<DOC>
[110 Senate Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:44332.wais]
S. Hrg. 110-518
S.J. RES. 45, A RESOLUTION CONSENTING TO AND APPROVING THE GREAT LAKES-
ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN WATER RESOURCES COMPACT
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY, 30, 2008
__________
Serial No. J-110-114
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
----------
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44-332 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008
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Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman
EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JON KYL, Arizona
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JOHN CORNYN, Texas
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
Bruce A. Cohen, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Stephanie A. Middleton, Republican Staff Director
Nicholas A. Rossi, Republican Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
Durbin, Hon. Richard J., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Illinois, prepared statement................................... 39
Feingold, Hon. Russell D., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Wisconsin...................................................... 1
prepared statement........................................... 42
Kohl, Hon. Herb, a U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin...... 3
Schumer, Hon. Charles E., a U.S. Senator from the State of New
York, prepared statement....................................... 100
Specter, Hon. Arlen Specter, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 2
WITNESSES
Davis, Cameron, President, Alliance for the Great Lakes, Chicago,
Illinois....................................................... 12
Doyle, Hon. Jim, Governor, State of Wisconsin, and Chair, Council
of Great Lakes Governors, Madison, Wisconsin................... 6
Heartwell, George, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids, and Vice
Chairman, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, Cities Initiative Grand
Rapids, Michigan............................................... 8
Nelson, Kay L., Director of Environmental Affairs, Northwest
Indiana Forum, Portage, Indiana................................ 10
Voinovich, Hon. George, a U.S. Senator from the State of Ohio.... 4
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Birkholz, Hon. Patricia, Michigan State Senator, Lansing,
Michigan, statement............................................ 20
Cox, Mike, Attorney General, State of Michigan, Lansing,
Michigan, letter............................................... 23
Davis, Cameron, President, Alliance for the Great Lakes, Chicago,
Illinois, statement............................................ 25
Dempsey, Dave, Rosemount, Minnesota, statement................... 30
Doyle, Hon. Jim, Governor, State of Wisconsin, and Chair, Council
of Great Lakes Governors, Madison, Wisconsin, statement........ 34
Environment America, Christy Leavitt, Washington, D.C., joint
letter......................................................... 40
Hall, Noah D., Wayne State University Law School, Executive
Director, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, statement............................................ 45
Heartwell, Hon. George, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids, and Vice
Chairman, Great Lakes-St Lawrence and Cities Initiative, Grand
Rapids, Michigan, statement.................................... 72
International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Alexandria,
Virginia, statement............................................ 76
Levin, Hon. Carl, a U.S. Senator from the State of Michigan,
statement...................................................... 80
Nelson, Kay L., Director, Environmental Affairs, Northwest
Indiana Forum, Portage, Indiana, statement..................... 84
Olson, James M., and Michael H. Dettmer, Law Offices of Olson,
Bzdok & Howard, P.C., Traverse City, Michigan, statement and
attachment..................................................... 86
Speck, Sam, Director, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, memorandum and attachment..................... 101
Stabenow, Hon. Debbie, a U.S. Senator from the State of Michigan,
statement...................................................... 108
S.J. RES. 45, A RESOLUTION CONSENTING TO AND APPROVING THE GREAT LAKES-
ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN WATER RESOURCES COMPACT
----------
WEDNESDAY JULY, 30, 2008
U.S. Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, Pursuant to notice, at 1 p.m., in room
SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Russell D.
Feingold, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, A U.S. SENATOR
FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN
Senator Feingold. Welcome to today's hearing on S.J. Res.
45, a resolution approving the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River
Basin Water Resources Compact.
And I would like to thank Chairman Leahy for allowing me to
preside over this full committee hearing. I am pleased to be
joined by Ranking Member Specter, a fellow Great Lakes Senator,
and, of course, Senator Kohl, Senior Senator from the State of
Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, our constituents care a lot about water, both
its quality and its quantity. Over the last year, Lake
Superior's water levels reached record lows and Lake Michigan's
levels have been on the verge of doing so, as well.
This has reminded all of us that despite the vastness of
the Great Lakes, they are not an unlimited, easily replenished
resource. Low water levels have a significant impact on
commercial shipping, recreational boaters, coastal wetlands,
fisheries, property owners, municipalities, and many other
interests that rely on the Great Lakes.
By passing this compact, Congress can join the states and
the Great Lakes' numerous stakeholders in defending against one
of the biggest threats to low lake levels, and that is
increased water withdrawals.
Pressure on the Great Lakes will only intensify with
population growth, climatic changes, and contaminated or
exhausted water supplies. I strongly support putting in place
management practices now to safeguard the Great Lakes against
future stresses.
I especially commend our Governor, Governor Jim Doyle, who
will testify before us today, and his fellow Governors and
their state legislatures for their hard work to get us at this
point already.
The Great Lakes Compact is the product of a long process of
evolution. Over a century ago, the first treaty between Canada
and the United States was put in place to jointly manage the
shared resource.
Then after various proposals over the decades to siphon off
Great Lakes waters to other parts of the country and the world,
the Great Lakes States developed a regional plan and Congress
approved it in 1968.
Nearly 20 years later, the Great Lakes States and the
provinces of Ontario and Quebec completed the Great Lakes
Charter, which did not allow the States or Provinces to make
large diversions without the approval of all the other
signatories.
However, this charter is not legally binding. In the Water
Resources Development Act of 1986, Congress lent support to the
charter by prohibiting diversions outside the Great Lakes
Basin, unless approved by all Governors of the Great Lakes
States.
