| Montreal, 13/07/2006 – On 7 July 2006, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) received a revised submission asserting that Canada and the United States are failing to effectively enforce anti-pollution provisions in the 1909 International Boundary Waters Treaty (Treaty) with respect to the construction and operation by the state of North Dakota of an outlet to drain water from Devils Lake into the Sheyenne River, the Red River Basin, Lake Winnipeg, and ultimately into the broader Hudson Bay drainage system.
The revised version of submission SEM-06-002 (Devils Lake) was filed by Sierra Legal Defence Fund, on behalf of Friends of the Earth Canada, Friends of the Earth US, People to Save-the-Sheyenne River, Inc., Thelma Paulson and Gary Pearson D.V.M. of North Dakota, and Claire Sevenhuysen and Lawrence Price of Manitoba (the Submitters). On 8 June 2006, the CEC Secretariat determined that the original submission, filed 30 March 2006, did not meet the requirements of Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and gave the Submitters 30 days to re-file a submission meeting those requirements.
In the revised submission, the Submitters contend that both Canada and the United States have failed to prevent cross-border pollution that they contend results from the Devils Lake outfall, contrary to Article IV of the Treaty. Article IV provides that “boundary waters and waters flowing across the boundary shall not be polluted on either side to the injury of health or property on the other.” The Submitters no longer assert that the two countries are failing to effectively enforce provisions of the Treaty allowing for unilateral or joint referral of disputes to the International Joint Commission (IJC). They assert that while referral to the IJC is one means to enforce the Treaty, Article IV of the Treaty “creates an absolute prohibition of transboundary pollution” and “it is up to the parties to the Treaty to enforce this mandatory provision.”
The Secretariat of the CEC will analyze the revised submission to determine whether it now meets the requirements of Article 14 of the NAAEC.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit to the Secretariat a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. Following a review of the submission, the CEC Secretariat may investigate the matter and prepare a factual record of its findings.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. |
