Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

Stakeholder Forum - 1998

IMPLEMENTING THE BINATIONAL TOXICS STRATEGY
Letter

December 22, 1997

Dear Great Lakes Stakeholders:

Attached you will find a copy of the final Great Lakes Binational Strategy Implementation Plan plus a brief summary of the major changes from the June 1997 draft (Attachment A). We would like to thank everyone for their thoughtful, insightful comments. Although we could not incorporate every thought, concept and idea in the document, please be assured that we took all comments under advisement.

In accordance with the Implementation Plan, we are in the process of setting up substance-specific Work Groups, which will be headed up, at least initially, by a United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and/or Environment Canada (EC) contact. Attachment B lists designated Group Leaders with phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses. If you have not already done so, please contact the specific Group Leader directly, if you are interested in participating on one of the Work Groups. As a starting point for discussions, initial work plans have been drafted by the Group Leaders. These work plans are considered very preliminary; stakeholders are invited to fully participate in editing, rewriting and finalizing them.

Attachment C is a Next Steps document, outlining the most immediate near-term actions in the implementation process. Setting up the Work Groups, finalizing work plans, and preparing for the first Binational Strategy Stakeholder Forum are among the first anticipated activities. More detailed activities, timeframes and schedules will be identified by the individual Work Groups.

Finally, we are creating a Binational Strategy List Server, which will be used to communicate and send documents via e-mail. If you are intereseted in being on the List Server, and have not yet provided us with your e-mail, please contact Pranas Pranckevicius at (312) 353-3437, e-mail address Pranckevicius.Pranas@epamail.epa.gov. In addition, we are currently setting up a Binational Strategy Web Page which will contain all relevant papers, documents and analyses.

Thank you for your continued interest in the Binational Strategy. If you have questions, please contact Susan Nameth of Environment Canada at (416) 739-4937, susan.nameth@ec.gc.ca, or Elizabeth LaPlante (312) 353-2694, laplante.elizabeth@epamail.epa.gov.

Sincerely,