But Canada was not legally bound nor was the possibility of
trading Great Lakes water internationally addressed. In 1998,
Ontario's issuance of a permit to ship water from Lake Superior
to Asia served as a wake-up call that more was needed to
protect the Great Lakes.
Several proposals emerged in Congress and, ultimately, in
2000, Congress directed the Great Lakes States to jointly
develop, with the Canadian provinces, a common conservation
standard for making decisions about the withdrawal and use of
water from the Great Lakes Basin.
Great Lakes States have delivered on that request by
ratifying the Great Lakes Compact, and now it is Congress's
turn. Senators Levin and Voinovich have introduced a joint
resolution to approve the Great Lakes Compact.
It enjoys bipartisan support, I am happy to say, from all
16 Great Lakes Senators, those representing Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
New York.
A similar measure was also introduced in the House and the
President of the United States has also, yesterday, announced
his support of the compact.
So I look forward to hearing today's testimony on the
compact and to working with my colleagues to pass it, I hope,
in the very, very near future.
[The prepared statement of Senator Feingold appears as a
submission for the record.]
Now, I turn to the ranking member, Senator Specter.
STATEMENT OF HON. ARLEN SPECTER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Senator Specter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am delighted to
join you today on this hearing for this important compact. The
issue of diversion from the Great Lakes is one of enormous
importance.
Pennsylvania, of course, has Lake Erie. Looking over the
rest of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, I believe I
am the only Senator with a State which borders on one of the
Great Lakes. So I thought it especially important that someone
locally be present here to speak on this issue.
Lake Erie, of course, is a great tourist attraction. One of
the first things I did when elected to the U.S. Senate some
time ago was to work on replenishment of the sand, which is
virtually an annual rite. It is a great, great tourist resort.
But this compact to ban new or increased diversion of water
is really important, to create the commission, to have binding
standards, review process. All of those are very important.
But, of course, as a matter of Federal law, constitutional
law, there has to be a congressional action. And I have sat on
quite a few matters over the course of years on this committee.
I can't think of any that is as clear a slam-dunk as this one
is.
So while I am not able to stay because of conflicting
engagements, I am sure that it will be very well received, and
I have staff here who will be studying the record.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Senator Specter. The hearing
and your appearance here should help us move this legislation
along very much.
Now, I turn to my senior colleague, Senator Kohl.
STATEMENT OF HON. HERB KOHL, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF
WISCONSIN
Senator Kohl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact before us today
enjoys broad bipartisan support, including all eight Great Lake
States, Canadian Provinces, Ontario and Quebec, as well as 150
business and environmental groups.
That is a tribute to the hard work of many people,
especially Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, who is also the
chair of the Council for Great Lakes Governors. Governor
Doyle's leadership is one of the main reasons that we are here
today.
I would like to thank, also, Cameron Davis Miller, George
Heartwell, as well as Senators Levin and Voinovich, who head
the Great Lakes Task Force, for their hard work.
I would also like to thank my colleague, Senator Feingold,
for chairing this important hearing today.
The Great Lakes are one of America's national treasures and
one of the National Wonders of the World. Holding 20 percent of
the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes play a vital role in
the daily lives of the people of Wisconsin, providing drinking
water, jobs, energy, shipping, as well as recreation.
Something that important to our prosperity needs to be
conserved so that future generations can benefit, and the
compact before us, indeed, does that. It is a binding agreement
among the Great Lakes States to implement a conservation
standard for regulating water withdrawals from the Great Lakes
Basin.
Specifically, the compact protects the Great Lakes by
banning new or increased diversions outside of the Great Lakes
Basin. The compact also requires each State to implement water
conservation measures, which will promote efficient water use,
as well as minimize waste.
Not too long ago, we faced a specter of foreign companies
exporting water out of the lakes, thereby threatening our
environment. This compact is a response to those threats,
making it clear that the lakes are not to be exploited.
As a cosponsor of this resolution, I look forward to
working with my colleagues in the Senate to pass this important
compact.
We are so happy to be here today, and I thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Senator Kohl.
And now I would like to turn to the first panel. Senator
Voinovich, you want to come forward, please? Senator Levin, I
suspect, will be here at some point. Senator Levin and Senator
Voinovich are the lead authors of this critical legislation. I
thank them for their leadership on it.
Let me turn to you, Senator Voinovich. Senator Voinovich is
co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force. You have
extensive knowledge of this issue. I appreciate your joining
Senator Levin in introducing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River
Basin Water Resources Compact.
And you may proceed with your testimony. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE VOINOVICH, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF OHIO
Senator Voinovich. Well, first of all, Mr. Chairman,
Senator Kohl, I am really grateful to you for having this
hearing, because it is something that has been long awaited.
But I was worried that we might not be able to have a hearing
before we adjourned, and I am grateful for your holding this
hearing.
As Senator Kohl said, the Great Lakes are a tremendous
natural resource. They need to be protected for our future
generations. One-fifth of the world's surface fresh water--it
is hard to believe--one-fifth of the world's fresh water are in
the Great Lakes.
They cover more than 94,000 square miles; 637 State parks
in the region accommodate more than 250 million visitors. The
Great Lakes are significant to the States and Canadian
Provinces that border them, as well as for millions of other
people around the country who fish the lakes, visit the parks
and the surrounding lakes, or use products that are affordably
shipped to them via the Great Lakes.
I understand how important the Great Lakes are, because I
have been fighting the second battle of Lake Erie since my days
in the State legislature 40 years ago. And some of you may be
old enough to remember that Lake Erie was the poster child of a
dying lake and PBC was all over, we had a river in my city that
burned. And we've come a long way since that time.
