Ann Arbor, Michigan – A report released by the Great Lakes Commission (GLC) finds that 40.8 billion gallons of water per day were withdrawn from the Great Lakes basin in 2022, representing about a 3% decrease from 2021 withdrawals. According to the 2022 Annual Report of the Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database, thermoelectric power production (once-through cooling), public water supply, and industrial use were the primary water use sectors. Just under 5% of the total reported water withdrawn was consumed or otherwise lost from the basin. Considering both consumptive use and diversions, the basin gained a total of 869 million gallons of water per day in 2022.

The report’s findings were shared at the December meeting of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact Council. Since 1988, the eight states and two provinces in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin have submitted water use data to the GLC, which compiles these datasets into an annual report.

“Water is an increasingly finite resource around the world, and the Great Lakes region is facing an increasingly complex future with the effects of climate change, including intense rainfall events and hotter and drier seasons,” said James Tierney, vice chair of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Council and Great Lakes Commissioner from New York state. “The Great Lakes Commission provides an essential service to the basin by reporting how much of our Great Lakes water is being used and trends in that usage.”

“With over ten years of water use data across the basin, the Great Lakes Water Use Database annual report allows us to understand short- and longer-term trends in water use across the basin. Fifteen years after the passage of the Great Lakes Agreement and Compact, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River states and provinces have assembled a valuable database of water use information, supporting the region’s efforts to sustainably manage water withdrawals in the Great Lakes basin from Duluth to Montreal,” said Steven Little, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Deputy Secretary, representing current Regional Body chair Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers.

To read the report, 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.