1987

In 1987, the pollution of the Hamilton Harbour gained attention from the International Joint Commission (IJC).  They designated Hamilton Harbour as an Area of Concern under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) due to environmental issues resulting from both past and present industrial activities.  The GLWQA was first signed in 1972, but the updated 1987 GLWQA introduced the concept of ecosystem-based management and put emphasis on the importance of cooperative actions to restore the water quality in the Great Lakes System to reduce injury to health.     The GLWQA established 43 Areas of Concern around the Great Lakes in 1987—12 of which were entirely in Canadian waters and 5 of which were shared between Canada and the United States (Figure 1).  The signing of the new GLWQA also sparked conversations about the importance of the inclusion of public input.  In an interview with CBC, the President of the Ontario Toxic Waste Research Coalition of more than 200 environmental groups, John Jackson, expressed his opinion regarding the importance of involving the public when addressing water quality issues:

 

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Figure 1: The 17 Areas of Concern under the 1987 GLWQA that were either entirely or partly in Canada, each represented by a red circle on the map. Hamilton Harbour was one of the areas included in this list. (Adapted from      )

 

The environmental and health concerns that prompted the designation of Hamilton Harbour as an Area of Concern were the reports of water and sediments in the harbour being highly contaminated with toxic heavy metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).  PAHs in particular have been identified as toxic carcinogens associated with increased incidence of lung, skin, bladder, and gastrointestinal cancers.                  Other pollutants in the harbour, such as ammonia and nitrite, also raised concerns.   A study conducted in 1987 found that, during the spring and summer, all sampling sites within the Hamilton Harbour contained levels of ammonia that surpassed the objective set out by the IJC.   During some periods in the late spring and mid-summer, the concentration of ammonia was above the chronic toxicity threshold.  Nitrite concentrations also surpassed the chronic toxicity threshold of during the summer and even often exceeded, the toxic level for cold-water fish.  

 

The IJC identified 11 severely impaired environmental, health, social, and economic uses of the Hamilton Harbor due to the poor water quality.      These included restrictions on fish consumption, loss of wildlife populations and their habitat, degradation of marine organisms called benthos, eutrophication causing undesirable algae, beach closings, restricted water contact sports, and disruption of overall aesthetics.   In response, the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan (HHRAP) was created to identify and implement remediation actions.  The HHRAP recommended that in order to reach water quality targets, decrease undesirable algae, and improve water quality, there needed to be a decrease in nutrient loads to the Hamilton Harbour.   Starting in 1987, spatial and temporal data was collected to measure the long-term ecological response of the remediation efforts. 

 

The planning process for HHRAP spanned from 1986 to 1992.  At the beginning and end of this planning process, community involvement and public participation were encouraged through two public meetings and one public consultation about the design and priorities of the HHRAP.    However, efforts for public outreach were not prioritized during the middle of the process, and as such, the general public was not well informed about the HHRAP or given appropriate opportunities to be involved until the implementation had already begun.   It was speculated that this was because there was reluctance from the Stakeholders Group to involve the public until they determined concrete goals.