When I came to Congress, one of the first things I got
involved with, as former Governor of Ohio and the past Chairman
of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, was to work on
including language in the 2000 Water Sources Development Act
directing the States to reach an agreement on how to manage the
Great Lakes water, and I am very, very proud of how everyone
has come together and have agreed upon the compact.
It is going to provide an effective means to safeguard
water for future generations, while stimulating economic
development through sustainable use and responsible management
of the precious resource.
For example, the compact will ban new diversions from the
basin, with certain exceptions, and those exceptions would be
regulated. The States and Provinces will use a consistent
standard to review proposed uses of the Great Lakes water. This
is an improvement over existing law, which does not have any
standard for considering those proposals.
And, additionally, regional goals for water conservation
and efficiency will be developed to improve use of this
resource. Two years later, all proposals for new and increased
withdrawals of Great Lakes water must incorporate these water
conservation and efficiency measures. This will promote
efficient water use and minimize waste.
Drafting this agreement has been difficult and time-
consuming. The Governors and the premiers have been working
together on this issue for actually 10 years.
I applaud the efforts of your Governor, Governor Jim Doyle,
my Governor, Governor Strickland of Ohio, and the other Great
Lakes Governors and our two Canadian Premiers for coming
together and working conscientiously to get this done.
I want to stress to the members of this committee, though,
that without this compact, the Great Lakes are left vulnerable
to the interests that want to deplete the lakes, and Congress
should approve the compact to protect our Nation's Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes face so many threats and it will be a great
step forward if we can ensure that unlimited diversions are not
a threat. People can breathe easier, less stress.
Protecting the Great Lakes is not a partisan issue. All of
us here today came together across party lines to protect our
Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes are a centerpiece of the American and
Canadian landscape. They provide drinking water to tens of
millions. They are an integral part of our regional economy.
They are a unique natural resource for my State and the entire
region, a resource that must be protected not just for us, but
for our children and for our grandchildren.
We cannot afford to neglect them and I know we will
continue fighting to restore, preserve and protect our Great
Lakes.
Mr. Chairman, I encourage the committee to pass this as
expeditiously as possible. Hopefully, we can get a UC on it
before we get out of here in this Congress.
And, again, I want to sincerely thank you, thank you, thank
you for having this hearing.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Senator Voinovich. I am very
pleased to be a part of this effort, and thank you for your
working with Senator Levin to take a lead on this. And when he
arrives, we will hear from him. I had a good conversation with
him already last week about some of the strategy on this. But
thanks so much, Senator Voinovich.
If there are no questions for the witness, we will excuse
you and ask the second panel to come forward.
Senator Voinovich. Thank you.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Senator.
Would the witnesses please stand to be sworn?
[Witnesses sworn.]
Senator Feingold. You may be seated. I would like to begin
the second panel, of course, by welcoming Governor Jim Doyle of
Wisconsin. Governor Doyle is a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and earned his law degree from Harvard Law
School.
Beginning in 1990, Governor Doyle served three terms as
Wisconsin's attorney general, where he distinguished himself as
a national leader in aggressively prosecuting polluters.
Governor Doyle was sworn in as Wisconsin's 44th Governor on
January 6, 2003. He was reelected in 2006.
We have been friends for a long time, Governor, as were our
fathers, I might add, and I want to thank you very much for
traveling from Wisconsin to join us today and for sharing your
great expertise as the chair of the Council of Great Lakes
Governors.
You may proceed.
STATEMENT OF HON. JIM DOYLE, GOVERNOR, STATE OF WISCONSIN, AND
CHAIR, COUNCIL OF GREAT LAKES GOVERNORS
Governor Doyle. Well, Senator Feingold and Senator Kohl, my
two dear friends, thank you so much for all of the leadership
you have shown on Great Lakes issues and, in particular, we
thank you for the hearing today and the efforts that you have
made to expedite this process.
So we hope that, from a State perspective, that the
Congress will give its consent quickly and that we can get to
work actually then implementing the provisions of the compact.
So your efforts in this regard have been just incredibly
helpful.
I want to brag a little about Wisconsin first, but I am
here as the chair of the council of all of the Great Lakes
States. But, obviously, our State is defined geographically by
the Great Lakes. Its northern border, its eastern border--if
you look at the pictures from space, you can always pick
Wisconsin out and it's because it is defined by the Great
Lakes.
After the State of Michigan, we have the greatest amount of
Great Lakes shoreline and, in fact, if the Upper Peninsula
hadn't been taken away from us back in territorial days, we
would have the largest shoreline.
The Great Lakes define who we are geographically, but also
define much of our culture, recreational activities, and have
been crucial to our commerce from the earliest days as a
territory and as a State.
I want to thank the ranking member, Senator Specter, for
his leadership and support of this, and, of course, Senators
Levin and Voinovich, who are the primary authors and who have
been instrumental in getting us to this point.
So we are here today with a great opportunity for us in the
Great Lakes Region and, I believe, for the whole entire United
States, and because it is one of the great world's ecosystems,
for the world, as well.
And I testify today as chair of the Council of Great Lakes
Governors. The Council of Great Lakes Governors is a
partnership of the Governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the
Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have also been associate members
and deeply involved in this process.
The Council of Great Lakes Governors has been coordinating
our shared efforts to restore and protect the Great Lakes.
There have been so many who have been instrumental. You
will hear from representatives of various groups after me. But
I want to thank the mayors, the environmental groups, business
organizations, our trial leaders, and so many across the Great
Lakes Region who have put in years of time and work and
analysis and hearings to come to the point that we are at
today.
