From The Council Of Canadians;

OPINION: 'The Compact won't save the Great Lakes',says Dave Dempsey

Dave Dempsey, author of 'Great Lakes for Sale', writes in a recent op-ed that, "What's the problem (with the Great Lakes Compact)? Doesn't this pact set standards to limit or deny major Great Lakes diversions? Yes, for the most part through a pipe, but not in small containers. Also not addressed is the connection between groundwater and the Great Lakes. Groundwater is tied to the Great Lakes, supplying much of their flow."

Dempsey continues, "Instead of banning the conversion of the Great Lakes to a product, the Compact promotes selling it in small containers. The agreement allows pumping and packaging of Great Lakes water - in the hundreds of millions of gallons per project per year - as long as the packages are 5.7 gallons or less in volume. Michigan has already allowed this practice. Any of the eight Great Lakes states could have closed the loophole within their borders. None have."

He adds, "...the compact...may confer a new private property right - to Nestle and other giant water-for-sale companies. That's something few Great Lakes citizens, but many Great Lakes lobbyists, can go for. Under centuries of common law and common sense, water has been regarded as a publicly owned resource, too important for navigation, fishing, and ecology to be privatized. The compact turns that upside down and puts the essence of life up for sale to private parties."

Dempsey concludes, "The Great Lakes won't be lost tomorrow. But they won't be saved by the compact the day after tomorrow. It's time for the people of the Great Lakes region to assert their common ownership and control of the water that feeds them and the lakes. It will take a pitched battle and vast persistence in every state to make it happen. The clock is ticking. Water is the resource that will bring economic opportunities to the Great Lakes region. The lakes contain 95 percent of U.S. and 18 percent of the world's surface fresh water. It makes no sense to sell them off in boatloads or truckloads of bottles."

To read his full op-ed, please go to http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080712/OPINION04/807120313.

As I’ve noted previously, environmental lawyer Jim Olson has also spoken out against the Great Lakes Compact. In a Circle of Blue interview, he outlines three major concerns that he has with the Great Lakes Compact:

1. “…there is a huge product exemption; a precedent is being set that water can be privatized for export and sale. It is not subject to the diversion ban and Compact, which could tilt the gradient of Great Lakes water to the West, or to the Southeast, or anywhere in the world if it was in a container. It wasn’t intended to turn water into a private commodity or to privatize water and there’s a huge risk that the Compact does exactly that.”

2. “…the Great Lakes and all navigable water are by U.S. and State Supreme Court decision since the late 1800’s subject to public ownership in a public trust, which demands that governments not dispose of water for private gain and purposes. It demands that water be managed for the benefit of all citizens so it can be used for commerce, navigation, farming, and the likes and maintained for the benefit of the poorest of us, not just for the advantaged. The doctrine is a democratic doctrine that assures things like water that are common are not controlled by private interests, and that’s exactly what could happen with the Compact. It’s strange that the Compact does not include a public trust standard, which is the most basic, and the highest ethical standard, or stewardship standard recognized by law, by the US Supreme Court, and by the states of the Great Lakes.”

3. “…some of the states are adopting the Compact’s diversion ban, but they’re not enacting conservation standards that are very strict. Michigan is just about to pass this water law…they’re going to allow water to be allocated for private use: up to 25 percent of the lakes and streams. This means all the groundwater that feeds lakes and streams can be removed until you have fish kill of 5 to 20 percent. That’s a huge amount of water I mean it’s the equivalent of a quarter of the Ogallala aquifer, which is about the size of Lake Huron.”

This interview can be read at http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/world/north-america/the-great-lakes-compact-and-the-potential-privatization-of-water-an-interview-with-james-m-olson/.