Senate Passes Bill That Would Protect Great Lakes

Environmental Issues, Not Just Conservation Efforts, Should Also Be Addressed, Activists Contend

By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 3, 2008

CHICAGO -- Efforts to protect the Great Lakes from those who may covet their vast quantities of water for an increasingly thirsty world took a major step forward Friday as the Senate passed legislation endorsing the Great Lakes Basin Compact.

The broad multi-state agreement would ban most diversion of Great Lakes water to any place outside the basin and would mandate conservation efforts inside it. Despite what some criticized as significant loopholes in the measure, House leaders said the bill would be a priority after the five-week congressional recess, and President Bush has said he would sign it.

"This is a little like Saudi Arabia announcing it's going to conserve oil," said Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, an environmental organization that has pushed for the compact. "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."

But Davis and other environmentalists also warned that similarly bold action is needed to confront the long list of environmental woes that are degrading the lakes' waters.

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