The Colorado River peters out just before reaching the Gulf of California. The water is diverted to fuel agriculture and the breakneck growth of the arid southwest. While many Midwesterners have moved to Arizona and New Mexico in the last few years, folks fleeing the cold weather and poor Midwest economy won’t be taking the Great Lakes with them. A coalition of Great Lakes states including Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and New York have agreed to the Great Lakes Basin Compact in order to conserve this non-renewable resource. The compact will still have to pass muster in Congress where regional special interests representing dryer states might balk.

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