Great Lakes Compact Testimony

Matt Frank, Secretary
Department of Natural Resources

Senate Natural Resources Committee Informational Hearing
Thursday, February 14, 2008 @ 1:30 pm

Senator Miller and committee members thank you for holding this informational hearing on the Great Lakes Compact. In 2005, Governor Doyle signed the compact with the Governors of all of the Great Lakes States and the Premiers of two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes. The Compact is an historic agreement that represents a major step forward in protecting the Great Lakes. Senator Kedzie led a legislative study committee that reviewed the compact and concluded its work last year. We appreciate Senator Kedzie's leadership and the work of the committee in identifying issues to be addressed. This past fall Governor Doyle began a process that included meetings with interested legislators including Senators Miller, Cowles and Jauch as well as Representatives Richards, Mason, Gunderson and Bies, as well as involvement from municipalities, environmental and conservation organizations, industry leaders and business to flesh out the details of the adoption of the Compact by the Wisconsin legislature.

The Department of Natural Resources has been extensively involved in this process every step of the way, providing assistance to the Governor during compact negotiations, participating actively in the process initiated by the Governor last fall, and providing input into the drafting process for ratifying legislation that will be coming before this committee in the near future. We have been working closely with the Governor, with legislators from both houses and from both sides of the aisle, and with stakeholders and organizations and local governments. We have been working closely with you Senator Miller and members of this committee and I would like to thank you for your leadership on this important issue.

Wisconsin is defined by our waters. Water has shaped our history and who we are as a people. No other state in the nation is bounded as we are by the greatest freshwater resource in the world, the Great Lakes, and one of the great rivers of the world, the Mississippi. About one-third of Wisconsin lies in the Great Lakes basin. Through the Great Lakes watershed, Wisconsin rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater are inextricably linked. The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world's freshwater. To put that in perspective, an additional 70 % of the world's fresh water supply is frozen in the polar ice cap. The Great Lakes are a vital natural resource that contributes to the beauty of our state, sustains our economy and our environment, and enhances our quality of life.

The Great Lakes provide us not only with our borders but also are the source of tremendous opportunities for outdoor recreation and enjoyment, fishing and tourism as well as the economic stimulus of agriculture, commerce and industry along our coasts – from the paper industry in the Fox Valley to Miller Brewing in Milwaukee to one of the newest WI companies, Uline in Kenosha. The past and future of our cities on the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior are tied to the future of the Great Lakes.

Allow me to present just a few examples of how our Great Lakes are critical to our economy and way of life:

Tourism in the Wisconsin counties adjacent to the lakes generate over two billion dollars of economic activity annually
Last year, over 1200 ships visited the Duluth/Superior harbor carrying million of tons of cargo
Half our state population relies on the Great Lakes basin water for drinking water
30 percent of the country's manufacturing GDP is generated in the 8 Great Lakes states
Fishing, hunting, wildlife watching and boating generate 53 billion dollars of annual economic activity in the 8 states, and recreational boating alone supports 250,000 jobs

While the Great Lakes have been an important part of our past, they are even more important for our future. For a long time we have thought of our water as an abundant and limitless resource. As we see what is happening in our nation and around the world, we now appreciate that our water, though plentiful, is not limitless. In the West and the South water shortages are a reality. In the 21st century, the value of water will only increase. We need to ensure that we are taking the steps necessary to manage this great resource sustainably. We are not talking about water rationing. We are talking about being smart and making the right decisions today for future generations.

The Great Lakes Compact is more than just ensuring that our water is not diverted to other parts of the country. The Compact will make sure that for the first time there is a coordinated regional effort designed to sustainably manage Great Lakes water inside the basin. Once enacted, the Great Lakes Compact will provide Wisconsin and all of the Great Lakes states with a competitive advantage as businesses see the demand for water resources grow and supply becomes more limited throughout the country. And if we make the right decisions today, one of Wisconsin's great competitive advantage in a 21st century global economy will be our water, providing a basis for Wisconsin businesses to grow as well as attracting new businesses into the state to grow and develop.

Current federal law is weak and untenable and is holding back our ability to protect our resources, grow our economy and enhance our citizen's outdoor recreation opportunities. The Water Resource Development Act (WRDA) is only concerned with diversions, not the sustainable management of the Great Lake water for the long term within the basin. Additionally, WRDA simply does not provide any consistency in decision-making from one state to another, nor does it provide a clear set of standards for making water use decisions.

Currently, under WRDA, if a community outside the basin wants to use Great Lakes water to create jobs and grow its economy, they need to apply for a diversion approval and the other Great Lake states can veto that request for any reason at all. While the Compact retains that one vote veto, for the first time the diversion request will be judged on a set of objective criteria that will give our communities as well as the state an opportunity to challenge decisions made by the other states, if the veto is arbitrary. The standards ensure that:

No significant adverse environmental impacts to the waters of the state and basin will result from the new or increased withdrawal, and;
will not result in the violation of current water quality standards, and;
the community does not have another source of water that is adequate for their needs;
that they are returning as much water as they are withdrawing, and;
the community has enacted a conservation plan designed to ensure that they are using the water as efficiently as possible in order to limit the amount of the withdrawal required and;
The compact also goes on to provide protections for the receiving water body to ensure that it can handle the excess water flow from a quantity aspect as well as not harming the river from a quality standpoint.

In the coming weeks, the Legislature will have an opportunity to take a major step forward in protecting the Great Lakes. The compact is making headway in other states as it has reached the Governor's desk in both New York and Indiana and is moving through the legislative process in the rest of the Great Lake states. Governor Doyle and I look forward to continuing to work with the legislature and I encourage you to push hard and keep the bill moving so that it can be signed into law before the legislative session ends in March. Thank you for your time and for your efforts to date.