We have heard a lot about the volume of the Great Lakes.
The way I like to picture it, perhaps most dramatically, is if
you took the Great Lakes water and spread it over the 48
contiguous States, the water would be nine-and-a-half feet
deep.
That is how much fresh water is in these lakes, and our
national economy depends on the Great Lakes for industrial
uses, hydropower, maritime commerce, agricultural irrigation,
and many other uses.
Keeping the lakes at healthy levels is also important for
hydropower, maritime commerce, and many other uses.
The compact will ensure that the lakes are used sustainably
in order to continue to provide benefits to all of us.
In 2005, the Great Lakes Governors, in collaboration with
regional partners, completed the negotiations of the eight-
State compact and on July 9, 2008, the Great Lakes States
completed State ratification.
To become law, Congress must now provide its consent. And
by implementing this compact, we are taking the necessary steps
to protect the Great Lakes and sustainably manage this shared
resource.
There is a long tradition in this country of States using
compacts to work together to manage shared water resources. The
Great Lakes Governors are following this long tradition.
Historically, States and the Federal Government have
supported interstate compacts to address water supply, water
quality and flood control issues within the hydrological
context of watersheds and basins. There are currently at least
41 interstate water compacts that have been entered into, and
all but five States are in such compacts.
In 2000, the U.S. Congress encouraged the Great Lakes
States, in consultation with Ontario and Quebec, to provide and
implement this mechanism.
And we are coming back to Congress now, 8 years later, with
having satisfied, I believe, that direction that was given, and
we have done it truly, I think, in the best spirit of
federalism, Congress recognizing a large national action,
calling the States to action.
The States have worked together. Local governments have
been involved. And now we come back to our national Government
for its consent of this very important agreement.
As a result of this congressional action, as well as past
commitments made by Great Lakes Governors and Premiers, the
Great Lakes States, Ontario and Quebec have worked aggressively
to update and improve the region's water management regime.
A lot has been said about the need to protect the volume of
Great Lakes water, but this compact truly gives us the first
interstate method to manage this water together.
And we are pledged as a State in Wisconsin, and its
implementing legislation actually enacted the most significant
water management--Great Lakes Water management provisions ever
enacted in the State of Wisconsin.
So, again, we thank you very much for what you have done on
this very important issue, I know how much the Great Lakes have
meant to both of you, and your commitment to their preservation
over the years.
And I really look forward to the compact being approved by
Congress and the States then really moving together, jointly
together to make sure that we protect both the quantity and the
quality of Great Lakes water.
Thank you very much, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Doyle appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Governor Doyle, very much. And
after we complete this legislation, we will get together on
legislation to get the UP back.
Governor Doyle. Good.
Senator Feingold. I feel safe saying that while Senator
Levin isn't here. But I better be nice now, because we are
turning to a Michigander now.
I will turn to Mayor George Heartwell of Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Mayor Heartwell was elected Mayor of Grand Rapids in
2004.
Prior to being elected mayor, he was the director of the
Community Leadership Institute at Aquinas College and currently
is the president of Pilgrim Manor, a retirement community.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Albion College and a
master's of divinity from Western Theological Seminary. Mayor
Heartwell is currently the vice chairman of the Great Lakes and
St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.
So we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this
important legislation.
You may proceed, sir.
STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE HEARTWELL, MAYOR, CITY OF GRAND
RAPIDS, AND VICE CHAIRMAN, GREAT LAKES-ST. LAWRENCE CITIES
INITIATIVE, GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
Mayor Heartwell. Thank you and good afternoon, Chairman
Feingold and Senator Kohl. It is truly an honor for me to be
here this afternoon on this important issue.
I am George Heartwell, Mayor of Grand Rapids, a city of
200,000 people and a metropolitan area of about 900,000, 32
miles inland from Lake Michigan. I also serve as the vice chair
of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, as the
chairman mentioned.
We are a coalition of 56 cities, U.S. and Canadian cities,
working together to protect and restore the resource of the
Great Lakes. We like to refer to ourselves as mayors without
borders, and it is truly a wonderful binational cooperation.
Water is the life blood of our cities. We have the good
fortune of living in the basin of a true global fresh water
treasure. There are good reasons why the original Native
American people settled in this area, why the explorers came,
why people settled here and built their cities, and why the
area continues to provide a very high quality of life and
economic well being for millions of people.
It is all about the water.
Over the past century, our industrial, agricultural and
residential activities have placed significant stress on the
water resource of the Great Lakes, whether it is invasive
species or industrial discharge runoffs, toxic contamination,
combined sewer overflows, the list is almost endless.
Most recently, concerns over the quantity of water have
grown throughout the region. Significant reductions in lake
levels across the basin are creating problems for recreational
boating, for commercial shipping for municipal water intake,
for coastal wetland viability.
The cities of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River are
doing our part to deal with these water quality and quantity
issues.
A study that we have recently completed through the Great
Lakes Inland Cities Initiative, working with the Great Lakes
Commission, documented a $15 billion annual investment of local
governments in the United States and Canada to protect the
resource.
My own city of Grand Rapids has invested over $200 million
and, by the time we are finished, we will have invested $300
million in combined sewer separation to protect the resource of
the waters of Lake Michigan.
In addition, the cities of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence
Cities Initiative have launched a water conservation framework.
Thirty-three cities have now joined to work toward a goal of 15
percent reduction in water consumption between 2000 and 2015.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources
Compact is essential for protecting the long-term integrity of
the water resource.
