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Great Lakes Programs
National Information |
EPA Region 2 is responsible for managing the Great Lakes ecosystem of New York State. This includes all of Lake Ontario, the eastern end of Lake Erie, the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the upper St. Lawrence River, which flows out of Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh, surface water on earth, containing 18 percent of the world supply (inseret link to large scale map). Only the polar ice caps contain more fresh water. Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior are bordered by the United States and Canada and are binational, while Lake Michigan lies totally within the United States. The lakes span more than 750 miles from east to west and provide drinking water, transportation, power, recreation and support important commercial and recreational fisheries.
Despite their great size the Great Lakes are sensitive to the impacts of pollution, invasive species and habitat loss. Between the early 1900s and the 1970s the Great Lakes steadily deteriorated seeing the loss of fisheries, fish and wildlife reproduction problems, noxious algal blooms and other environmental problems. The U.S. – Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978, was amended in 1987 to address these problems through the development of lakewide management plans for each of the Great Lakes to address environmental issues requiring coordinated binational action. The agreement also identified 42 Areas of Concern, primarily urban harbors with severe environmental impacts, where Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) were required to be developed to address local environmental problems. New York State has six AOCs, Buffalo River, Niagara River, Eighteenmile Creek, Rochester Embayment, Oswego Harbor and Massena.
Much progress has been made over the last two decades in reducing contaminant and nutrient inputs to the lakes and significant efforts have been made to conserve habitat and restore native species. One sign of this progress is the recent decision to remove Oswego Harbor 
from the list of AOC. The U.S. Great Lakes Regional Collaboration process, created by Executive Order in 2004, will further the restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem through the development of strong public and private partnerships to address important environmental concerns. EPA is committed to working with its partners to preserve this precious resources for generations to come.
