INDIANAPOLIS | Environmental groups and business leaders joined hands Monday in support of Indiana's effort to protect the world's largest source of freshwater from being diverted to parched western states or international dry spots.

The divergent interests spoke in favor of state legislation to implement a Great Lakes water-usage agreement that Indiana, seven other states and two Canadian provinces signed off on two years ago.

State lawmakers in Illinois and Minnesota already have ratified the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resource Compact, which would prohibit attempts to pipe or ship water outside of the watershed basin that surrounds the five lakes. State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, is co-authoring the bill, which would bring Indiana on board next year.

The water-use pact has drawn widespread region backing from environmental groups and big business, including BP, Mittal Steel, NIPSCO and U.S. Steel.

"We hold the enviable position of being the only state where joint industry and environmental support has been put forth," said Kay Nelson, environmental affairs director for the Northwest Indiana Forum.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Indiana American Water, a private utility company serving 300,000 households in Northwest Indiana, also spoke in support of the legislative effort to implement the Great Lakes Charter.

Other proponents warned lawmakers that time is not on their side.

In October, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate, called for a national water policy, saying "states like Wisconsin are awash with water" while the southwest suffers from shortages. Meanwhile, the Midwest continues to lose population-based congressional seats to growing states on both coasts.

The Great Lakes Compact was inspired in part by the Nova Group, an Ontario consulting firm that in 1998 won a Canadian permit to ship tankers of Lake Superior water to arid areas of Asia. The scheme was scuttled amid public uproar.

The compact will need congressional approval even if it is ratified by the six remaining states -- Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.