TRAVERSE CITY -- Climate change appears likely to reduce already low Great Lakes water levels even farther, making it more urgent to approve a regional compact protecting them from diversion and overuse, environmentalists said Tuesday.
Research suggests warming temperatures may bring less snowfall to the region while boosting evaporation rates, driving down the lakes and the streams and groundwater that feed them, the National Wildlife Federation said.
At the same time, the lakes may become an even more tempting target for water-starved regions such as the desert Southwest, the group said in a newly released report.
"We do not have the luxury of waiting," said Molly Flanagan, the federation's water program manager. "If we do not act to protect our water, others may decide to take action for us and they may not make the same choices we would make."
Governors of the eight states on the Great Lakes signed a compact in 2005 that would outlaw most diversions of water from the region's drainage basin and require the states to set water use policies.
The pact needs approval of the eight state legislatures and Congress to take effect. Lawmakers in Minnesota and Illinois have endorsed it, while ratification bills are pending in Indiana, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.
Supporters of the compact have focused largely on what Flanagan called the region's "primal fear" that Sun Belt states would use their growing political clout to grab Great Lakes water.
But the wildlife federation report says climate change is an equally serious threat. The proposed compact wouldn't do anything to prevent it, but would give state governments the legal and policy tools they need to deal with the effects, said Noah Hall, a Wayne State University law professor who helped craft the report.
"We have known for many years that existing laws are inadequate to protect the Great Lakes from diversions and overuse," Hall said. "Now we know that climate change is certain to put additional stress and pressure on the Great Lakes."
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