Water Pollution: Improved Coordination Needed to Clean Up the Great Lakes: Rced-90-197

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the progress of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Great Lakes National Program Office in: (1) defining its role within EPA and involving other EPA offices in implementing a U.S.-Canada agreement about Great Lakes water quality; and (2) coordinating other federal agencies’ efforts. GAO found that the Program Office: (1) expanded its contacts with EPA regional offices and increased its funding for regional projects; (2) worked with the EPA Office of Marine and Estuarine Protection and individual estuary programs to help develop policies and activities affecting the Great Lakes; (3) entered into agreements with the EPA Office of Research and Development to fund a variety of research projects on the Great Lakes; (4) improved its coordination of and cooperation with other federal agencies, resulting in progress in meeting many of the water quality agreement’s provisions, although some difficult agreement annexes have been delayed; (5) cited resource limitations, state and local government responsibilities, and EPA regional office responsibilities for its limited role in helping in the development of remedial action plans and lakewide management plans; (6) established the U.S. Policy Committee in 1989 to improve coordination and cooperation among federal and state agencies and environmental groups in implementing the agreement; and (7) projected the Great Lakes’ water quality problems would require massive research, cleanup efforts, and financial investments.