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We Need the Great Lakes Compact Legislation
Back on Track

With numerous states in our Great Lakes region successfully moving forward with legislation adopting the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact ("Compact"), we should be asking where Wisconsin is with respect to this historic regional agreement aimed at managing and preserving this world-class water resource. To become law, the Compact must be ratified by the legislature of all eight states and passed by Congress. Minnesota and Illinois have already passed ratifying legislation.

For a year now, a special legislative study committee has convened in Madison to develop legislation adopting and implementing the Great Lakes Compact in Wisconsin. The Great Lakes Compact Legislative Study Committee, comprised of eight legislators and ten public members, is heavily weighted in favor of a Waukesha contingent who, it appears, is far more interested in advancing legislation that circumvents the objectives and principles of the Great Lakes Compact than in implementing them.

In fact, if the votes taken at the Study Committee's most recent meeting are any indication this contingent will be recommending that Wisconsin "implement" the Compact by maintaining an outdated statutory threshold (based upon a measurement of water "lost" to the Basin in excess of 2 million gallons per day) that is set so high that it would exempt all but one or two water users in the entire state from the Compact's precautionary standards. The use of this threshold would effectively ensure that the Compact's resource management and conservation goals would rarely—if ever—be called into play to protect our Great Lakes water resources in Wisconsin. In other words, it would completely gut the Compact.

In addition the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources repeatedly stated for the record its opposition to the proposal on the grounds that it is impractical, inconsistent and uncertain. The DNR's voice was by no means the only voice speaking against the proposed water loss threshold—public members representing environmental interests, the City of Milwaukee, and other Wisconsin communities stated their opposition as well.

If Wisconsin is to provide its citizens and future generations with a state law that provides true protection for one of our state's most important natural resources—rather than a law that renders the Great Lakes Compact all but irrelevant—then more voices need to be heard from around the state. The special interest course advanced by those on the Study Committee willing to jeopardize a regional and international agreement nearly seven years in the making to advance their own narrow interests will not serve the state well in either the near or far future. Think for a moment, how do you suppose the other Great Lakes states would be likely to view Wisconsin's adoption of a sham Compact? Whose neck (and pocketbook) will be most at risk then? Wisconsin citizens'.

As the chair of the Council for Great Lakes Governors, Governor Doyle has demonstrated leadership at the regional level in getting the Compact to this point in the process. Now it is time for the Governor and the legislative leadership of both houses to work together to move forward with state legislation that will ensure ratification of a strong, inclusive Compact here in Wisconsin. We need to get this legislative process back on track…and soon.

Jodi Habush Sinykin
Of Counsel, Midwest Environmental Advocates
Member of the Great Lakes Legislative Study Committee

Keith Reopelle
Policy Director, Clean Wisconsin
Member of the Great Lakes Legislative Study Committee