Great Lakes Commission Records, 1955-1965

Biography/History

The Great Lakes Commission was established by the eight Great Lakes states in 1955 under the Great Lakes Basin Compact, an interstate compact designating the Commission as the states' joint instrumentality on Great Lakes water resource developments, programs, and problems. The movement to establish the Commission had been launched in 1954 at a regional conference sponsored by the Council of State Governments. Attended by representatives of all the eight states, the conference unanimously adopted a resolution creating an interstate committee to draft the Great Lakes Basin Compact. Following completion of the work of the drafting committee in the same year, five states - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin - ratified enabling legislation to the Compact during the 1955 legislative sessions. The Commission itself was organized in December of the same year. Pennsylvania subsequently became a member of the Commission in 1956, New York joined in 1960, and Ohio ratified the Compact in 1963. Congressional consent to the Compact was finalized on July 24, 1968. The House and Senate passed S. 660 and the President signed the bill, which became P.L. 90-419.

As their joint statutory agency, the Commission provided three services to the states. It served as a clearinghouse for information on important developments on the Great Lakes and prepared special studies, bulletins, and reports to assist governmental officials and others in the use, protection and further development of these water resources. It provided the states with a recognized and continuing council, under their direction and control, for joint consideration of common and regional problems on the Great Lakes. Finally, it coordinated the viewpoints and plans of member states to advance the programs and policies, at all levels of government, that the states felt were in their interest and the region's interest.

The Commission was composed of three to five members from each member state, selected in accordance with the provisions of its enabling legislation, with each state having three votes. The Commission carried on its program through at least two meetings annually, five standing committees, special committees as needed, and the staff of its office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. An executive committee, consisting of the chairman of the Commission and one representative from each member state, exercised general supervision over the Commission's activities and program between the regular meetings of the Commission.

Close cooperation was maintained between the Commission and states and agencies administering Great Lakes water resources programs. Each state delegation to the Commission regularly submitted reports on each meeting of the Commission to the Governor and to state agencies with Great Lakes interests and responsibilities. Special reports on Great Lakes developments were made to the Governors and other state officials and bodies as warranted, and regular reports were made to the Governor and the Legislature in each member state every two years. Financial support for the Commission's program was derived from state appropriations.