RUST BELT INDUSTRY AND THE GREAT LAKES WATER AGREEMENT ACT (GLWQA): AN ASSESSMENT OF THEIR COLLABORATIVE ANIMOSITY

Abstract

The Great Lakes supply 95% of the freshwater used for drinking in the United States and 21% of the earth's entire freshwater supply. They are also the source of more than 40 million gallons of water each day for use in American industrial power production. As a geopolitical lynchpin and a regional Global Hydro-Hub, the American Midwest has built up its industrial strength through usage of water from the Great Lakes. However, this usage has also brought unanticipated negative consequences, as nearby industry has been found to be the largest source of chloride and other pollutants in the Great Lakes such as garbage disposal waste, sewer runoff, and water softening products, thereby achieving geopolitical stature at the cost of water quality. The demand for water governance from various climate change actors over several generations has given rise to the Great Lakes Water Agreement Act (GLWQA), binational legislation agreed upon by the US and Canada. In this study, quantitative tests including the Welch Test and the Mann-Whitney U test were performed using datasets of water pollution records of Midwest industrialists from the US Environmental Protection Agency as well as industrial output from the North American Industry Classification System. Based on the results of this output, this study will measure the revenue of industrial production in light of the associated water pollution for this region's American states in order to determine whether Midwest industrialists' productivity is counterbalanced by the newest amendments of the GLWQA.