Fearing that the government wasn’t doing enough to protect the health of Lake Erie, voters in Toledo, Ohio passed legislation that grants the lake, the 11th largest in the world, some of the same rights as a person – effectively allowing citizens to sue on behalf of the lake when it’s being polluted.

 

Last week, voters in Toledo approved a measure granting Lake Erie some of the same legal rights as a person. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights grants Lake Erie the legal right “to exist, flourish and naturally evolve” free from pollution and gives citizens the power to sue anyone breaching those rights on the lake’s behalf.

 

Lake Erie, which provides drinking water to 12 million people in the US and Canada and feeds Niagara Falls, “has suffered for more than a century under continuous assault and ruin due to industrialisation,” according to the bill. It warns that the lake is in “imminent danger of irreversible devastation.”

 

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