Lake Erie

About one-third of the total population of the Great Lakes basin is in the Lake Erie watershed. Approximately twelve million people live in the watershed, including seventeen metropolitan areas with more than 50,000 residents. The lake provides drinking water for about eleven million of these inhabitants.

During the 1960s water quality issues in the Great Lakes became a concern and Lake Erie was perceived to be "dying". By the late 1960s, Canadian and American regulatory agencies were in agreement that limiting phosphorus loads was the key to controlling excessive algal growth and that a coordinated lakewide approach was necessary to deal with the phosphorus issue. Open lake phosphorus concentrations declined due to the joint efforts made. These controls represented an unprecedented success in producing environmental results through international cooperation.

In 1987 the governments of Canada and the United States made a commitment, as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to develop a Lakewide Management Plan for the Great Lakes which is coordinated by federal, state and provincial government agencies. The LaMP unites a network of stakeholders in actions to restore and protect the Lake Erie ecosystem.

Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plans and Reports

LaMP 2012 Annual Report (PDF) (4pp, 630K)
LaMP 2011 Annual Report (PDF) (4pp, 1.13MB)
Status of Nutrients in the Lake Erie Basin (PDF) (42pp, 1.47MB) 2009
Lake Erie Binational Nutrient Management Strategy (PDF) (30pp, 2.36MB) 2010
LaMP 2008
Lake Erie LaMP 2006 (257pp, 8.4MB)
LaMP Update 2004
LaMP Update 2003 (PDF) (9pp, 1.7MB)
LaMP Update 2002
LaMP Update 2000
LaMP Status Report May 1999
Lake Erie Water Quality 1970-1982: A Management Assessment (PDF) (153pp, 1.55MB)

Lake Erie Beneficial Use Impairments Monitoring and Pollution Assessment

Lake Erie Areas of Concern

Additional Resources