[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2973 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2973

To impose a moratorium on the export of bulk fresh water from the Great 
                              Lakes Basin.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 29, 1999

 Mr. Camp (for himself, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Knollenberg, Mr. 
Smith of Michigan, and Mr. Upton) introduced the following bill; which 
        was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To impose a moratorium on the export of bulk fresh water from the Great 
                              Lakes Basin.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the waters and water-dependent natural resources of the 
        Great Lakes Basin are precious public resources, held in trust 
        by the Great Lakes States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario 
        and Quebec;
            (2) authority over the Great Lakes is vested in the 
        Governors of the Great Lakes States by the Water Resources 
        Development Act of 1986;
            (3) the Great Lakes Charter of 1985 is a voluntary 
        international agreement that provides the procedural framework 
        for notice and consultation by the Great Lakes States and the 
        Canadian provinces concerning the withdrawal of water from the 
        Great Lakes Basin;
            (4) the Governors of the Great Lakes States, in exercise of 
        their authority under the Water Resources Development Act of 
        1986, and the premiers of the Canadian provinces have based 
        decisions on proposals to withdraw, divert, or use waters from 
        the Great Lakes Basin on the extent to which such proposals 
        conserve and protect waters and water-dependent resources of 
        the Great Lakes Basin;
            (5) decisionmaking must remain vested in the Governors of 
        the Great Lakes States and the premiers of the Canadian 
        provinces, who currently manage the Great Lakes Basin on a day-
        to-day basis;
            (6) demand for clean and fresh water is growing around the 
        world and bulk exports pose a unique challenge to the 
        management of the Great Lakes; and
            (7) the ecological effects of bulk exports of water from 
        the Great Lakes are unknown, and there is presently no credible 
        means of regulating such exports on a binational basis.

SEC. 2. MORATORIUM ON EXPORTS OF BULK FRESH WATER.

    (a) Moratorium on Exports.--No bulk fresh water from the Great 
Lakes Basin may be exported from the United States.
    (b) Lifting of Moratorium.--Subsection (a) shall cease to apply on 
the earlier of--
            (1) December 31, 2001; or
            (2) the effective date of an Act of Congress approving an 
        agreement among the Great Lakes States to implement a mechanism 
        that provides for a common conservation standard to make 
        decisions concerning the withdrawal and use of water from the 
        Great Lakes Basin.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) the term ``bulk fresh water'' means fresh water 
        extracted in amounts intended for transportation by tanker or 
        similar form of mass transportation, without further 
        processing;
            (2) the term ``Great Lakes Basin'' means the water within 
        Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, St. Clair, and Superior, 
        within interconnecting waterways, within all other watercourses 
        draining into and between those lakes, and within all tributary 
        surface and underground channels or areas which drain into or 
        comprise part of any watershed draining into any of those 
        lakes; and
            (3) the term ``Great Lakes State'' means each of the States 
        of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, 
        Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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