III 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 88 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President and the Secretary 

of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not permanently store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 15, 2017 

Ms. STABENOW (for herself, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. BROWN, 

Mr. DURBIN, Mr. FRANKEN, Mr. PETERS, and Ms. BALDWIN) submitted 

the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 

Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President and 

the Secretary of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not permanently store nuclear 

waste in the Great Lakes Basin. 

Whereas the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin are 

precious public natural resources, shared by the Great 

Lakes States and the Canadian Provinces; 

Whereas the United States and Canada have, since 1909, 

worked to maintain and improve the water quality of the 

Great Lakes through water quality agreements; 

Whereas over 40,000,000 people in both Canada and the 

United States depend on the fresh water from the Great 

Lakes for drinking water; 


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•SRES 88 IS 

Whereas Ontario Power Generation is proposing to build a 

permanent geological repository for nuclear waste less 

than one mile from Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario, 

Canada; 

Whereas nuclear waste is highly toxic and can take tens of 

thousands of years to decompose to safe levels; 

Whereas a spill of nuclear waste into the Great Lakes could 

have lasting and severely adverse environmental, health, 

and economic impacts on the Great Lakes and the people 

that depend on them for their livelihood: 

Whereas 187 local, county, State, and tribal governments 

have passed resolutions in opposition to Ontario Power 

Generation’s proposed nuclear waste repository; 

Whereas tribes and First Nations’ citizens have a strong spiritual and cultural connection to the Great Lakes, and its 

protection is fundamental to treaty rights; 

Whereas Ontario Power Generation has promised not to move 

forward with their current proposal without the support 

of the First Nations that would be impacted; and 

Whereas, during the 1980s, when the Department of Energy, 

in accordance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 

1982, was studying potential sites for a permanent nuclear waste repository in the United States, the Government of Canada expressed concern with locating a permanent nuclear waste repository within shared water basins 

of the two countries: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) the Government of Canada should not allow 

3 a permanent nuclear waste repository to be built 

4 within the Great Lakes Basin; 


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•SRES 88 IS 

1 (2) the President and the Secretary of State 

2 should take appropriate action to work with the Gov3 ernment of Canada to prevent a permanent nuclear 

4 waste repository from being built within the Great 

5 Lakes Basin; and 

6 (3) the President and the Secretary of State 

7 should work together with their Government of Can8 ada counterparts on a safe and responsible solution 

9 for the long-term storage of nuclear waste. 

Æ 


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