Duluth, Minnesota – At its Annual Meeting, held this week on the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, the Great Lakes Commission (GLC) passed resolutions calling for advancement of non-potable water reuse and coordinated resource management in the development of AI and computing infrastructure, as well as prevention of plastic pollution and harmonization of stormwater management in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region.

“The economy of the Great Lakes region is supported by access to water — from industry to agriculture and outdoor recreation to shipping,” said GLC Executive Director Erika Jensen. “Our commissioners have noted a growing need to understand the impacts that new technologies will have on the Great Lakes and the roles that water recycling and reuse can play.”

At the meeting, the GLC also elected new leadership: Chair Timothy Bruno, Great Lakes Program Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and Vice Chair James Jennings, Director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

“I’m honored for the opportunity to serve as chair of the Great Lakes Commission,” said Chair Bruno. “This critical agency brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. On behalf of the GLC, I’d also like to extend our gratitude to immediate past chair Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, for her incredible leadership over her two terms as chair of the agency.”

The Annual Meeting featured remarks from Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert and journalist Peter Annin, author of Purified: How Recycled Sewage Is Transforming Our Water and The Great Lakes Water Wars and executive director of the Burke Center for Ecosystem Research. Attendees also heard from expert panels on microplastics, harmful algal blooms, and water reuse and students participating in environmental programs at Duluth Public Schools. On Wednesday evening, attendees celebrated the 70^th anniversary of the GLC, which was established in 1955 by the Great Lakes Basin Compact. The Compact was ratified by the Great Lakes state legislatures and granted consent by the U.S Congress in 1968.

In advance of the meeting, GLC leadership planted two trees on the Superior Hiking Trail. As a founding member of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Trees and Green Events initiatives, the GLC has committed to using sustainable practices at its meetings and supporting the initiative’s goal of planting 250 million trees in the Great Lakes basin by 2033. The GLC also hosted a tour of the St. Louis River Estuary on the Duluth River Train; representatives of the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa outlined remediation and restoration work underway in the estuary. Additionally, the GLC hosted a screening of the film Ripples of Plastic, which explores the unseen impacts of plastic pollution in the Great Lakes, including contamination, microplastics, and human health effects, and a conversation with the filmmaker.

The GLC will next convene in Washington, D.C. for its Semiannual Meeting and Great Lakes Day on March 3-5, 2026. More information will be available on the GLC’s website in advance of the meeting. 

The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Timothy J. Bruno, Great Lakes Program Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, is a binational government agency established in 1955 to protect the Great Lakes and the economies and ecosystems they support. Its membership includes leaders from the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes basin. The GLC recommends policies and practices to balance the use, development, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes and brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. Learn more at www.glc.org.