About Us

About the Great Lakes Commission

The Great Lakes are an environmental and economic asset for the United States and Canada. The lakes fuel a $6 trillion regional economy and hold 90% of the U.S. supply of fresh surface water, providing drinking water for more than 40 million people. More than 1.5 million U.S. jobs are directly connected to the Great Lakes and those jobs generate $62 billion in wages annually.

To ensure that this vital resource is protected, the eight Great Lakes states created the Great Lakes Commission (GLC) in 1955 via the Great Lakes Basin Compact. In 1968, Congress provided its consent to the Compact and the interstate compact agency it created. The eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces are represented on the nonpartisan GLC by a delegation of government-appointed commissioners.

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.

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