| Montreal, 13/06/2006 – On 30 March 2006, 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 (Submitters), filed with the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) submission SEM-06-002 (Devils Lake) 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 provisions on which the submission is based prohibit pollution of transboundary waters and provide for unilateral or joint referral of questions or matters of difference regarding such pollution to the International Joint Commission (IJC).
On 8 June 2006, the Secretariat issued a determination dismissing the submission. The Secretariat determined that the treaty provisions on which the submission was based do not impose a specific, enforceable legal mandate to address questions regarding transboundary water pollution through referral to the IJC, such as would be necessary as the basis of a submission under Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
The Submitters have 30 days to provide the Secretariat with a submission that conforms to the criteria of Article 14(1) of the NAAEC and Guideline 6.2 of the Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. |