The leadership of the Great Lakes Governors, working with
the Canadian Premiers, has been exemplary in bringing us to
this point.
Our organization has supported the compact and agreement
with resolutions at our last three annual meetings, copies of
which are included with my testimony.
More importantly, the compact represents a commitment to
stewardship of the fresh water of the Great Lakes and St.
Lawrence River by eight States, based on extensive in put from
cities, from Native American tribes, as well as many other
stakeholders.
As a resource management tool, it calls for the States to
establish water conservation and efficiency programs to ensure
the best use of this precious resource.
There will also be new measures in place to track and
account for water use much more effectively than we have ever
done before. In fact, through the work of State Senator Patty
Birkholz, the Michigan legislature developed a water withdrawal
assessment tool, which I believe can serve as a useful model
for other States within the compact.
Establishing and managing the administration of these
programs will place, we know, additional financial burdens on
the States, but we are confident that the high priority of this
effort will lead to the commitment of the necessary resources
to make this happen.
Our cities stand ready to work with our States to provide
support in whatever way we can.
The fundamental principle underlying the compact is that
regions of the country should have the right and the
responsibility to manage the resources in their area. There is
no resource more fundamental to the quality of life and well
being of people than water.
The United States Constitution explicitly contemplates
compacts of this nature and Congress, as Governor Doyle has
pointed out, has provided its consent to 41 interstate compacts
over the years.
Much like the States surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, those
on the Colorado River and Florida with the Everglades, the
Great Lakes States, working with their cities and other
partners, are in the best position to ensure the long-term
integrity of the resource. Working with our Canadian neighbors,
we are confident that the leadership of the States and
Provinces, with strong support from cities, will manage this
resource wisely long into the future so that succeeding
generations will have the full benefit of this global fresh
water treasure.
On behalf of the people of Grand Rapids, the people of the
cities of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin, and all the
people of the region, I strongly urge you to pass S.J. Res. 45
for the good of the region and the country.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Heartwell appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Feingold. Thank you so much, Mayor Heartwell.
Next, I would like to welcome Ms. Kay Nelson. Ms. Nelson is
the Director of Environmental Affairs at the Northwest Indiana
Forum, which is a nonprofit economic development organization
whose members have strong business interests in the Great
Lakes.
Prior to her work at the Northwest Indiana Forum, Ms.
Nelson served as the regional office director for the Indiana
Department of Environmental Management. She is a graduate of
Purdue University's School of Agricultural and Natural
Resources and Environmental Science.
And we thank you for joining us today, and you may proceed.
STATEMENT OF KAY L. NELSON, DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS,
NORTHWEST INDIANA FORUM, PORTAGE, INDIANA
Ms. Nelson. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Feingold,
Senator Kohl, Ranking Member Specter, and members of the
committee.
My name is Kay Nelson, as you mentioned, and I serve as
Director of Environmental Services, Northwest Indiana Forum, a
regional economic development organization. And our member
organizations represent $40 billion of commerce for the State
of Indiana, including industrial and commercial businesses,
hospitals, financial institutions, universities, hospitals and
municipalities, all within Lake, Porter and LaPorte in Indiana.
In 2003, the Forum Environmental Committee created a
working subcommittee to focus on the Compact. This committee
included Jim Flannery from ArcelorMittal Steel Indiana Harbor,
Doug Bley, ArcelorMittal Steel Burns Harbor, Dave Behrens, U.S.
Steel Gary Works, Linda Wilson and Rees Madsen from BP Whiting
Refinery, Dean McDevitt, formerly of NIPSCO, and myself, to
focus on the development of Indiana legislation concerning the
adoption and implementation of the Compact.
But a significant directive in the Forum's Environmental
Committee's mission statement calls for us to work with our
environmental community on all issues, and, as such, the
subcommittee decided to expand the working group with members
to include the ``Lady of the Lakes,'' Lee Botts, who founded
the Lake Michigan Federation, which is now known as the
Alliance for the Great Lakes, Tom Anderson and Charlotte Read
of Save the Dunes, and John Goss from the Indiana National
Wildlife Federation.
As a Compact Team, we recognized and established the need
for a positive discussion to allow for the recognition of the
diverse viewpoints concerning the Compact as it was moving
forward, where we found common ground and resolved those issues
which were of uncertainty.
The Compact Team was instrumental in the formation of a
Northwest Indiana Forum position paper, which supported the
adoption and implementation of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
River Compact during this 2008 Indiana legislative session.
We also worked to prepare a joint statement for the
industrial and environmental community stakeholders, as a
resolution supportive of the Compact process, which was read
into the record at the initial meeting of the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence River Basin regional body meeting in June 2006.
Additionally, our members provided written and oral
testimony at numerous public meetings and Indiana legislative
committee hearings during the 2008 session.
During the course of the Compact's consideration in Indiana
and other States, several questions arose regarding the meaning
and interpretation of some of the key provisions, and our team
recognized the importance of resolving those questions so that
everyone clearly understood the intent of the Compact.
One of those questions was how the impacts of withdrawal
proposals were to be reviewed under section 4.11 and guided by
a memorandum provided by the chair of the Governor's working
group, our team worked closely with the Indiana State
legislature, specifically, State Senators Beverly Gard, Karen
Tallian and Ed Charbonneau, to include a provision in section
10 in Indiana's legislation declaring the legislature's intent
as to the proper interpretation and application of section
4.11.2.
Other States, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, subsequently
did likewise. That clarification of intent was essential to
winning the support of industry, environmental, agricultural
and other stakeholder groups.
