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Deal protects Great Lakes water
By STEVE ERWIN

TORONTO (CP) - Dry southern U.S. states will be unable to take massive sips from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin under a deal reached Tuesday by Ontario, Quebec and other jurisdictions that border the waterways.

The Ontario government called the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement an "historic" deal that will essentially prohibit massive, bulk water exports from the fresh-water lakes.

Ontario signed the deal in Milwaukee alongside representatives from eight American states - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Quebec also signed the deal since the St. Lawrence River is connected to the Great Lakes, which account for one-fifth of the world's fresh water supply.

The deal, which still requires endorsement by the U.S. Congress, is meant to prevent thirsty southern American states from diverting massive amounts of water to their own jurisdictions.

It's more of a theoretical risk, but Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay said the deal was key to protecting Great Lakes water from drainage over decades to come.

"Primarily the pressures come from the southwest United States, the drier part of the continent," Ramsay told reporters at the Ontario legislature in Toronto.

"We hear musings from time to time (from) southern California, Arizona, New Mexico of their challenges to supply fresh, potable water to their populations," Ramsay said.

"They look north and they see the Great Lakes as the largest supply of fresh water in the world . . . and sometimes they get visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, to use a seasonal analogy."

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Thank God.

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