Clean Water Testimony

Dear Senator,

On behalf of PennEnvironment’s citizen members, I am writing to ask you to support House Bill 1705, which is Pennsylvania’s effort to ratify the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin Water Resources Compact. Please call upon the Senate’s leadership to pass this legislation before breaking for the summer recess.

In 2005, the governors of the eight states surrounding the Great Lakes joined together with Ontario and Quebec, and signed the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. The Compact bans new or increased diversion of water from the Great Lakes, unless it is approved by all of the Great Lake states’ governors. It must also be ratified by all eight Great Lake states before it can receive federal approval and become an international agreement.

The Great Lakes form the largest fresh surface water system on Earth. They provide water for 40 million people, and jobs and recreational opportunities for millions more. Unfortunately, there is a growing a demand for water--and growing pressure to divert water from the Great Lakes to other regions of the country. As population increases along with our standard of living, we must guard against increasing pressure to withdraw larger amounts of water from our Great Lakes.

Lake Erie is the only one of the five Great Lakes that borders Pennsylvania, and it has the lowest volume and is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. This makes Lake Erie especially vulnerable to fluctuating water levels. Ninety-five percent of the water in Lake Erie comes from the other Great Lakes, mainly via the DetroitRiver and other waterways. Therefore, in order to protect Lake Erie’s water levels it is of utmost importance to protect the waters of all the Great Lakes.

Already, 10.6 million people get water from the Lake Erie/Lake St. Clair Drainage Basin. Lake Erie’s waters are used for commerce and include 11 major ports. It is also used for manufacturing and power production, recreation, and agriculture.

Lake Erie is also the warmest and most biologically productive of the lakes, and is considered the world’s best walleye fishery. Numerous other fish species can be found in Lake Erie such as the yellow perch, rainbow smelt, white bass and about 21 other species. The lake is also home to the currently threatened Lake Erie water snake—which is found nowhere else in the world—along with 27 other species of reptiles and 24 species of amphibians.

There is currently not enough protection to keep the waters ofLake Erie in Lake Erie.

For these reasons, PennEnvironment calls upon the legislature to take immediate steps to ensure that the Great Lakes, especially our own Lake Erie, stay great by calling for the passage of House Bill 1705.  HB 1705 would ratify the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin Water Resources Compact.

Please do not hesitate to contact me by email (DMasur@PennEnvironment.org) or by phone (215-732-5897) with any questions about this legislation.  I look forward to continuing our work together to protect Pennsylvania’s environment.

Sincerely,

David Masur, Director

PennEnvironment