Senate Endorses Great Lakes Compact, Amid Growing Concern for Region’s Health

CHICAGO – After a decade of deliberation, the bill created to protect the Great Lakes Basin from interests that would divert the resource to water-starved regions of the country, is finally finding its way through Congress. According to the Chicago Tribune, Senate endorsed the Great Lakes Compact this past Friday.

Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said that passing the Compact “is a little like Saudi Arabia announcing it’s going to conserve oil.” She continued, “because we are such a water-rich part of the globe, we’ve never had to conserve water. The fact we’re doing it now not only shows it’s important to us, but a signal to the rest of the world it has to start doing the right thing.”

The Compact is the first in a line of proposals that would address the health and posterity of the Great Lakes watershed. However, some policy makers, such as House Representative Bart Stupak, remain concerned that the Compact contains loopholes that could still allow massive exports of water from the region.

Source: The Chicago Tribune