Great news for Minnesota and the Great Lakes! The Great Lakes Compact has nearly passed its last hurdle. The eighth and final state legislature approved the Compact last Thursday. Signatures by Pennsylvania’s and Michigan’s Governors will complete the ratification process by all participating states and Canadian provinces. Now the next move is for Congress to enact the Compact into law.

First negotiated by the region’s governors and premiers, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (the Compact) requires ratification by all participating states and provinces before it can be put into effect. Minnesota led states by ratifying the compact in February of 2007. The agreement will protect our water resources by combining measures that restrict exportation of water from the basin and improve water conservation.

The Compact first arose in protest to Asia’s attempt to export Great Lakes water more than a decade ago. Attention has shifted as drought-stricken portions of the United States are increasingly looking toward the water-rich Great Lakes. The importance of the Compact is further underscored as Global Warming experts predict worsening summer droughts.

“Even though work on the Compact started before Global Warming was on people’s radar, the passage is really timely. Protecting the water in the Great Lakes was already an important part of preserving and restoring the Great Lakes. With Global Warming entering the picture the threat increases significantly,” says Rosie Loeffler-Kemp, one of Clean Water Action’s lead staff on Great Lakes issues.

By the Compact’s guidelines, any major water diversion would have to receive approval by all the states, preventing states from competing with one another to sell the most water in a “race to the bottom”— literally. Once Michigan and Pennsylvania are on-board we look to Congress to place the final stamp on this important regional agreement to protect our Great Lakes.

Emily Rosenberg

Program Intern, Clean Water Action

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 4:58 pm by Clean Water Action and is filed under Water, Great Lakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.