Great Lakes News

(Ann Arbor, MI) Environment Michigan issued a new report today on water efficiency to boost its case for the Great Lakes Compact that is swiftly moving in Congress.  The report - Using Water Wisely - calculates that six Southwestern states could save as much as 1.86 trillion gallons of water per year by dramatically improving efficiency of water use.  
 
The Compact would both bar Great Lakes water from being transferred to places like the Southwest and require states in the Great Lakes region to practice water efficiency and conservation themselves.
 
“This finding of huge efficiency potential supports the Great Lakes Compact in two ways,” explained John Rumpler, Environment Michigan’s Great Lakes program director.  “First, it decisively shows that, with a little discipline and ingenuity, the Southwest can meet its own water needs, without siphoning from our Lakes. And second, it shows that here at home, there’s tremendous potential for us to conserve water – thereby protecting the Lakes’ ecology while allowing for further economic growth.”
 
Although the Great Lakes are vast, they are also vulnerable.  Large-scale diversions of their waters to other regions could irreversibly damage the Lakes’ ecology and much of the fishing, boating, and beaches that Midwesterners have claimed as a birthright.
 
For the past two years, Environment Michigan and its sister organizations have worked to pass the Compact through state legislatures in the region.  Last month, Pennsylvania became the eighth and final state to approve the agreement.  Since then, Environment Michigan’s Federal Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt has urged Congress to swiftly ratify the Compact.
 
Last week, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee approved the Great Lakes Compact, but the full House of Representatives did not consider it before breaking for recess.    
 
The report documents potential water savings in key sectors of the economy – including agriculture, residential, commercial, and power generation.  For example, the fast-growing city of Denver, CO is expected to save 1.5 million gallons of water per year with a program that pays businesses to switch to water-saving technologies.  In other instances, mandatory standards could reduce water waste even more dramatically.
 
“With these findings, we know that America can turn to efficiency first, rather than draining more water from our lakes and rivers,” said Leavitt.  “There is no better example of such a policy than the Great Lakes Compact.  The House should secure the waters of the Great Lakes by approving the Compact on its return in September.”
 
The full report can be viewed online at: www.environmentmichigan.org/reports/
 
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Environment Michigan is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization.