Governor Jennifer Granholm announced April 19 that she has asked Great Lakes governors to establish uniform standards for determining Great Lakes water quality.

The Governor's request responds to a call by MEC in 2002, reiterated last year, that Michigan should lead the way in creating a consistent "Great Lakes report card," enabling citizens to know whether the condition of the Lakes is improving or deteriorating.

"The Great Lakes are our greatest treasure," said Granholm. "But each state measures and monitors different standards and then reports those in a different way around the basin, making determining the health of the Great Lakes a challenging process. It is time we made the information uniform."

Granholm sent letters to her fellow governors, asking them to work with DEQ Director Steven Chester to ensure that all Great Lakes states are using the same language to keep citizens informed of the drink-ability, fish-ability, and swim-ability of all of the Great Lakes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has indicated its support for such an effort.

"As the states actively pursue support for Great Lakes restoration, the development of clear and uniform standards for determining water quality will enable the states to demonstrate progress from those restoration efforts," said Granholm.

In a report entitled Greening the Governments, released in April 2002, MEC and advisors faulted the states for failing to report the quality of Great Lakes water pollution and related indicators in a consistent way, and urged the Great Lakes governors to create a "Right to Know Compact," assuring that such information will be reported consistently and openly.

"The true benefit of uniform standards is ensuring that we can fish, swim and drink Great Lakes waters in keeping with standards established by the Clean Water Act," Chester said. "We also want to make sure the information is easily accessible and understandable. With consistent water quality indicators, we will be able to quickly and clearly assess the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. In this age of technology and cooperation, a lack of consistency just doesn't make sense."

Chester pointed to fish consumption advisories as one area where there is a lack of consistency around the lakes. Currently, if you go out of Michigan, you have one set of fish consumption advisories, while Ohio has a different process for determining advisories and a different way of reporting those advisories, he said.