ANWRing the Great Lakes?
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP)—Great Lakes water cannot be diverted to thirsty areas elsewhere in the United States and abroad under an agreement approved Friday by President Bush.
Approval of the Great Lakes Compact was the final step in a nearly decadelong quest to strengthen legal protections for the use of water from the five Great Lakes, their connecting channels and the St. Lawrence River. It received bipartisan support and the backing of business and environmental groups and both presidential candidates.
The pact bans new diversions of water to places outside the region—eight states and two Canadian provinces with a combined population of roughly 40 million. There are limited exceptions for communities near the basin boundary that meet rigorous requirements and for the taking of water in small containers.
How stupid is this? We’ve got 20% of the world’s freshwater that now for all practical purposes off limits to most of the people in this country.
Now I agree that we need to be careful with our resources but I don’t think that’s the purpose of this agreement. After all if we were worried about it the concerns would be maintaining a minimum water levels, flow through the St Lawrence River and water quality of the discharges into the water system.
But no, this agreement is just about saying “Hands Off” to the majority of the people in the US. I mean they’re worried about people drinking bottled water out of the lake for heaven’s sake. Don’t these people understand that the lakes are called “Great” because they are really really large. We’d be able to use a lot more of this RENEWABLE resource without negatively affecting the environment.
But no, this agreement is about fencing off the resources that belong to all of us just out of selfishness I guess. Now the border states and provinces along the water ways can sit back smug in knowing that they’ve got water they don’t need but no one else can have.
And the Bush administration signed off on this stupidity.
