For Immediate Release

June 19, 2009

Contacts:

Great Lakes Coalition Applauds Effort to Close Compact Loophole

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak’s House Resolution- 551 entrusts water to public, not private control

Traverse City—A coalition of Midwestern citizen groups dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes Basin from water withdrawals is praising this week’s introduction of House Resolution 551 by Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI).

The group, known as FLOW, said that the Resolution’s statement that water is a public trust, not a private commodity, would prevent all exporting of water from the Basin. They added that HR 551 would protect the Great Lakes and the rivers and aquifers that feed them more effectively than the international agreement that Congress approved last fall.

Jim Olson, lead attorney representing the citizens case against Nestle in Michigan regarding their water bottling operations in the state applauded the resolution, “ The Great Lake are far too magnificent of an international treasure to expose to exploitation and export. This resolution, if passed will seal the leaks in the Compact.”

Congress passed the agreement, known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Compact, last fall. While it is meant to ban diversions and exports of water outside of the Great Lakes Basin, the ban contains a major loophole that could eventually make all such diversions difficult, if not impossible, to stop.

That loophole, according to legal experts, is in the Compact’s fine print. It allows unlimited amounts of water to leave the Basin as long as it is held in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons.

Members of FLOW, also known as For the Love of Water, say the loophole leaves Great Lakes water vulnerable to other kinds of privatization, and makes the big lakes and the vast ecosystem that supports them vulnerable to full-scale commercial exploitation that, in some future political setting, could not be stopped.

After Mr. Stupak introduced HR 551 in the U.S. House of Representatives, Dave Dempsey, an author and Great Lakes water expert, pointed out that when Congress approved the Compact last fall, many lawmakers and citizen groups agreed that it contained a major loophole and that Congress would have to revisit the agreement and close the loophole.

"The many Great Lakes groups who worked hard to convince Congress to approve the Compact last year said that concerns about water commercialization would be dealt with later, when the Compact passed,” Mr. Dempsey noted. “Now, 'later' has arrived. I hope Congressman Stupak's colleagues will support his resolution and permanently address any and all concerns about the potential privatization of Great Lakes water.

“The future of the Great Lakes needs and in fact depends on that support," he concluded.

Congressman Stupak’s House Resolution clearly states that water cannot be treated as a product and cannot be sold as such for commercial profit.

Jon Keesecker, a senior organizer with the Washington-based group Food and Water Watch, said that Congress should act promptly on Rep. Stupak’s resolution.

“The Compact was intended to protect the Great Lakes from diversions,” he said late Thursday afternoon, “but many people who love the lakes and see them as a key to the entire Midwest’s economic future have serious concerns with the exception laid out in the Compact.

“The exception,” he continued, “includes allowing the packaging and sale of Great Lakes water as a ‘product’ for private gain. Congressman Stupak’s resolution is crucial to closing the loophole; encouraging a sustainable, freshwater economy; and protecting the Great Lakes Basin’s water forever.”

For more information on how FLOW is working to close the Compact’s privatization loophole, visit the coalition’s Web site, www.flowforwater.org