We believe that that clarification provided by the State
legislators and the working group is critical and, as such,
have included it in my testimony today.
Mr. Chairman, I am providing to the committee a copy of the
December 2005 memorandum from Sam Speck, chair of the working
group referred to in my testimony, explaining the scope of the
impact issue and the pertinent provisions from the three
States' legislation that reflects the Speck memo and the
Council of Great Lakes Governors' understanding.
I would respectfully request that these items be included
in the committee record.
Senator Feingold. Without objection.
Ms. Nelson. Thank you.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact is a means
to provide an enhanced water management system that is simple,
durable, efficient, and retains, while respecting, water
conservation initiatives in place and the authority within the
basin when administering proposals for new and increased
withdrawals of water.
The culmination of the innovative collaborative approach
utilized and administrated by the Northwest Indiana Forum
Compact Team and the many years of diligent work that we have
put into it occurred this past February, February 20, 2008,
when Governor Mitch Daniels, accompanied by State Senator
Beverly Gard and State Representative Scott Pelath, signed
Senate Enrolled Act 45, the Great Lakes Compact bill, into law
as the first bill out of the session for Indiana this year.
Thank you for this opportunity to join you today and we
support your passage of the resolution.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Nelson appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Feingold. Thanks so much, Ms. Nelson.
Finally, I would like to recognize Mr. Cameron Davis. Mr.
Davis is the president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Prior to working for the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Mr.
Davis was an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law at the
University of Michigan Law School.
He is a graduate of Boston University and of the Chicago-
Kent College of Law. Under Mr. Davis's leadership, the Alliance
for Great Lakes will be receiving the American Bar
Association's distinguished achievement award in environmental
law and policy for 2008.
This will be the first time a citizens' environmental
organization will have won this national honor. So we
congratulate you and thank you for joining us, and you may
proceed.
STATEMENT OF CAMERON DAVIS, PRESIDENT, ALLIANCE FOR THE GREAT
LAKES, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Mr. Davis. Thank you and good afternoon, Chairman Feingold
and Senator Kohl, Ranking Member Specter, and members of the
committee.
My name is Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the
Great Lakes. We were formed in 1970 as the oldest nonpartisan
citizens not-for-profit Great Lakes protection organization.
Our mission is to conserve and restore the Nation's and the
world's largest fresh water resource using policy, education,
local efforts, to ensure a healthy Great Lakes and clean water
for generations of people and wildlife.
In that capacity, I was privileged to be appointed by the
Council of Great Lakes Governors to provide advice in the
development in the early stages of the standards that are
embodied in the legislation that is now in front of you.
I am also fortunate to serve as the co-chair of the Healing
our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which is comprised of more
than 100 organizations from the region working valiantly to
restore the Great Lakes every day.
And I want to say a special thanks to the staff of the
Council of Great Lakes Governors, including Dave Naftzger, Pete
Johnson, and I know former Governor Taft of Ohio, with Sam
Speck and Kate Bartter, did yeoman's efforts to get us to this
point today.
As a boy, I used to stand on the shores of Lake Michigan
during our Sunday family picnics and marvel at how Lake
Michigan seemed like heaven. The blue waters mirrored the sky
and the pure white sailboats floated weightlessly, reminding me
of angels. Just like heaven, Lake Michigan seemed to go on
forever.
To me, it was infinite. In fact, about 90 to 95 percent of
the Nation's fresh surface water is in the Great Lakes.
But I was also wrong as a boy. Less than 1 percent of Great
Lakes water is renewed every year through rain, through snow
melt and groundwater recharge. In other words, when I stood on
the beach and looked out over those waves, I couldn't have been
more wrong.
The Great Lakes are essentially a nonrenewable resource.
We are entering an era of critical water conservation, and
we are not alone. According to the United Nations, by 2025,
some two-thirds of the world's population will be lacking ready
access to fresh water. They will be water stressed.
And the only solution, that we can tell, is to live within
our means. The Great Lakes are one of America's most revered
national jewels and one of the natural wonders of the world. As
such, just as we are privileged to enjoy them, we also have a
responsibility to protect them.
Understanding this, more than a dozen Governors from three
political parties called for, and 16 State legislative chambers
passed, a contract among the States, the Compact that is before
you now, to establish uniform, binding water use standards for
the region.
In a time of skepticism, this is a remarkable sign of
bipartisan or even tripartisan long-term thinking. Without this
Compact, the Great Lakes States are vulnerable to depletion.
We urge you to ratify the Compact now to protect these
magnificent natural treasures.
The Compact can serve as an international model for
bringing parties together to reach an accord on resource
protection. The longer we wait to ratify the Compact, the more
we put these waterways at risk, and here is why.
In the past, when it looked like a community was running
low on water, it simply turned to a new supply. Watersheds are
like bank accounts. For every dollar you take out of your bank
account, you have to replace it with another dollar or, over
time, you will deplete your account.
Watersheds act the same way. For every gallon we take out,
we have to replace it with a gallon. Otherwise, you start to
deplete your watershed account.
For the first time ever, we will now have standards,
including one for return flow, under the compact, that will
allow the use of some of the watershed's account interest, but
won't allow us to deplete the account's principal.
We need the Compact so that we can be good stewards of the
resource and because there are no new magical supplies of fresh
surface water waiting for us if we run low.
In 1998, a small Ontario firm called the Nova Group secured
a permit to ship millions of gallons of Lake Superior water
overseas. An astonished public cried foul, asking how this
could possibly be.
