Great Lakes Compact

The Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact is a legally binding interstate compact among the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The compact details how the states manage the use of the Great Lakes Basin's water supply and builds on the 1985 Great Lakes Charter and its 2001 Annex. The compact is the means by which the states implement the governors' commitments under the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement that also includes the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec. The Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers (formerly the Council of Great Lakes Governors)—which guided the negotiations that resulted in the compact—now serves as secretariat to the Governors' Compact Council created by the compact.