As revealed in a September 7, 2012 news release, the United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Canada’s Minister of the Environment Peter Kent have signed a newly amended Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in Washington, D.C. First signed in 1972 and last amended in 1987, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is a model of bi-national cooperation to protect the world’s largest surface freshwater system and the health of the surrounding communities.