Summary
This legislation would ratify New York’s participation in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (Compact), a multi-state agreement on the management of Great Lakes water that creates a system for cooperatively managing water withdrawals and water use within the Basin.

Explanation
More than two millions residents throughout Upstate New York rely on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence drainage basins for their water. In fact, 15 percent of the state’s electricity comes from two hydropower plants at Niagara and the FDR facility on the St. Lawrence.  If water levels in lakes Erie or Ontario were to drop due to unsustainable withdrawals, New York would lose a great deal.   

The Compact would give New York the ability to cooperatively manage water withdrawals with the other Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Of these eight states, New York is second only to Michigan in terms of miles of coastline within the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence drainage basin. 

Minnesota ratified the Compact earlier this year. The Illinois legislature has passed the legislation and it now awaits their governor’s signature. Once ratified by all eight states, the Compact would give New York the ability to jointly manage water withdrawals within the Basin, particularly those in excess of five million gallons per day.  It would also put in place an accounting system for water withdrawals, return flows, and consumptive uses for all the states, allowing for improved management decisions. 

As the state at the bottom of the watershed, New York would be heavily impacted by management decisions made upstream. These impacts would be felt in terms of the availability of drinking water and industrial and commercial purposes, as well as also in terms of the amount of power generated by the Niagara and St. Lawrence-FDR hydropower projects. Drops in lake levels could diminish the amount of electricity generated by these enormous facilities.

Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports this bill.