News
Great Lakes Commission approves regional blueprint for water infrastructure, calls for increased icebreaking capacity
Erie, Pa. – The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) passed resolutions calling for increased icebreaking capacity in the Great Lakes basin and celebrating the 50th anniversaries of the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement at its 2022 Annual Meeting, held this week in Erie, Pennsylvania. The GLC also approved a blueprint sharing approaches for improving water infrastructure improvements in the basin.
“The Great Lakes Commission is continuing its work on critical Great Lakes issues, including calling on lawmakers to fund a new heavy icebreaker to protect the region’s $6 trillion economy during winter months, and approving a plan to improve water infrastructure in the basin,” said GLC Chair Todd L. Ambs, of Wisconsin. “Thanks to our commissioners, observers, and partners for joining us in Erie this week.”
During the meeting, the GLC heard remarks from U.S. Water Alliance CEO Mami Hara, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director Tim Schaeffer, and Erie Mayor Joe Schember. The GLC convened expert panels on ensuring access to safe drinking waters, decarbonization in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System, Great Lakes cruise tourism and water use and demand. The GLC also unanimously reelected Ambs, and its vice chair, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Mary Mertz. In advance of the meeting, Great Lakes Commissioners and guests visited Erie Water Works’ Chestnut Street pumping station on the shore of Presque Isle Bay, and the Erie Maritime Museum, which hosts the historic US Brig Niagara.
The GLC will next meet in Washington, D.C., for the annual Great Lakes Day Congressional Breakfast Reception on March 9, 2023, and in Chicago for its Semiannual Meeting on May 23-25, 2023.
The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Todd L. Ambs, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (retired), is a binational government agency established in 1955 to protect the Great Lakes and the economies and ecosystems they support. Its membership includes leaders from the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes basin. The GLC recommends policies and practices to balance the use, development, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes and brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. Learn more at www.glc.org.