[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 88 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 88

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President and the Secretary 
     of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not 
       permanently store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 15, 2017

 Ms. Stabenow (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Brown, 
  Mr. Durbin, Mr. Franken, Mr. Peters, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President and the Secretary 
     of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not 
       permanently store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin.

Whereas the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin are precious public natural 
        resources, shared by the Great Lakes States and the Canadian Provinces;
Whereas the United States and Canada have, since 1909, worked to maintain and 
        improve the water quality of the Great Lakes through water quality 
        agreements;
Whereas over 40,000,000 people in both Canada and the United States depend on 
        the fresh water from the Great Lakes for drinking water;
Whereas Ontario Power Generation is proposing to build a permanent geological 
        repository for nuclear waste less than one mile from Lake Huron in 
        Kincardine, Ontario, Canada;
Whereas nuclear waste is highly toxic and can take tens of thousands of years to 
        decompose to safe levels;
Whereas a spill of nuclear waste into the Great Lakes could have lasting and 
        severely adverse environmental, health, and economic impacts on the 
        Great Lakes and the people that depend on them for their livelihood:
Whereas 187 local, county, State, and tribal governments have passed resolutions 
        in opposition to Ontario Power Generation's proposed nuclear waste 
        repository;
Whereas tribes and First Nations' citizens have a strong spiritual and cultural 
        connection to the Great Lakes, and its protection is fundamental to 
        treaty rights;
Whereas Ontario Power Generation has promised not to move forward with their 
        current proposal without the support of the First Nations that would be 
        impacted; and
Whereas, during the 1980s, when the Department of Energy, in accordance with the 
        Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, was studying potential sites for a 
        permanent nuclear waste repository in the United States, the Government 
        of Canada expressed concern with locating a permanent nuclear waste 
        repository within shared water basins of the two countries: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the Government of Canada should not allow a permanent 
        nuclear waste repository to be built within the Great Lakes 
        Basin;
            (2) the President and the Secretary of State should take 
        appropriate action to work with the Government of Canada to 
        prevent a permanent nuclear waste repository from being built 
        within the Great Lakes Basin; and
            (3) the President and the Secretary of State should work 
        together with their Government of Canada counterparts on a safe 
        and responsible solution for the long-term storage of nuclear 
        waste.
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