LANSING – The United States and Canada need some additional structures in place to protect against withdrawals from the Great Lakes, but they also need better data on who is using what water from the basin, the International Joint Commission said in a report released this week.
The report, a follow-up on the Great Lakes Compact that oversees any withdrawals from the lakes, said the current ban on large volume withdrawals from the basin must continue.
“Moving forward, it is important to remember that there really is no ‘surplus’ water in the Great Lakes Basin. From an ecosystem perspective, it is all in use, even in periods of high supply,” the report said. “There continues to be large voids between our knowledge regarding levels and flows, and the impact they have on the ecosystem of the basin.”
One of those voids of knowledge, the report said, is in exactly who is using what water within the basin. Among the eight recommendations the commission made is that the two nations develop better methods for measuring consumptive uses.
“The reliability of water use reporting and consumptive use calculations remains questionable, given inconsistency in different sources of water withdrawal estimates, lack of consistent quality control procedures in water use reporting, and the use of consumptive use coefficients that have been criticized as inadequate,” the report said, adding that both states and provinces have reported insufficient funds and staff to properly track all water uses.
But the report also noted that, so far, all long-term estimates of water use in the basin have been high.
The nations also need to improve their knowledge of the hydrology of the lakes to understand the natural water balances.
The commission noted that a number of communities are moving from groundwater to the Great Lakes as their water source and urged the states and provinces to look both at mapping and stabilizing aquifers and at the connection between those aquifers and the lakes.
They also need to develop strategies to reduce the effects of climate change, the commission said.
On the legal end, the commission recommended that the two nations develop a bi-national public trust to ensure the compact remains in force.
“While the Agreement and Compact are necessary, they will not necessarily be sufficient in the future to protect the long-term ecological integrity and the many public and private uses of the Great Lakes,” the report said. “Bi-national adoption of public trust principles could provide an effective backstop in that regard.”
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