International Boundary Waters Treaty

International Boundary Waters Treaty, (1909), treaty between the United States and Great Britain establishing an International Joint Commission of Americans and Canadians to oversee any issue related to waters on the boundary between the United States and Canada. The treaty was signed on Jan. 11, 1909, calling for an annual meeting of the Joint Commission. These meetings are still being held to regulate use of the waters and also safeguard water quality.

Questions of fishing rights, diversion and use of the shared waters, shipping and other transportation rights, building of dams and bridges, and concern for possible water pollution are within the jurisdiction of the Joint Commission. Cases involving the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, as well as many smaller lakes and rivers, are within the jurisdiction of the commission, which has headquarters in both Ottawa and Washington, D.C.

The treaty of 1909 proposed the commission “to prevent disputes regarding the use of boundary waters and to settle all questions which are now pending between the United States and the Dominion of Canada involving the rights, obligations, or interests of either in relation to the other or to the inhabitants of the other, along their common frontier.”