Posted on October 1, 2025
Registration is now open for the 2025 Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting, to be held October 28-30 in Duluth, Minnesota! The meeting will feature expert panels on microplastics in the Great Lakes, solving harmful algal bloom mysteries, water sustainability and reuse initiatives and more. A St. Louis Estuary field tour on the Duluth River Train and “Ripples of Plastic” movie screening are planned for October 28, followed by the GLC’s Annual Meeting on October 29 and 30.
The 2025 Annual Meeting will also celebrate the GLC’s 70th anniversary! In 1955, the Great Lakes Basin Compact established the GLC, and in the nearly seven decades since, it has served as a convener on many key challenges facing the regional environment and economy.
MAKING WAVES
GLC hosts Water Workforce Roundtable
In July, the GLC hosted our first Water Workforce Roundtable, bringing people together from various sectors to discuss strategies for recruiting and training the next generation of the Great Lakes water workforce. The water workforce consists of a wide array of critical roles – such as treating drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater; constructing and maintaining water infrastructure; managing water rates and utility revenues; educating the public on water quality; and more – but estimates indicate that about one-third of the workforce in the U.S. is nearing retirement age, with limited staff available to replace them.
This event was the first step toward the creation of a Great Lakes community of practice focused on strengthening existing programs and building new ones to train the next generation of drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater professionals.
To learn more about our work to identify novel solutions to water infrastructure challenges, visit us at www.glc.org/work/water-infrastructure.
