Clarity And Action To Preserve Great Lakes Water

With the state legislative drafting committee on pending changes to the Great Lakes Compact unwilling to meet since December - - details here - - and thus unable to firmly make Wisconsin the leader it needs to be on Great Lakes protections, two simple things need to happen.

First - - again, discussed here - - Gov. Jim Doyle should put together a new group of public and private members who will expeditiously draft a bill as advocates for the Great Lakes.

Second - - environmental organizations and opinion-makers can assist by pressing a simple message promoting the improved, amended Great Lakes Compact for Wisconsin:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.

Why?

Because the improved Great Lakes Compact sets up conservation standards and tough rules to better manage the water we have; to prevent water being shipped or piped away from the Great Lakes; and to maintain our state's water-based economy and lifestyle.

Those standards and rules will also apply to seven other Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces because those areas, like Wisconsin, also depend heavily on the Great Lakes for recreation, tourism, and manufacturing employment.

That's why all these states and provinces adopted the Great Lakes Compact in 1985.

They recognized that, as stewards of this resources unique to the planet, we had a shared responsibility, that we were all in this together.

This cooperative spirit is needed again, in Wisconsin and regionally, to ensure that the Compact continues to protect, preserve and improve the irreplaceable waters that make up the Great Lakes basin.

For Wisconsin's economy, for the region's success, and for the waters themselves, the message from our leader has to be:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.