Furthering 'BEYOND-COMPLIANCE' Programs

The U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement calls for the virtual elimination of discharges of persistent toxic substances. As part of its role in reviewing and evaluating progress under the agreement, the International Joint Commission (IJC) asked its Great Lakes Water Quality Board to report on current experiences with voluntary "beyond-compliance" programs (such as pollution prevention and effluent trading) in Illinois, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. The objective was to assess whether voluntary programs could help reduce persistent toxic substances further. The board collected information on these programs in a series of interviews with officials from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the Ontario Ministry of Environment (OME), Environment Canada, and the Region 5 office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Data from the interviews helped identify factors that made beyond-compliance programs successful and helped evaluate whether such programs could yield results that would benefit the Great Lakes.