The provincial and federal governments are planning to clean four of the 15 most polluted sites on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes, according to a proposed agreement revealed in the Canada Gazette.
The Globe and Mail reported that Ontario and Ottawa plan to remediate Jackfish Bay and Nipigon Bay in Lake Superior by 2010.
Two other polluted sites - Wheatley Harbour on Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall - are the others set aside for clean up.
Seventeen contaminated sites were identified by both levels of government in the mid-1980s. They have been trying to bring those sites back to a state of health ever since. But the nearly two decades of work have only resulted in two sites being cleaned and little progress for the rest.
Details about the cost of the clean up efforts, plus what both governments hope to achieve at the sites, have not yet been released.
About 70 per cent of Ontario's population gets drinking water directly from the Great Lakes or connecting channels, The Globe reported.
With files from The Canadian Press
