Threat to Great Lakes Water Supplies
The Great Lakes are a Valuable Resource
THE GREAT LAKES ARE A unique and precious resource, providing freshwater for 33 million people who live within the basin and supporting the region's ecosystem and economy. The Great Lakes basin contains nearly 20 percent of the earth's fresh surface water. It is the only freshwater system of its kind in size and ecological diversity and is essential to humans and wildlife alike; providing homes, food, recreation, and economic sustainability. The Great Lakes are critically important to the region. There are nearly 11,000 miles of coastline surrounding the Great Lakes and their connecting channels and islands. Recreation is a 6 billion dollar industry across the Great Lakes region. For the people of the Great Lakes states, they hold the key to our economic health, to our recreation, and to irreplaceable family experiences. The Great Lakes are a resource worth protecting and restoring, and it is clear that we need our water here at home where it can support our way of life.
The Great Lakes are at
Risk
The Great Lakes are vulnerable to
depletion and degradation. The
Great Lakes are a vast resource, but
each year rainfall and snowmelt
replenish only about one percent of the water in the basin. The other 99
percent is finite and nonrenewable.
That fact coupled with a growing
demand for water by domestic
users—including utilities,
agriculture, manufacturers, and housing --and proposals to export
water to other parts of the U.S. and to
foreign countries, is cause for
concerns about the Great Lakes’
future. Current laws are not strong
enough to protect the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes leaders have a
responsibility to keep the region’s
freshwater resources safe for future
generations.
Threats to Great Lakes Water Supplies
Threats to Great Lakes water security range from local overuse to misguided export schemes. Unregulated water use has stressed some Great Lakes basin groundwater sources to the point that nearby wells have failed. In addition, private companies and others have proposed selling and shipping Great Lakes water out of the basin, where it can no longer replenish the fragile ecosystem.
More than 1 billion men, women, and children around the world do not have access to safe drinking water. It has been said that if "the wars of the 20th century were fought over oil. The wars of the21st century will be fought overwater." Current laws, including the Federal Water Resources Development Act, are not enough to protect the Great Lakes against the many pressures they will undoubtedly face in the future. Climate change will cause already dry parts of the US to become even drier. As the demand for fresh water increases in these areas, the Great Lakes may begin to look like absolution to water shortage problems across the US . Unfortunately, we are already experiencing some localized water shortages within the region.
While protecting the Great Lakes
from diversions outside of the basin is
a serious concern, currently the larger
threat to the waters of the Great
Lakes is wasteful water uses within
the basin. It isn’t enough legally or
environmentally to prohibit
diversions out of the basin without
also dealing with in-basin uses.
The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact: Protecting the Great Lakes
After nearly five years of negotiations, the Great Lakes Governors have endorsed a precedent-setting agreement to protect and conserve the Great Lakes . The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact implements the Great Lakes Charter Annex signed by the parties in 2001. The Compact provides for comprehensive water use protections throughout the Great Lakes basin. If the Compact is ratified by all eight Great Lakes states and consented to by Congress, it will become legally enforceable. That enforceability is what sets this agreement apart from other Great Lakes agreements.
For the first time in the Great Lakes basin, the Compact and Agreement:
- treat groundwater and surface water as one system subject to the same standard;
- consider the Great Lakes and their tributaries to be one ecosystem;
- establish protection of the ecosystem and the economies that depend on it as a priority everywhere in the basin;
- ensure that every Great Lakes state will have the same baseline set of rational protections, while still allowing each state the flexibility necessary to manage in-basin water uses.
The proposed Compact would protect the Great Lakes from harm by implementing a strong and effective water management program. It would close the door on diversions to places like the Middle East and the arid Southwest US , but they also put our own house in order by protecting us from unwise water use in the basin. The Compact also allows the Great Lakes states to maintain control over Great Lakes water in the face of growing demand from across the nation and the world. The Compact guarantees the longterm protection and sound management of Great Lakes water, ensuring that they are protected for generations to come.
This Compact is important to all the citizens of the Great Lakes region who depend on the lakes for their way of life and for recreational opportunities. In order for the Compact to become legally binding on the eight Great Lakes states, each state must pass identical legislation to ratify the Compact and Congress must give its consent. The National Wildlife Federation urges the legislatures in each state to act quickly to ratify the Compact. As a citizen of the Great Lakes basin, you have a key role in influencing your elected officials. Call your legislators today and ask them to support the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Remind them that a vote for the Compact is a vote for the Great Lakes.
For more information email John Goss, Executive Director, Indiana Wildlife Federation, 4715 W. 106th St., Zionsville, IN 46077, 1-800-347-3445, 317-875-WILD (9453).