Several of us who studied the laws and the policies on the
books found that our laws and our policies were weak and, at
best, not executed; at worst, nonexistent; and, most times,
inconsistent from State to State.
While the Nova permit was ultimately rescinded, it shined a
light on the problem I mentioned at the beginning of my
testimony: it happened because many of us had perceived the
Great Lakes to go on forever. We really haven't had an
incentive to think that we need to conserve them.
Congress asked for water conservation standards. In partial
response to the Nova incident, in 2000, Congress said to us in
the region and urged the States, in consultation with the two
Canadian Provinces, to establish common water withdrawal
decisionmaking standards to achieve water conservation and
resource improvement.
While the call for such standards was important, even more
important was the fact that leaders from all around the Nation
saw fit to call for the protection of the Great Lakes
ecosystem. As such, the compact isn't before you for
consideration simply because we inside the basin want it. It is
before you because you and your colleagues from around the
Nation passed a law, as you heard Governor Doyle say before,
calling for it out of the belief that the Great Lakes are a
national treasure deserving of national protections.
Congress asked for new standards and the States,
municipalities, businesses and public interest groups
delivered. The compact does exactly what Congress suggested.
Now, we are asking Congress to finish the job and approve the
Compact.
While, 10 years ago, the Nova Group sought a permit to send
water overseas, the real need for the compact comes from
within. Maybe because those of us who live, work and play in
the region perceive it as limitless, we have never had much of
a motivation to create uniform, binding water use standards.
There never have been rules of the game to ensure that water
use decisionmaking is transparent, predictable and fair.
As such, we have been profligate water wasters. The Compact
puts the onus on the citizens and the governments of the Great
Lakes States to prove that if we want more water from the Great
Lakes, we must first show that it is needed and that
conservation measures have been exhausted. That is where the
onus should be.
If we are going to keep water from being shipped thousands
of miles away to other parts of the globe, we should be as
demanding of water conservation from ourselves as we are of
others.
The Compact represents the first time in history that all
jurisdictions, the States and the two Canadian Provinces,
through a mirror agreement, will have rules of the game for
managing the Great Lakes.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Healing our
Waters-Great Lakes Coalition believe that these waters don't
simply provide nice neighborhood beaches, prized fishing holes
or resources for local businesses. Like the Amazon rain
forests, the plains of the Serengeti, or the holy Himalayan
mountains, the Great Lakes are among the world's wonders.
And today, when I take my wife and 2-year-old son to the
beach, I try to teach him that though the Great Lakes aren't as
infinite as heaven, as I thought they were when I was boy, they
still provide the solace and the inspiration of heaven. As
such, preserving them isn't just a national ecologic and
economic imperative. Even more important, it is a sacred
imperative.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Davis appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for your beautiful
remarks about the Great Lakes. I have had the good fortune this
month alone to spend a fair amount of time on both Lake
Superior and Lake Michigan, of course, on the Wisconsin side. I
was doing some work, but some of it wasn't.
But your comments remind us of exactly what this means to
all of us in all the States that are affected. I will also say
I have never heard more concern when I have been in these
places, having been going to them for family vacations for many
years, never heard as much concern as I have heard in the last
couple of years about water levels, invasive species, and the
variety of issues, casual comments, as well as formal comments.
This is a critical time, which makes the timing of your
great work on this especially valuable.
Let me just do a few questions.
Governor Doyle, in your testimony, you emphasized that
there is already a significant reliance and demands on the
Great Lakes. Of course, as a Governor, you are also looking to
the future and expected increasing demands and stresses on the
lakes.
Is it fair to say that taking management steps now to
prevent conflicts in the future is a big reason for the States'
interest in the compact? Can you say a bit about the common
motivation among the Great Lakes States to get this compact in
place now?
Governor Doyle. We are truly looking forward in Wisconsin,
I know this is true across the region, of joining together
through what the Compact will create, the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Council, by which we will
set up the first real data-driven research on what the effects
are of various actions taken in the Great Lakes Basin so that
we can operate with facts; that we will operate under a joint
standard, but leaving it to each State.
The beauty of this compact is it truly recognizes
federalism. We will operate under a commonly accepted standard
of no harm to the water of the basin. But we allow the States,
for the uses within the Great Lakes Basin, to make their own
decisions about how we are going to manage and do that.
But we also recognize that on issues like--that I know you
have been deeply involved in, Senator--invasive species,
Wisconsin can't solve invasive species without all of the other
States and Provinces working together, and Congress.
On the issue of really a long-term cleaning up of some of
the old water treatment plants that surround the Great Lakes,
we need to have that kind of unified effort.
On the issue of invasives and balanced water, we can't have
one State have the advantage over another because their ports
don't have various standards--don't have uniform standards,
where their port gets greater use, while another State that has
done the right thing in imposing standards on balanced water
loses business.
So these are the reasons that we have to act jointly and I
think that what has happened here is that the States have come
to understand that we are in this together and isn't Wisconsin
against Michigan or Indiana. It is all of us making sure that
this incredible resource is there for us.
I would add one final point that is very important. With
the cost of gasoline, I believe that shipping in the Great
Lakes is going to see a great resurgence and we want to have
good, clean, modern ports and we want to have good commercial
activity in these lakes.
I think, once again, most of us see the--once again, we are
going to see a resurgence of shipping, resurgence of economic
activity.
And, finally, I would like to say this, which is, to me,
one of the most interesting points of this in the long run and
the importance to our region.
