Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 14, Number 5 • Winter 2006
Lake Erie
Basin Update - U.S.Side
Will Ohio drain the Great Lakes?
The Great Lakes – a vast, but vulnerable resource
By Kristy Meyer, Ohio Environmental Council
The Great Lakes. They hold 95 percent
of our nation’s and 20 percent of the
Earth’s fresh surface water. They are a
source of drinking water, jobs, plentiful
wildlife and lasting memories. Truly,
they are one of the natural wonders of
the world.
While the Great Lakes are a vast
resource, they are not unlimited. Each
year rainfall and snowmelt replenish only about one percent of
the water in the basin. The other 99 percent is finite and nonrenewable.
There is a growing demand for water by domestic users –
including utilities, agriculture, manufacturers, and housing.
Proposals even exist to export water to other parts of the U.S.
and around the world. Current laws, though, simply are not
strong enough to protect our Great Lakes from massive withdrawal
and diversion schemes. This nearly happened a few years
ago, when a foreign company proposed to withdraw 158 million
gallons of Lake Superior water annually to export to Asia by ship
tankers. Fortunately, that proposal was withdrawn. But without
a legally-binding compact to control water use, the lakes remain
vulnerable to such threatening schemes.
The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Basin Water
Resources Compact: a balanced and
comprehensive protection plan
After six years of negotiations, the Great Lakes Governors have
endorsed a carefully balanced and precedent-setting agreement
to protect and conserve the Great Lakes: the Great Lakes–St.
Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Once ratified by
all eight Great Lakes states and approved by Congress, the
Compact will become legally enforceable and protect the Great
Lakes from harm by implementing a strong and comprehensive
water management plan. This will give the Great Lakes region
legal control over Great Lakes water, guaranteeing long-term
protection and sound management of the basin’s water.
The Great Lakes Compact – threatened by loopholes
Before the ink is even dry, some industry groups already are
pushing for concessions in the Compact. They want to carve out
more favorable water rights by changing the Compact’s
environmental decision-making standard. Under their proposal,
a water use project could be rejected only if it poses a threat to
both the Lake basin as a whole and the Great Lakes basin as a
whole. Under industry’s loophole, the foreign company that
proposed to withdraw 158 million gallons annually to Asia could
have been approved, as well as a withdrawal the size of an
existing diversion in Chicago, IL of 2.1 billion gallons of water per
day, which flows down the Chicago River into the Mississippi
River and out into the Gulf of Mexico. State lawmakers are
planning to vote on the Compact this month.
For more information:
Kristy Meyer, Ohio Environmental Council
1207 Grandview Ave., Ste. 201, Columbus, OH 43212
PH. 614 487 7506 • F. 614 487 7510 • E-mail: Kristy@TheOEC.org
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