December 13, 2005

Environmental Groups Salute Great Lakes Compact
Praise Governor Pataki for Signing Historic Agreements to Protect Waters From Diversion

Albany, NY - State environmental groups today applauded Governor Pataki and his national and international counterparts for signing two documents that will begin the process of protecting the waters of the Great Lakes from large-scale diversions and extractions for commercial purposes outside the region. The documents, an interstate agreement known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (the Compact), and an international agreement, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement (the International Agreement) are the result of a four-year effort that began in June 2001 at a meeting of the ten Great Lakes governors and premiers in Niagara Falls, New York.

“From the beginning, New York and Governor Pataki have shown great leadership on this vitally important issue,” said David Higby, the Water Resources Project Director with Environmental Advocates of NY, “when these documents are in place, they will go a long way in assuring the state’s precious water resources will be there for future generations.”

The interstate Compact and the International Agreement were the result of apprehensions that international trade agreements that relax restrictions on commerce, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), would leave the waters of the Great Lakes vulnerable to commercial exploitation at the expense of the regional ecosystem. The Compact would provide each state veto power for significant water diversion projects and would mandate rigorous, consistent standards for all projects based on avoiding any damage to the environment.

“These agreements are an important step forward for advancing responsible conservation of one of the world’s greatest fresh water systems,” said William C. Janeway, Government Relations Director for the Nature Conservancy of New York. “The Compact and the International Agreement set a standard for protecting the lakes and the entire hydrologic system based on the principle of ‘first do no harm,’ and establish a precedent that bodes well for sound water management nationwide and for an increasingly thirsty world.”

In 1998, a Canadian company obtained a permit from Ontario to ship a million gallons of Great Lakes water a day to Asia. Although that permit was rescinded, the event served as a wake-up call to regional leaders about the waters they had taken for granted, and triggered the process for keeping control of the water within the Great Lakes Basin. Today’s signing marked an important step in that process. The Compact will now go before each of the eight state legislatures and then both documents will go to the Congress for approval.

Although they contain nearly 20 percent of the world’s available fresh water, the Great Lakes are replenished at a rate of only 1 percent a year – anything causing more than that amount to leave the Basin would mean immediate drops in water levels. Scientists think global warming may result in such a decrease in lake levels for the foreseeable future. As the “downstream” state in the Great Lakes Basin, New York has a particular interest in maintaining lake levels, beyond the obvious environmental, social, recreational and commercial reasons. New York, for instance, relies heavily on hydropower for its electricity. Even a small drop in “upstream” lake levels causes a decrease of flow in the Niagara Gorge, where over 10 percent of the state’s power is produced, which could result in millions of dollars of power being lost.

After the initial meeting in Niagara Falls established the principles for the agreements that were signed today, the Council of Great Lakes Governors started the process by which the actual language was generated. Two draft document releases and public hearing periods followed, in the summers of 2004 and the 2005. Environmentalists and other interested parties say that the thousands of comments received resulted in a strengthening of the language.

Some of the Compact highlights include, that it would:

1. Set environmental standards for managing new or increased water withdrawal proposals that could have significant impacts on the Great Lakes Basin;
2. Prohibit diversions, with some limited exceptions;
3. Establish protection for all the waters of the Great Lakes Basin, including tributary streams and groundwater; and
4. Require an inventory, monitoring and permit process for water usage.

The full documents, summaries and commentary can be found at: www.eany.org/issues/greatlakes.html.