Historical Perspective 



Great Lakes Program 



To achieve these goals, the National Estuary Program conducts 

 activities to help 



• Establish working partnerships among federal, state, and local 



governments; 



• Transfer scientific and management information, experience, 

 and expertise to program participants; 



• Increase public awareness of pollution problems and ensure 

 public participation in consensus building; 



• Promote basinwide planning to control pollution and manage 

 living resources; and 



• Oversee development and implementation of pollution abate- 

 ment and control programs. 



The National Estuary Program has roots in earlier efforts and 

 legislation. The experiences of the Great Lal<es and the 

 Chesapeake Bay provide useful models and lessons for the new 

 program. 



• The first is the phased program approach used to identify and 

 define priority problems, establish their probable causes, and 

 devise alternative strategies to address them. 



• The second is the collaborative problem-solving process that 

 involves all concerned parties in each phase of the program and 

 secures commitments to carry out recommended actions. 



Launched in 1 970, the Great Lakes Program is the oldest estuary- 

 like program in this country. A cooperative effort between the 

 United States and Canada, the program fulfills the Great Lakes 

 Water Quality Agreements of 1972 and 1978 between the United 

 States and Canadian governments. Waters of the Great Lakes 

 were burdened with too many nutrients. The resulting eutrophica- 

 tion problems were depleting the supply of oxygen dissolved in the 

 water, thus killing fish. Excessive phosphorus discharges were 

 cited as the probable cause. 



The program initially tackled control of pollution from individual, 

 identifiable sources. Major municipal treatment plants were re- 

 quired to reduce phosphorus in effluents, and phosphate detergent 

 was banned in many of the Great Lakes states. These efforts to 

 reduce point-source pollution, which successfully reduced 

 nutrients, resulted in elevated oxygen levels and restoration of 

 some fish in Lake Erie and elsewhere. 



The Great Lakes Program then turned to nonpoint sources of 

 pollution. The principal nonpoint source of excess nutrients was the 

 runoff of surface water from agricultural land. This water carries 

 topsoil laden with nutrients (including fertilizers) to the estuary. To 

 demonstrate the value of nonpoint source controls, the Great Lakes 

 Program Office, working with the Department of Agriculture's Soil 

 Conservation Service, funded projects with individual farmers. 

 These projects were aimed at controlling nonpoint source pollution 

 in several states. The program illustrated how voluntary best 

 management practices could reduce phosphorus loadings from 



