Title: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 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.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Canada should not allow construction of a nuclear waste repository within the Great Lakes Basin and that the President and the Department of State should work with Canada to prevent such construction and craft a long-term solution for nuclear waste storage that does not threaten the Great Lakes.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 647 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 647

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 17, 2021

   Mr. Kildee (for himself, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Ms. Schakowsky, Mrs. 
   Walorski, Mrs. Dingell, Mrs. Lawrence, Mr. Levin of Michigan, Ms. 
 Stevens, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Bergman, Mr. Huizenga, Mr. Meijer, Mr. Upton, 
Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Morelle, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Gonzalez of Ohio, 
   Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Mr. Gallagher, and Ms. McCollum) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 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 Provinces of Canada;
Whereas, since 1909, the United States and Canada have worked to maintain and 
        improve the water quality of the Great Lakes through water quality 
        agreements;
Whereas more than 40,000,000 individuals in both Canada and the United States 
        depend on the fresh water from the Great Lakes for drinking water;
Whereas the Government of Canada is proposing to build a permanent deep 
        geological repository for high-level nuclear waste in the Great Lakes 
        Basin;
Whereas the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Canada is examining 
        building a permanent deep geological repository for nuclear waste in the 
        Great Lakes Basin, less than 40 miles from Lake Huron in South Bruce, 
        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, including during transit 
        to a permanent deep geological repository for nuclear waste, could have 
        lasting and severely adverse environmental, health, and economic impacts 
        on the Great Lakes and the individuals who depend on the Great Lakes for 
        their livelihoods;
Whereas more than 232 local, county, State, and Tribal governments have passed 
        resolutions in opposition to the formerly proposed nuclear waste 
        repository of Ontario Power Generation;
Whereas Tribes and First Nations' citizens have a strong spiritual and cultural 
        connection to the Great Lakes;
Whereas the Saugeen Ojibway Nation have exercised their Aboriginal and Treaty 
        Rights and voted against Ontario Power Generation building a permanent 
        nuclear waste repository in Kincardine, Ontario;
Whereas the protection of the Great Lakes is fundamental to treaty rights; and
Whereas, during the 1980s, when the Department of Energy was studying potential 
        sites for a permanent nuclear waste repository in the United States in 
        accordance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101 et 
        seq.), the Government of Canada expressed concern with locating a 
        permanent nuclear waste repository within shared water basins of the 2 
        countries: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the Government of Canada should not allow a permanent 
        nuclear waste repository to be built within the Great Lakes 
        Basin;
            (2) the President and the Secretary of State should take 
        appropriate action to work with the Government of Canada to 
        prevent a permanent nuclear waste repository from being built 
        within the Great Lakes Basin; and
            (3) the President and the Secretary of State should work 
        together with their counterparts in the Government of Canada on 
        a solution for the long-term storage of nuclear waste that--
                    (A) is safe and responsible; and
                    (B) does not pose a threat to the Great Lakes.
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