There's both good news and bad news at the bi-annual State of the Strait conference underway at the University of Windsor.
Delegates have been told that progress is being made in cleaning up both the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers.
Steve Francoeur of Eastern Michigan University is co-chair of the conference.
He says back in 2005 and 2006 the conference developed a set of indicators to gauge the status of the waterway.
Francoeur says overall, there has been progress in cleaning the waterway.
"There's been some real successes in reducing contaminant levels and then there's new challenges that are potentially emerging, contaminants of concern like endocrine disrupters and things we just didn't know about," he says.
Francoeur says one issue that seemed to have been resolved, is back.
"Things like algal blooms that have come back with quite a bit of intensity in the last decade or so that we saw historically in the 60's and 70's," he says.
He believes the indicators used to gauge the status of the waterway need to be updated.
"This year's conference was focused around trying to update those indicators and assess what progress has been made and what challenges remain and what areas have emerged as new problems that need to be dealt with," says Francoeur.
The State of the Strait looks at the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers as an ecosystem.
The event is held every second year stretching back nearly two decades.