This team—including representatives from each of the Great Lakes states and provinces, the Great Lakes Commission, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, USGS, NOAA, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environment Canada—produced a body of work to advance the efforts of the 2001 Annex to the Great Lakes Charter.

Team members inventoried existing information sources on Great Lakes water resources, assessed the status of water resources and collected new information on water withdrawal. The results of this work were incorporated into the Great Lakes Commission’s databases.

Team members also explored the concept of a resource improvement standard for the Governor’s Annex working group. In addition to this, the team collected and presented preliminary information on the ecological effects of inventoried water uses, addressing the principles in Directive #3 of the Annex.