WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A new report out Thursday claims the Great Lakes states are moving slowly to meet required deadlines under a federal law that governs water use.That compact prohibits water from being diverted outside the Great Lakes basin except for a few exceptions.

The Great Lakes hold six quadrillion gallons of water. That’s 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. As scarcity grows, there’s concern more and more people are eying that water -- it's  been likened to death by a thousand straws."

A law that’s designed to prevent other parts of the country and the world from draining the Great Lakes is getting its first big test in our own backyard.The water-use compact is part of an agreement between eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces to figure out who can have Great Lakes w