Environment Canada. RE: Draft Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, 2014

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1 June 19, 2014 Carolyn O'Neill Manager Ministry of the Environment Integrated Environmental Policy Division Land and Water Policy Branch Great Lakes Office 135 St. Clair Avenue West Floor 6 Toronto Ontario M4V 1P5 Great Lakes Environment Office Environment Canada Canada.Ontario.Agreement@ec.gc.ca RE: Draft Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, 2014 We thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Draft Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, 2014 (COA). While the draft COA touches on a number of pressing issues our comment focuses on the transport of extreme energy - new forms of energy as well as the waste from more traditional forms around, under and on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. Events are moving rapidly to establish the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River as a carbon corridor for a newly aggressive North American energy industry. This poses the greatest threat yet to these waters. We are urging you to take bold action and ban extreme energy in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Overview of Extreme Energy in the Great Lakes The Great Lakes are in serious trouble. Multipoint pollution, climate change, over-extraction, eutrophication, invasive species and wetland loss are all taking a terrible toll on the watershed that provides life to so many people and species. Once thought to be immune to the water crisis that threatens other parts of the world, the Great Lakes are a source of growing concern as residents watch their shorelines recede, their beaches close and their fisheries decline. And yet there is there is a newer threat to the Great Lakes that has not received anywhere near the attention or concern it deserves: the increased production and transport of unconventional or extreme energy sources on, under or around the Great Lakes. As conventional sources of energy are drying up all over the world, new, more intensive and environmentally destructive energy extraction methods are being used to provide for increased energy demands. According to the Extreme Energy Initiative, a project of the Human Rights Consortium of the University of London in England, extreme energy is a group of energy

2 extraction methods that grows more intensive over time, and that is strongly correlated with damage to both the environment and society. 2 The newest way to transport bitumen, fracked oil, fracking wastewater and nuclear waste is by water. Plans are in the works to transport these forms of extreme energy on barges and tankers across the Great Lakes to refineries in the south or down the St. Lawrence River to refineries there, for export. The American Petroleum Institute predicts that capital investment in marine transport of crude oil will jump 73 per cent by The U.S. Coast Guard has recently come out in favour of marine transport of fracking wastewater. The threat of extreme energy to the world s vulnerable water supplies is very real. Large-scale water consumption combined with massive pollution from extraction methods are harming watersheds around the world. Extreme energy extraction, production and transport are about to put the Great Lakes at risk. To read Maude Barlow s recent report Liquid Pipeline: Extreme energy s threat to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, please visit: Draft Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, We applaud the efforts and improvements made to the draft COA and agree with the purposes in Article II and the principles outlined in Article III, particularly the addition of cumulative effects and polluter pays. We also commend the addition of annexes on climate change, First Nations and Métis. Increased participation by First Nations and Métis are a critical first step. However, it is important to remember that governments have obligations under the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples that are specific to First Nations water rights and requires free, prior and informed consent in decisions affecting indigenous people. Canada endorsed the UNDRIP in November 2010 but the Canadian government is failing in its obligations to uphold these rights. Annex 2: Harmful Pollutants Goal 4 is on risks and impacts resulting from environmental emergencies and spills and from stormwater and wastewater contaminant loadings. Result 4.1 under this goal calls for joint spill prevention, preparedness, response and recovery efforts to be strengthened and commits Canada and Ontario to: (a) Continue to cooperate on activities to support the prevention of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from environmental emergencies and spills in the Great Lakes basin including: i. Ensuring effective plans and protocols are in place in order to provide clarity on roles and responsibilities; ii. Using spill trend data to identify key risk areas and shared emergency priorities; iii. iv. Ensuring necessary training and relevant emergency exercises are undertaken; and Ensuring effective communication and information sharing between emergency response agencies and affected communities;

