Lana Pollack, a former state senator and past president of the Michigan Environmental Council, has been confirmed by the Senate to serve as a member of the International Joint Commission, the agency that resolves disputes and enforces treaties along the 5,000 mile land and water boundary between the U.S. and Canada.

The IJC was established by the Boundary Waters Treaty in 1909 to promote cooperative management of the water resources shared between the U.S. and Canada, and is in the midst of renegotiating the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1987. This agreement committed the two countries to protecting the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem by prohibiting the discharge of toxic pollution, and eliminating dangerous, persistent toxic substances. It was critical in the restoration of Lake Erie and in identifying the highly contaminated areas that have become known as Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
 
Jane Elder, an American environmentalist who has criticized the U.S and Canada for failing to adequately involve the public in the renegotiation process, said that she believes Lana Pollack will be a positive influence on the IJC.

Hugh McDiarmid, the spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council who also blogs at Mitten State called Pollack a real “environmental maverick” and “a tireless, fierce, smart and forceful woman who has already ingrained a lasting legacy on environmental protection in Michigan.”

McDiarmid writes:

Lana will do what she thinks is right. Always. The last IJC commissioner from Michigan, Dennis Schornack, was fired when he did the right thing http://bit.ly/94t4S4 Schornack, a lifelong Republican from Williamston, was appointed by, then dumped by, the George W. Bush Administration after he ordered a couple in Washington State to remove a structure they had built illegally in a 10-foot-wide “clear boundary vista” maintained at the 5,000-mile-long border with Canada. Right wing groups took up the cause as a case of jackbooted government regulators run amok, and Bush officials ordered Schornack to back down. He didn’t. So much for securing our borders.

Pollack also will sooner get fired then back down from doing the right thing — both for border security and for the “resource protection” mandate in the IJC job description that is so vital to keeping our Great Lakes great.

As a member of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund Board Pollack was the only vote against allowing an elite private golf course to take over public park land along Lake Michigan in the impoverished community of Benton Harbor.