loadings to the Great Lakes are large. It certainly begs the question of whether we are estimating the loadings as accurately as we can.
Many of the pollutants Theresa mentioned are carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and it begs the discussion around adequate action plans to deal with those chemicals, particularly to try to reduce those levels. I would suggest that some consideration be given to an annual loading program that allows for that calculation to occur for the Great Lakes.
Also, in the past few decades the focus has been around dealing with legacy chemicals in the Great Lakes. We're talking about PCBs, DDT, dioxins, and mercury. Certainly, the programs and the regulations that have been put in place in the last two decades have demonstrated significant reductions in those levels, but what we've been seeing in recent years is that those levels are starting to plateau, which means there hasn't been much change. That said, we are still seeing mercury and PCBs being released into the Great Lakes. This is a bit of a cause for concern, primarily because we're still seeing fish consumption advisories being issued across the basin.
The intent is to try to make sure the lakes are swimmable, drinkable, and fishable. When you see levels that are still of concern for human consumption, there needs to be some attention paid to those chemicals.
Finally, I just want to put a plug in to the hundreds of new chemicals that are being detected in the Great Lakes as we speak. Many of the chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals, triclosan, and even nano materials are starting to be detected in the waters of the Great Lakes.
The concern is that many of these chemicals are now coming from consumer products, and our sewage treatment plant infrastructure is not adequate to deal with these kinds of threats. They are just going to emerge, and many more chemicals are going to be detected over the next little while.
We talked about implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. That work, particularly around toxic chemicals, is just beginning. We won't be seeing any results in terms of a proposed list of chemicals to be addressed in the Great Lakes until the end of this year.
The question is to what degree are we willing to identify the list of chemicals that are relevant to the Great Lakes, and what kinds of actions are required to deal with those chemicals from the perspective of either preventing or eliminating those sources?