We believe, as we protect the Great Lakes water, that as
you go down in the coming years and water becomes a scarce
resource in other parts of the country and world, people are
going to realize that they ought to live and work and have
their businesses near areas of plentiful water and we, in the
future, I believe, are going to be the center of great economic
growth and renewal around the Great Lakes, as well.
So all of those reasons that we really see is coming
together as States to manage these waters together and to do it
effectively.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Governor.
Mayor Heartwell and Ms. Nelson, you both touched on this in
your testimony and I would like you to elaborate, if you would,
on the public involvement in the compact's development.
Do you feel local government, Mayor Heartwell, and your
member businesses, Ms. Nelson, were given ample opportunities
for input and was it a fair and sound public involvement
process?
Mayor Heartwell?
Mayor Heartwell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Governors
went out of their way to include local initiatives in the
cities.
From the beginning, cities were included in the discussion.
It was a very open and inclusive process. I want to take this
opportunity to thank and congratulate Governor Doyle and his
colleagues, including my own great Governor, Jennifer Granholm,
for opening the door so that we could be at the table with you.
And our executive director of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
Cities Initiative, David Ullrich, who is with me here today,
was at all of those meetings through the formation and
development of the compact and some of the language included in
the compact, specifically that relating to local
municipalities, is there at the urging of Mr. Ullrich.
So we feel, from our perspective, it was a very open and
inclusive process and we are grateful for that.
Senator Feingold. Ms. Nelson?
Ms. Nelson. Mr. Chairman, thank you. We are very excited
and proud of the public process that we had in northwest
Indiana. As I mentioned in my testimony, we provided the joint
industrial-environmental resolution.
We are the only State to have done that when the regional
body met in 2006. We took a great deal of time and effort to
identify our points of agreement and once the environmental
stakeholder groups and the business stakeholder groups
identified those, we then initiated a very aggressive campaign,
so to speak, to utilize the various venues in northwest
Indiana, the public meeting format, meeting with our cities
locally, as well as businesses that were outside of our
membership and folks in Indianapolis from the Department of
Natural Resources, the Governor's office, and the legislators
there.
We hosted probably about 15 or 20 local meetings to allow
the public to participate and we are very proud of what we have
accomplished in that fashion.
Senator Feingold. Thank you. It was my impression that the
public involvement process was pretty extensive and I
appreciate your confirming that.
And just as a side note, Mayor Heartwell, I appreciated
seeing reference in your testimony to the burning of the
Cuyahoga River--I do, of course, remember that--which, of
course, helped lead to the enactment of the Clean Water
Restoration Act in 1972, I think, through the role of my
predecessor, the great Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, on
this and other critical legislation.
As you may know, I am leading the Senate effort to prevent
recent Supreme Court decisions from removing protections for
critical wetlands and headwater streams that were granted by
the Clean Water Act.
So despite progress over the last 35 years, we are facing
another setback for Great Lakes water quality until Congress
acts on that, as well.
Do you want to comment on that?
Mayor Heartwell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
your leadership on the Clean Water Act. That is another
critical piece of legislation for us.
But I really want to add to what Ms. Nelson said, that the
Governors also went out of the way to include the first
nations, the tribes who were also at the table. Their
fingerprints, as it were, are all over this document.
So we appreciated that, as well.
Senator Feingold. Mr. Davis, certainly, a threat of
continued out-of-basin withdrawals served as an impetus for the
Compact, but responsible in-basin management is equally
important.
Can you discuss just a bit about the Compact's provisions
that have to do with the in-basin water conservation and
management requirements?
Mr. Davis. Sure, Mr. Chairman. It's a great question.
I think one of the things that is very exciting about this
Compact is it doesn't necessarily do what other compacts do, as
you may see them, where it treats a water body as a pie, slices
up the pie and then gives different pieces of the pie to
different people.
What this really does is puts the onus on us inside the
basin to help monitor, to help plan and to conserve water
inside the basin.
Water can be lost in all manner of ways. It doesn't have to
just be sent through big straws or pipelines outside of the
basin.
And so many of the things, especially that fall under
section 4.2 of the Compact, call for an overall plan with goals
and objectives for the entire basin. Then the parties, meaning
the States and the Provinces, have to do their own plans and
then, after that, those plans have to be effectuated to help us
get to water conservation, because in the end, it will help us
save on energy, it will help reduce stress on our aging
infrastructure, and have all manner of benefits that would be
very helpful to us inside the basin.
Senator Feingold. I do think this in-basin point is
something that more people understand or realize the tremendous
significance of it.
Thank you to all the witnesses for testifying before us
today. Because of your efforts and our joint efforts, there is
tremendous momentum now behind the Great Lakes Compact, and it
is largely thanks to you and many other committed individuals.
Governor Doyle, you and your fellow Governors have provided
great leadership on the issue. I also want to commend the State
legislatures, which all ratified the compact.
And, of course, my thanks and appreciation to Mayor
Heartwell, Ms. Nelson, and Mr. Davis, and all the individuals
and interests you represent for being supportive of the compact
and helping to get it to where it is today.
I thank you for your continued support, look forward to
working with you in the final step of obtaining congressional
consent and approval for the Great Lakes Compact.
This hearing was an important step and I want to again
thank Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Specter for helping
make this happen.
And without objection, I will place in the record
statements submitted by Dave Dempsey, Noah Hall with Wayne
State University, and Environment America, and, also, the
Michigan attorney general.
One final point is that the hearing record will remain open
for 1 week for additional materials and written questions for
the witnesses to be submitted. As usual, we will ask the
witness to respond promptly to any written questions so that
the record of the hearing can be completed.
Thank you all very much. And the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:55 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]
[Submissions for the record follow.]
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