PROJECT INTRODUCTION

In 2001, the Great Lakes Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health was funded by the Joyce Foundation to evaluate the state of the environment in the Great Lakes Basin in relation to PCB contamination. The goal of the project is to assist non-governmental organizations in the promotion of environmental policies and practices that protect public health and the environment from PCB exposure. To meet this goal, UIC partnered with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the extent of PCB contamination and PCB regulation within the Basin. The UIC team is focusing efforts on the eight Great Lakes states and the CELA team is focusing on the Canadian provinces included within the Basin (Ontario, Quebec).

This website summarizes:

• the findings of the quantitative analysis of PCB emissions entering the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes Basin--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin,
• findings of Canadian PCB emissions (refer to CEPA commentary and tables),
• current status of federal and provincial regulations and policies pertaining to PCBs, and,
• the qualitative portion of the U.S. analysis, which focuses on the regulatory status of PCB contamination.

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