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1 )C _ ., ,..._. Great Lakes Water Treaty Signed President Nixon and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on 15 April signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agrceenent, the 8rat pact between two nations designed to protect and resuscitate a shared en- vironmental resource. The agreement follows 6 years of study by the lnternational Joint Corhnvssiod (IJC), a body set up in 1909 to deSne the two cwuntries' rights and iesponsibilities over the Great I.akes, aad 2 years of detailed negotiations over mutual water quality goals. The signing of the agreement coincides with the beginning of the International Field Year for the Great Lakes, which features a detailed analysis of Lake Ontario being conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administratnon. The Great Lakes c.atnprise the world's most extensive bodies of fresh water and account for 20 percent of the fresh water In the lakes and rivers of the earth. Same 37 million people inhabit their shoraa, and this number is expected to double by the end of the century. The agreement calls for dramatic reductions in the pollution of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, add the internatlonal portion of the St. Laatienoe Seaway, as well as for preventive maintenance to forestall the decline of Lakes Huron and Superior. Lake Michigan, which is encompassed by U.S. land, is omitted from the agreement. El:olbglcal Fr+eedoms Defined The pact holds that the lakes have a right to five freedoms: from toxic substances, nutrient overloading, oil, sludge, and noxious colors and odors. It spells out in tortuous detail the exact levels of filth and poison that will ultimalely be deemed acceptable and calls for a Joint Contingency Plan to deal with oil• spills. All the programs must be cither implemented or n route to implementation by the end of 1975. The agr•eemeot calls or no new money or legislation from the United States, although its faic~]itatioa will rely heavily on the new water quality bill, which is dew wallowing in House-.Senate conference with no compromise version in sight. The United States is expected to put about $3 billion into (areat Lakes water quality over tite' next 5 years. Some $2 billion will come from federal, state, and local sources for municipal waste treatment; $700 million to $1 billion is what indusrry is expected to put inUb waste treatment and reeycting facilities. The Canadian expenditure over the same period will be around $400 miWon. 'Ibe only controversisll part ot the agreemenc seems to be the matter of detergent phosphater,, which contribute heavily to eutropbication, the chief pollution problem in the two lower lakes. Canada has ordered the proportion of phosphates in detergents down from 20 percent to 5 per- cent by the end of the year. and ultimately to 2.2 percent. Tfte United States. In view o4 the j`act that no viable alternative to phosphates has been found. is leaving the matter to local discretion and is concenurating on the construction of treatment plants. The agreement envisages that phosphorous loadings into Lake Erie should go down from 32.000 tons this year to 16,000 in 1976, but conservationists say that eliminating phosphates could bring the 1976 iaput down to 11,000 tons. The IJC has been irostructed to form a Great Lakes Water Quality Board which will have tept+esentatives from all the eight states and two provinces affected by the agreement. The commission will be given money to set up a new office somewhere in the Great Lakes Basin, and has been assigned the tasks bf monitoring the cleanup, issuing annual reports on progress, and recommending adjustments En the agteement. It will have no enforcement powers, but the high-level nature of the pact is expected to supply motiwation Sesides, Environmental Protection Agency Director William Ruckelshaus says the United States now has a"sofemn commitment" to keeping the lakes alive and pure.--C.H. sso fi6,000 - women wM i11B10~ t~at tumor J this year. aU lntiodlewulyy--and that g!sater eNorts shotdld be lntuIttrted to f get lnformat<on abbut the benefits o aggressive chemotherapy • in certain aanoers. enrat as ledtkemia, out of the major centers and iaoo the .practioe of medicine at large. How the Nattonal Gtsncer Ac,t, which became effective only last Feb:uary, will ultimately be implamented, how that $1.6 billion plus srill eventually be de- ployed, is something that, In theory at least, will be decided in dstail, soon. Whether the program can be conducted efficiently, whether jt can be effectively coordinated to get results, remains to be seen. • , An exerrise in raelonal planning was initiated last winter by Baker, who con- tracted with a local management firm to atl4emb2e tbe Nai3oaal Cancer Plan. The NCI appointed eame 2$0 investi- gators to 41 panels, seut them at vari- ous times to Airiie E',iottse, a conference center outside Washington, to review their fields and draw up plans for future teseately and t6etoiy got for ttqelf massive quantities of data emd a;900; 000 btll. Haker, many 41ose to the project say. first saw fLe undertaking , as a ploy to satiafy the gdenti8c com- munity's desire to be heard. Ttie results of their labors, howrever, .aerR in the words of one NCI etaffer, "far more valuable than any of us anticipated." Said attother, "It showed that the in- vestigauors broadly agree on what is needed, and, by laying the problew out, we've been able to see gaps in our knowledge that have to be filled in before we can ptvo®ed." Copies of the teugh draft of the National Qanoer Flan have beea circu- labed among tbe matfon't scientists. The plan is now being h+ened into shape by the NCI nteff lnd by the chairmen of -the 41 panels. An executive report of the plan ahorold be available by late May. T6e challenge facing Rausctrer, the panel, and the board is oue of taking what, evenn in final form, will be a mass of data reflecting thousends of indi- vidual pieces of research and nzaking some coherent sens,e of tt. Z4tey wW have to lookk at all the bits and pieces of knowledge we have about the malig- >tant cell and, as Albert Sabin said not 4bag ago, 'boordinate them and attempt either to derive meaningful pannns or to delineate the gaps In onrc laowledge which pravent. dbowyadwdsi rof inean- ingful patterns." That Is noo mean tash. ~ana,to~ 1:~i~.troN ... =r~:.,~. ...._._..^- .~ 0