Welcome to the Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database, providing comparable water use information on withdrawals, diversions and consumptive uses. This database supports the states and provinces in implementing Article 4 of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and Article 301 of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement. Under the Compact and the Agreement, the parties (states and provinces) are required to report water use information to the regional database repository and aggregated information will be made available to the public on an annual basis. In 2012, the database was redesigned to comply with the Interim State/Provincial Reporting Protocols to the Regional Water Use Database, adopted by the Regional Body and Compact Council on December 8, 2009.

The Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database has been around for almost 40 years! Originally, it was established by the Great Lakes states and provinces in response to the recommendation of the Great Lakes Charter of 1985, which called for a uniform, consistent base of data of Great Lakes water withdrawals, diversions and consumptive uses. Beginning in 1987, water use data have been submitted to the repository on an annual basis to assist the jurisdictions in Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River water resources planning and management. As specified by the Water Resources Management Committee in its 1987 report, Managing the Waters of the Great Lakes Basin, the database catalogs withdrawals by water use category, sub-basin and jurisdiction.