Alliance for the Great Lakes
| Abbreviation | AGL |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1970 |
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
|
Region served
|
United States |
|
Chair
|
Lori Colman |
| Website | www.greatlakes.org |
The Alliance for the Great Lakes is the largest and oldest citizens' environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Great Lakes. With more than 20 staff and six offices, its mission is to conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource using policy, education and local efforts, ensuring a healthy Great Lakes and clean water for generations of people and wildlife. Throughout its history, the integration of public engagement and sound policy have been the cornerstone to its approach to Great Lakes restoration and protection.
The proliferation of nuclear power plants around Lake Michigan and threats to Indiana' dunes led activists from the four-state region to convene at a conference on April 12, 1969, organized by Hyde Park Herald editor and Openlands Protect staffer Lee Botts. The conferees' top recommendation was for the formation of an organization, with professional staff, to coordinate research and public awareness about threats and policy solutions for the rehabilitation of the largest lake wholly within U.S. borders. The conference organizers announced a year later, at a second conference held May 2, 1970 the formation of an organization, with the formal establishment of a "Lake Michigan Federation" announced in September. With support from the Chicago Community Trust, Weiboldt Foundation, and others, the group took on a board of directors from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, and professional staff, with Botts serving as first executive director. It immediately provided capacity for citizens to monitor pollution discharge permits, and worked to challenge the siting of new and expansion of existing shoreline power plants. With leadership from Botts, in 1971, it successfully lobbied Mayor Richard J. Daley for Chicago to become the first Great Lakes city to ban phosphates in detergents. Seeing the effects of such phosphates led to the need for joint U.S.-Canadian efforts to reduce nutrients causing excessive algae growth. These ecological conditions created an opening for the Federation to help press for the first binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and U.S. Clean Water Act, both in 1972.
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