Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) announced today that it has released an updated Great Lakes Water Use Database website that is more secure and will make it easier for the public to access water use data. Upgrades to the site include: a streamlined, more intuitive process for water use data managers to report their jurisdictions’ data and metadata; an improved public-facing “create your own query” tool that will allow users to create charts based on their specific data selections; and enhanced security features to better protect data before it is published.

“More than 30 million people in the basin rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, jobs, industry and more,” said Loren Wobig, Great Lakes Commissioner and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s alternate on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Council (Compact Council) and Designee on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body (Regional Body). “This new website will help regional decision-makers better manage our water resources responsibly for all the basin’s residents.”

“One of the key goals of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence water management compact and agreement was facilitating the exchange of data and strengthening the scientific information upon which decisions are made,” said Peter Johnson, Deputy Director of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers (GSGP), the organization that serves as secretariat to the Compact Council and Regional Body. “This upgrade to the water use database is an important step in further advancing the Governors’ and Premiers’ water management priorities.”

For nearly 40 years, as part of the historic water agreements, the eight states and two provinces in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin have provided water use data to the regional water use database. The GLC compiles and summarizes these datasets into an annual report that is submitted to the Compact Council and Regional Body, which manage the agreements to sustainably manage Great Lakes water.

To view the new website, visit waterusedata.glc.org.

The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 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.