Nutrients in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario: Synthesis of International Joint Commission Recommendations

In light of the ongoing nutrient-related impacts in Lake Erie, the adoption of the DAPs by the Parties and the extensive set of past Commission recommendations, the Commission’s Great Lakes Science Advisory Board’s Science Priority Committee and the Great Lakes Water Quality Board organized a project to undertake a comprehensive synthesis of these developments. [...] A formal reporting responsibility of the Commission is the preparation of a Triennial Assessment of Progress Report, drawing on the Progress Report of the Parties, the State of the Great Lakes report, a summary of public input, and other information as appropriate (Canada and the United States, 2012). [...] 4 Considering the extensive number of recommendations of the Commission over the past decade and the adoption of DAPs by the Parties in 2018 to address the ongoing eutrophication impacts in Lake Erie, the Commission’s Great Lakes Science Advisory Board-Science Priority Committee in coordination with the Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board organized this project involving an assessment of. [...] 2.1 Overview of the state of nutrients and impacts in Lake Erie Comprehensive reporting on the state of the Great Lakes now occurs through the triennial State of the Great Lakes reports, with the most recent report released in summer 2022. [...] The literature therefore focuses on the concept of additionality: a measure of the amount of BMP implementation due to programs alone, net of the implementation that would have occurred anyway, in the absence of the programs.