GREAT LAKES WATER QUANTITY MANAGEMENT

On Dec 13, 2005, the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers signed agreements that will provide unprecedented protections for the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin.
On Nov. 30, 2006, the National Assembly of Quebec approved the Great Lakes-St Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement. View the press release.

Annex 2001. Click here for background information about the Great Lakes Charter Annex, signed by the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers in 2001.
In agreeing to this Annex, the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers reaffirm their commitment to the five broad principles set forth in the Great Lakes Charter, and further reaffirm that the provisions of the Charter will continue in full force and effect. The Governors and Premiers commit to further implementing the principles of the Charter by developing an enhanced water management system that is simple, durable, efficient, retains and respects authority within the Basin, and, most importantly, protects, conserves, restores, and improves the Waters and Water-Dependent Natural Resources of the Great Lakes Basin. State and Provincial authorities should be permanent, enforceable, and consistent with their respective applicable state, provincial, federal, and international laws and treaties. To that end, and in order to adequately protect the water resources of the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes ecosystem, the Governors and Premiers commit to develop and implement a new common, resource-based conservation standard and apply it to new water withdrawal proposals from the Waters of the Great Lakes Basin. The standard will also address proposed increases to existing water withdrawals and existing water withdrawal capacity from the Waters of the Great Lakes Basin.
Annex 2001 Draft Implementing Agreement
On July 19, 2004, the Council of Great Lakes Governors announced a 90-day public review period for documents created to update the way the Great Lakes and the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are managed and protected. The draft protective measures, referred to as the draft Annex Implementing Agreements, are the result of three years of efforts by the Governors’ and Premiers’ staffs to address Great Lakes Basin protection issues ranging from water consumption to diversion. Specific protective measures in the draft implementing agreements include: A commitment that conservation and information programs will be put in place and maintained in all the Great Lakes States, Ontario and Quebec; A commitment to use a uniform, resource-based decision making standard in evaluating future proposals for new or increased water uses; A commitment to a collective decision making process for future proposals for regionally significant new or increased water uses; and A requirement that all future new or increased diversions and regionally significant water uses in the Great Lakes Basin result in an improvement to the Basin’s ecosystem.
Water Management Working Group Meeting Summaries
The Water Management Working Group of the Council of the Great Lakes Governors is the brain behind the water management strategies of the Council. Click here to read its meeting summaries.

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WATER QUANTITY MANAGEMENT IN GENERAL

Columbia River

Columbia Basin Water Transaction Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)

Other Places in the U.S. and the World

The Evolving Western Water Markets by by Richard Howitt and Kristiana Hansen on the Choice* magazine (Vol. 20, No. 1, 2005)*An online peer-reviewed magazine published by the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA)

Water trading in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia - web page

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