"Greenpeace estimates that a 20-year reduction timetable and schedule process is required to result in an ever-decreasing annual burden of persistent, toxic discharges to the Great Lakes," says a new Greenpeace Canada report on the lakes.

Greenpeace said new powers should be extended to the International Joint Commission, a Canada-U.S. body advising both governments on issues involving the lakes, which are said to hold one-fifth of the world's fresh water.