The Great Lakes are one of the world's largest bodies of freshwater and are of great industrial, commercial and economic importance to the states and provinces bordering them. Efforts to improve the quality of the Great Lakes, which have been underway for many years, are centered around making the Great Lakes a sustainable resource. In recent years, recreational use of the Great Lakes has seen a tremendous increase, due in part to the successes in removing the pollutants already present in the lakes and reducing the further discharge of toxic pollutants into these waters. It is thus important to identify the potential pathogens that these users will be exposed to. In addition, because the Great Lakes provide drinking water to an estimated 40 million people in the region, it is also important to study the impact of human sewage and wastewater on the waters in the Great Lakes basin. In this study, lake water samples were analyzed for the presence of enteric viruses as well as for genetic markers for Enterococcus faecium. Enteric viruses were detected in 8.3% of the samples tested (2 of 24) and the esp genetic marker from E. faecium was detected in 31.7% (20 of 63) of the samples tested. Includes 17 references, table.