State politicians and environmental advocates gathered at the executive residence of Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday to commemorate the passage of the Great Lakes Compact.
President George Bush signed the compact last week after almost a decade of negotiations among the states and provinces bordering the Great Lakes.
According to Matt Frank, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Doyle's leadership was key in pulling all of the governors of Great Lakes states together to support the compact.
[The Great Lakes Compact has become] national legislation because of Governor Doyle's strong leadership and support from people in Wisconsin and across the country,"" Frank said.
The compact required all of the legislators and organizations to come together around a common bipartisan vision, which is to maintain and protect the Great Lakes, Doyle said.
""For close to a decade the Great Lakes states have been negotiating and then building support for a compact that would protect these amazing waters,"" he said.
Doyle said the Great Lakes define Wisconsin geographically, culturally and historically, adding they are important for the state's future.
""[The compact] secures one of [Wisconsin's] greatest competitive advantages in the 21st century and that is our water,"" he said.
According to Doyle, the rest of the Great Lakes states were watching to see what Wisconsin would do, and when it stalled here, other states were delaying their progress too.
He said once the compact passed in Wisconsin, it built momentum for other Great Lakes states to ratify it as well.
""Wisconsin has done the right thing and [the compact is] a way to preserve our great state for generations to come,"" he said.
The credit for passing the compact goes to the state government, the bipartisan work of the legislature, the agencies that worked together and all of the Great Lakes states, said U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