3 3 (b) Review the report recommendations in the 2012 Report entitled Emergency Preparedness and Response Programs for Oil and Hazardous Materials Spills from the Great Lakes Commission Emergency Preparedness Task Force and implement recommendations where appropriate and feasible; and (c) Review the report recommendations in the 2013 Canada-Ontario Great Lakes Spills Prevention and Response Review, and implement the recommendations where appropriate and feasible. Annex 3: Discharges from Vessels The draft COA notes the biggest concern was oil and points out that the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) includes commitments on the discharge of ballast water, oil, hazardous polluting substances, garbage, wastewater, sewage, aquatic invasive species, pathogens, and antifouling systems. The draft COA states that the 2012 binational report on Great Lakes water quality concludes that other than invasive species found in ballast water, the impact on the Great Lakes from all of these discharges or potential discharges is low. Goal 3 of Annex 3 focuses on protecting the Great Lakes from discharges from vessel including oil and hazardous polluting substances, garbage, wastewater and sewage, biofouling, and antifouling systems. Result 3.1 of this goal outlines continued efforts to ensure that discharges from vessels remain a low risk to the quality and protection of the Great Lakes. Canada commits to implementing the requirements of Annex 5 (Discharges from Vessels) of the GLWQA through policy, regulations, research and enforcement actions. Annex 5 of the GLWQA prohibits the discharge of a harmful quantity of oil or hazardous polluting substance and notification of the appropriate agency as soon as a person in charge knows of a discharge or possible discharge. Annex 5 also calls for specific regulations for design, construction, and operation of vessels guided by standards and guidelines developed by the International Maritime Organization. It also calls for identification of vessels carrying cargoes with hazardous polluting substances. Canada and the U.S. are also expected to ensure that adequate facilities are provided to receive, treat and dispose of vessel wastes such as Oil and Hazardous Polluting Substances, Garbage, Wastewater, and Sewage, and Ballast Water. Oil shipments on the Great Lakes While these are important steps to spill prevention, we do not believe these are strong enough measures to protect the Great Lakes from potential spills from extreme energy projects like Line 67 (also known as the Alberta Clipper), which carries tar sands oil from Edmonton, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin; Line 5, which threatens the Straits of Mackinac; the Energy East pipeline, which cuts through the Great Lakes watershed and Calumet Specialty Products Partner s plan to build an oil barge dock in Superior, Wisconsin that would ship tar sands and fracked oil across the Great Lakes.

4 4 We are extremely concerned about these projects. Calumet Specialty Products Partners and Elkhorn Industries have proposed to build an oil barge and ship tar sands crude and fracked oil from Superior, Wisconsin on the western tip of Lake Superior, through the Great Lakes. The plan would increase the amount of tar sands crude shipped on the Lakes and not only threatens the lakes but also threatens wildlife and the drinking water of Great Lakes communities This plan to build a $25 million oil shipping dock in Superior, Wisconsin on the western tip of Lake Superior could be the launch point for oil shipments across the Great Lakes to refineries in Ontario, Michigan, Ohio and even the East Coast. A tanker would hold approximately 77,000 barrels of crude oil, while a barge would hold about 110,000 barrels. This has also been reported as 13 million barrels a year. The Great Lakes holds nearly 20% of the world's freshwater. They provide drinking water to 42 million people in surrounding areas. An oil spill would contaminate drinking water that Canadian, U.S. and Indigenous communities depend on and could cause extensive environmental damage. The human right to water and sanitation Based on several UN resolutions recognizing the human right to water and sanitation, governments have an obligation to protect the human right to water and Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN's special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, recommends that countries need to take "a holistic consideration of the right to water by factoring it into policies having an impact on water quality, ranging from agriculture to chemical use in products to energy production activities." This means that governments must consider the human right to water and sanitation when making decisions and drafting policies about energy projects. The Great Lakes are a commons and public trust The Great Lakes is a commons, meaning that no one owns the Lakes but rather they are a common heritage that belongs to the Earth, other species as well as current and future generations. The Lakes are also a public trust meaning that certain natural resources, including groundwater, belong to communities and cannot be privately owned or controlled. This is because of the resources inherent importance to each individual and society as a whole. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River are becoming a crucial corridor for the transport of a burgeoning North American energy industry and a liquid pipeline for some of the worst forms of oil and gas produced on Earth.

5 We are urging you to take the necessary bold action to protect the Great Lakes and ban extreme energy including the transport of tar sands bitumen, fracked oil and gas, fracking wastewater and nuclear waste, on, under and near the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. We urge you to stop the Energy East pipeline and shut down Line 5 which is threatening the Straits of Mackinac. 5 Imagine that the alarm had been sufficiently sounded in time decades ago to pull everyone together to stop invasive species from entering the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Imagine if before the invasion, it has been possible to foresee the massive cost to the environment, native species, fisheries, local industry and tourism that invasive species would bring, and a united front had grown up around the Basin to prevent a coming disaster. That is precisely where we are on this newest threat to the Great Lakes. Our growing dependency on fossil fuels and more extreme forms of energy is a cause for great concern for many reasons. But when it starts to put at risk the most important water source in North America, and one that holds 20 per cent of the world s freshwater, the stakes become very high. We are living on a planet running out of clean, accessible water. There is an urgent need to adopt a new water ethic that puts protecting water and restoring watersheds at the centre of our lives if we and the planet are to survive. Allowing transport of chemical-laden toxic energy sources near or on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is an act of sheer folly. We can and must say no. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Maude Barlow National Chairperson Council of Canadians Emma Lui National Water Campaigner Council of Canadians Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada s leading social action organization with tens of thousands of supporters and mobilizing a network of 60 chapters across the country. We have 16 Council chapters around the Great Lakes and have been working to protect water nationally and internationally for nearly 30 years. Maude Barlow, the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, also served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly ( ).