Summer 2004: Shaping the Future of the Great Lakes

Clean Wisconsin Works with Council of Great Lakes Governors
to Develop Comprehensive Water Management System for Great Lakes Basin

Proposal Likely to be Released Around Anniversary Date of June 18 for Review MADISON, Wis. (June 1, 2004) — The Great Lakes are one of the natural wonders of the world. They are the heart of the ecosystems we rely on for life, and a gift whose beauty and bounty enrich our lives and identify our region. But amidst the splendor of the Great Lakes remains an unregulated international resource coveted by countries, communities and companies seeking fresh water sources for a variety of uses. This highly sought-after resource remains unprotected by a regional policy preventing exports or overuse and abuse within the Great Lakes’ ecosystem. This summer, the Council of Great Lakes Governors and Canadian Premiers will move toward regional management of the Great Lakes to address a variety of threats that have made the Great Lakes vulnerable such as increased withdrawals for drinking water, inadequate water conservation and reuse applications, lowering lake levels and increased concentrations of pollution. Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy organization, has taken the environmental lead on this issue in Wisconsin and is working closely with the Council to help ensure objectivity to produce “an enhanced water management system that is simple, durable, efficient, retains and respects authority within the basin, and most importantly protects, conserves, restores and improves the waters and water-dependent natural resources of the Great Lakes Basin”. [4]

Donal S. Abrams Wisconsin Department of Tourism

In June 2001, the process to develop supply standards began with the signing of the Great Lakes Charter Annex 2001 (Annex). The Annex can be thought of as a road map to help guide the water-use decisions of individual states and provinces toward a common goal: the protection and enhancement of Great Lakes water, including local water supplies and the lakes, rivers and aquifers that make up the freshwater ecosystem. Despite the protections envisioned by the Charter, a more formal and robust management system for the Great Lakes is necessary to stay ahead of the growing demand for Great Lakes water and a draft proposal outlining these recommendations will likely be released on or around the anniversary date of June 18, 2004.

The summer of 2004 will provide the public an opportunity to offer comments on shaping the future of the Great Lakes. Since many residents are unaware of the issues pertaining to the Great Lakes, Clean Wisconsin has embarked on an effort to inform and inspire Wisconsinites to get involved. Details about the threats to the Great Lakes, a draft proposal issued from the Council and hearing schedules for public comment will be posted online at www.cleanwisconsin.org or call 608.251.7020 for additional information.

Threats to the Great Lakes region

Per capita water consumption in the United States is more than four times higher than the global average. Water waste, along with contamination of available supplies, now jeopardizes important public resources. The quality and supply of the Great Lakes system of interrelated aquifers, streams and lakes can make a huge impact on the surrounding lakes and habitats that define Wisconsin’s way of life.

A few examples of the threats to the Great Lakes region include:

• Many coastal communities rely on Great Lakes water for drinking water and domestic uses and are increasing their withdrawals.
• The region is using Great Lakes groundwater faster than nature can replenish it.
• The Great Lakes region has fallen behind the world and western states in water conservation and reuse applications.
• Profiteers are willing to sell Great Lakes water for profit, like oil or lumber. And Great Lakes communities have looked at proposals for exporting water in tankers and by pipeline.
• Power plants withdraw the largest amount of water out of the Great Lakes for the process of creating energy.
• Agricultural uses consume the largest amount of withdrawn water to create the food we eat.
• Lowering lake levels, even by one inch, means altering shipping loads and negatively affecting commerce.
• Great Lakes municipalities rely on the lakes for pollution dilution and lower lakes levels mean more concentrated pollution.

The Great Lakes are a vast, renewable resource. They won’t shrink and dry up. Or will they?

Even the grandest of resources have dried-up or fallen to misuse. Consider the vivid examples of the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Colorado River in Southwestern United States.

• The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland sea in the world. With abundant fish resources and a busy shipping trade between its northern port and the river ports as far distant as Tajikistan, the Aral Sea provided a healthy livelihood for several hundred thousand people. Then in the 1960s, the flow of water into the Aral Sea began to drop alarmingly. Upstream irrigation schemes, for the growing of rice and cotton, consumed like a sponge more than 90 percent of the natural flow of water. As a result about 60 percent of water volume was lost, the sea level declined 14 meters, and 27,000 square kilometers of former sea bottom became dry surface.[2]

• The mighty Colorado River flows from northern Colorado through Utah, the Grand Canyon, Arizona and Mexico. Not more than 80 years ago the river ran unhindered across these borders before pouring out into the Gulf of California. Today, irrigation and unchecked suburban development prevent the river from reaching its final destination.[3]

The recipe for such disasters – surging demand and unlimited access – is at work today in the Great Lakes region. Global water market solutions to water scarcity center on selling and moving water from place to place instead of conserving and managing supplies for long-term water security. Proposals for exporting Great Lakes water, along with previously unthinkable groundwater shortages in many Great Lakes communities, are now showing the region’s citizens and leaders how precious and vulnerable their water is. Protections from export plans and unrestrained water use, however, are weak or nonexistent in the Great Lakes. That must change if farms, cities and families hope to have enough water in the future.

Gary Knowles, Wisconsin Department of Tourism

A Brief History of the Great Lakes Charter and its Design to Address Vulnerability

In 1985, the then Governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, together with the seven other Great Lakes Governors and the Provincial Premiers of Ontario and Quebec recognized that the solution is a regional system of standards to protect and enhance the basin, rather than global water markets. They adopted the Great Lakes Charter agreement and subsequently the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) was passed by Congress in 1986. A key provision of WRDA established that diversions of Great Lakes water are illegal unless approved unanimously by all the Great Lakes Governors.

The summer of 2004 is the public’s opportunity to offer comments to shape the future of the Great Lakes.

With great vision, the Council has realized the value of the Great Lakes water before this precious resource runs dry. June 18, 2004 marks the three year anniversary of the signing of the Great Lakes Charter Annex 2001.

• Directive I of the Annex is a self imposed deadline for the Council of Great Lakes Governors (Council) to move the Great Lakes Charter to a binding agreement within three years of Annex 2001.
• The Council will likely release a draft proposal titled, the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact, on or soon after the anniversary date of June 18, 2004.
• The public will have an opportunity to shape future protections for the Great Lakes by commenting on that draft.
• Wisconsin will likely hear comments in Milwaukee and Green Bay. Regionally, the Council will hold hearings in Chicago and Toronto.
• These hearings will occur with in a 90 day comment period during which time the Council will also be accepting written comments about this issue, its relevance to individual’s daily lives, etc.
• This is likely the only time in which the general public will be asked to comment on these procedures. Hearing schedules will be posted on Clean Wisconsin’s website at www.cleanwisconsin.org.

The future prosperity of Great Lakes communities depends on managing the region’s water – locally and basin-wide – not frivolously as an endless sea but realistically as a finite and fragile global resource.

Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy organization founded as Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, protects Wisconsin’s clean water and air and advocates for clean energy by being an effective voice in the state legislature and by holding elected officials and corporations accountable. Phone: 608.251.7020, Fax: 608.251.1655, Email: info@cleanwisconsin.org, Website: www.cleanwisconsin.org.