The St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences was established in 1994. 

A unique partnership of community, government, the Mohawks of Akwesasne, industry, and environmental interests led to its founding.

The River Institute grew out of the Cornwall region’s desire to take a proactive approach to local and regional environmental challenges. The community accomplished this by creating local capacity to conduct research and share the results with the scientific community and the broader public.

In 1985, the International Joint Commission on water quality recommended that a Cornwall/Massena section of the St. Lawrence River be designated as one of the 43 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes Basin. Each Area of Concern has developed a Remedial Action Plan to address environmental issues affecting the health of the St. Lawrence River Ecosystem.

Through the process of developing the Remedial Action Plan, it became evident that not only was the section of the St. Lawrence from Kingston to the mouth of the Ottawa River not well integrated into existing research programes, but information and research on the special problems facing large rivers was scarce. Hence, in 1990, the Technical Sub-Committee of the Public Advisory Committee of the Cornwall St. Lawrence Remedial Action Plan developed the idea of creating a world class, trans-disciplinary, trans-jurisdiction research institute in Cornwall.

About the same time, a community group headed by Dr. Jeannine Roy-Poirier, Mgr. Rudy Villeneuve, and the City of Cornwall’s Economic Development Department were undertaking a major plan of community development to expand post-secondary education opportunities in Cornwall. In 1991, a steering committee developed the concept of establishing an education and research institute in Cornwall.

The two visions grew to become the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences.