Document MGx7yMqQz7EDLXOVaYE45MOZ7

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS excerpted from the VIRTUAL ELIMINATION TASK FORCE DRAFT REPORT to the INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION (see #s 5, 11 and 22 in particular) The Commission and the Parties adopt the vision: ecosystem integrity, characterized by a clean and healthy Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem and by the absence of injury to living organisms and to society. The Commission and the Parties immediately adopt the Task Force's strategy to virtually eliminate the input of persistent toxic substances to the ecosystem, including its fundamental principles and components and the decision-making process to implement the strategy. The Parties, in consultation with stakeholders, jointly develop, quantify, and apply criteria to screen chemicals, which will lead to development of a list of persistent toxic substances to be evaluated through the decision-making process, and to select persistent toxic substances for phaseout. The parties set specific timetables for the phaseout of all persistent toxic substances not amendable to an immediate ban. The Parties, through application of the decision-making process, timmediately initiate measures to sunset the 11 Critical Pollutants, including all aspects of their manufacture, import, export, use, and disposal. The Critical Pollutants Identified by the Water Quality Board are: o Total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) o DT and metabolites o Dieldrin o Toxaphene o 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8 TCDD) o 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (2,3,7,8,TCDF) o Mirex o Mercury o Alkylated lead o Benzo(a)pyrene o Hexachlorobenzene The Commission, in partnership with Great Lakes governments, convene an International Sunset Chemical Conference to focus on international implementation of the virtual elimination strategy. The Parties enhance programs to identify sources and pathways CTL008090 and to quantify loadings of persistent toxic sutstances to the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. 8. The Parties compile reliable and complete quantitative information for the lifecycle of persistent toxic substances and their precursors. 9. The Parties develop quantitative information about the release of persistent toxic substance to the atmosphere from all sources. 10. The Parties use mass balance-ecosystem fate models as tools in the virtual elimination strategy not only for contaminants of present concern, but also proactively to identify new pollutants and future problems. 11. The Parties promulgate legislation to remove barriers and to promote implementation of the virtual elimination strategy. 12. The Parties promote development of technologies -- products and processes -- that will eliminate the creation of persistent toxic substances and thereby eliminate their input to the Great Lakes Basic Ecosystem. 13. The Parties inventory existing stocks of destructible persistent toxic substances and apply destruction technology to eliminate these stocks. 14. The Commission undertake investigation to identify appropriate economic instruments for use in a virtual elimination context, and to describe their application to virtually eliminate the input of persistent toxic substances to the ecosystem. 15. The Commission reinforce its commitment to its recommendations concerning awareness and education (expressed in its Fifth and Sixth Biennial Reports and its Special Report on Great Lakes Environmental Education) by again recommending their implementation to the Parties. 16. The virtual elimination strategy include provision for education initiatives at the local and regional level, particularly initiatives to encourage community-wide participation in local activities to eliminate the input of persistent toxic substances into the ecosystem. 17. The Parties highlight and adopt consultation and dialogue as the key components for the validation and implementation of the virtual elimination strategy, and provide sufficent resources for design and implementation of the consultation process. 18. The Parties establish formal and regular opportunities for ongoing stakeholder consultation, as part of the virtual elimination strategy. CTL008091 19. The Parties adopt, as part of their regular monitoring efforts: indicators that measure the concentration levels of persistent toxic substances in the ecosystem. - coordinated bioindicator monitoring programs that measure toxicity and the occurrence or absence of injury to living organisms. 20. Governments and industry recover and destroy all existing stocks of PCBs in equipment, cease land disposal, and recover and destroy PCBs in sediment and landfills. 21. Governments and industry reduce the use of fossil fuels with high mercury content, concurrently implement conservation measures to reduce electric demand and fuel consumption, phase out mercury use in consumer products, as well as mercury-based industrial processes, reduce mercury emissions from smelter operations, and recover (rather than dispose of) mercury in existing consumer and medical products. 22. THE PARTIES COMMISSION AN EXHAUSTIVE INVESTIGATION THAT EXPLORES ALL FACTORS AND IMPLICATIONS RELATED TO THE PROPOSED SUNSETTING OF A BASIC FEEDSTOCK SUBSTANCE SUCH AS CHLORINE. CTL008092