Governor Strickland Signs the Great Lakes Compact—
Now Congress will Vote on this Historic Bill
Governor Ted Strickland has signed Ohio’s legislation ratifying an interstate Compact that will create unprecedented protections for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin. Historic protections for the Great Lakes have now cleared the legislatures of all eight Great Lakes states. Work on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact now enters its final phase as it prepares to move to the U.S. Congress for ratification.
In December 2005, following a nearly five-year negotiation, the Governors of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania reached agreement on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. The Compact provides a comprehensive management framework for achieving sustainable water use and resource protection.
The compact is an answer to thirsty interests that seek to tap Great Lakes water—including its groundwater, inland lakes and rivers—from as far away as Asia. The Great Lakes governors began considering new water protections a decade ago after a proposal to ship Great Lakes water to Asia in tankers gained preliminary approval, permission later rescinded in the face of mounting criticism.
The compact provides a model for a standardized, consensus-based approach to decisions about Great Lakes water use, with the idea that care and protection of the world’s largest system of freshwater lakes—home to 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater—starts at home.
Diversions of Great Lakes water to places outside the vast watershed are banned, with limited exceptions, and are further discouraged by requiring that water removed from the basin must be returned to it.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Please help ensure that Ohio’s congressional delegation is leading the charge for passage of the Compact. Contact your member of Congress and ask him or her to
co-sponsor and support the joint resolution to consent to the Great Lakes Compact. You can reach any member of Congress by dialing 202-224-3121 or visit www.congress.org.
For more information, contact Marnie Urso at Audubon Ohio at 216-246-7150 or murso@audubon.org. For the complete text of the Compact visit www.cglg.org.
August/September 2008 Contents