|
For immediate
release
The Great Lakes
Commission is
applauding the Great Lakes governors and premiers for giving their
approval Tuesday to a
landmark agreement to protect the world’s greatest freshwater resource,
the
Great Lakes. Formally known as
The Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement,
the pact sets
forth new guidelines to protect the waters of the Great Lakes basin
against
future shortages and conflicts over their use while maintaining the
economic
advantages they provide to the region “This is a great
day for the
Great Lakes,” said Tom Huntley, chair of the Great Lakes Commission.
“These
agreements protect the region against future out-of-basin demands for
freshwater, which could put severe pressure on the Great Lakes. They
offer the
promise that we can preserve this world-class resource for the use and
enjoyment of future generations in our region.” The agreements
detail how the
states and provinces will manage and protect the Great Lakes - St.
Lawrence
River basin and will provide a framework for each state and province to
enact
laws protecting the basin. The Great Lakes
Commission
has been a long-time advocate for such an agreement and will continue
to press
for its ratification by the legislatures of the eight Great Lakes
states and
the U.S. Congress. The agreement
establishes a
process for regulating new major withdrawals of Great Lakes water and
prohibits
new diversions of Great Lakes water outside the basin, unless nearly
all the
water is returned to the source after use. The agreement also commits
all eight
states to develop water conservation programs. The agreement is
the outcome
of efforts to fulfill the commitments made under the Great Lakes
Charter Annex of 2001, signed by the Great Lakes governors and
premiers, which
committed them to develop a new set of binding agreements to protect
and manage
the waters of the Great Lakes basin. For more
information,
including the full text of the agreement, see www.cglg.org/projects/water/annex2001Implementing.asp
|