With increased concern over the contamination of the Great Lakes, the two countries signed the first international Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972 to improve the environmental conditions in the lakes. The agreement binds the United States and Canada to cooperate with state and provincial governments to designate such areas of concern, with the IJC reviewing progress by each government in addressing actions to restore water quality in the lakes. As of April 2002, most of the RAPs for which the United States was responsible were in the second stage of having remedial and regulatory measures selected; none has completed all three stages indicating completion of cleanup. Several EPA actions, such as diffusing RAP responsibility within the agency, reducing federal funding and staff support for the RAP process, and shifting the agency’s attention to other cleanup priorities in the Great Lakes Basin have all contributed to the uneven progress in RAP development and implementation. EPA also reduced its staffing levels for the RAPs. The reduction of toxic substances in the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To assess what progress had been made in developing and implementing cleanup plans for the contaminated areas around the Great Lakes, we reviewed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1987, which set forth the United States’ obligation to cooperate with state governments to ensure the cleanup of the contaminated areas and described the process for developing and implementing the cleanup plans.
What GAO Found

To protect the Great Lakes and to address common water quality problems, the United States and Canada entered into the bilateral Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972. The agreement has been amended several times, most recently in 1987. That year, the two countries agreed to cooperate with state and provincial governments to develop and implement remedial action plans (RAPs) for designated areas in the Great Lakes Basin--areas contaminated, for example, by toxic substances. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leads the effort to meet the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which include RAP development and implementation. As of April 2002, all of the 26 contaminated areas in the Great Lakes Basin that the United States is responsible for have completed the first stage of the RAP process; however, only half have completed the second stage. Even though EPA has been charged with leading the effort to meet the goals of the agreement, it has not clearly delineated responsibility for oversight of RAPs within the agency, and, citing resource constraints and the need to tend to other Great Lakes priorities, reduced its staff and the amount of funding allocated to states for the purpose of RAP development and implementation.