Water quality objectives: yardsticks of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Abstract

Development and Use of Water Quality Objectives One of the key ideas in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is that water quality can be maintained and restored by developing and adopting water quality objectives. This idea was incorporated into the first agreement, signed in 1972, and has remained an important basis for the develop? ment and implementation of pollution-control programs. If scientists could recommend the concentration of a pollutant that could be tolerated by organisms in the Great Lakes, then engineers could build and operate waste treatment facilities to ensure that the pollu? tant levels remained below that concentra? tion. This rationale has been successfully used by governments to restore water quality in the Great Lakes basin for more than 40 years. The Great Lakes Science Advisory Board held the Workshop on Water Quality Criteria in Relation to Health Effects of Persistent Toxic Substances at the