As U.S. water worries emerge, all eyes are on the Great Lakes

Posted November 5, 2007 in [Water]

Momentum builds to finish a legal bulwark that would protect against diversions to arid areas.

Larry Oakes, Star Tribune, November 4, 2007 – DULUTH - When Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson suggested last month that states "awash in water" could share, it rocked a lot of boats in Great Lakes states.

"I believe that Western states and Eastern states have not been talking to each other when it comes to proper use of our water resources," Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, told the Las Vegas Sun. "I want a national water policy. ... States like Wisconsin are awash in water."

Environmental groups and politicians up and down the lakes blasted the idea, and Richardson later backed down, saying though a press secretary that he "in no way proposes federal transfers of water."

But the episode created a buzz that still could be heard here last week at a large conference about the future of Lake Superior, and it has fueled speculation about the "water wars" some predict for America as dry regions such as Richardson's run short.

Georgia and other southeastern states already are restricting water and battling over usage amid drought.

With Lake Superior reaching record-low levels for late summer and new evidence that climate change might be aggravating the trend, Richardson's salvo also has renewed calls for the eight Great Lakes states to finish ratifying a compact that would block any new diversions to other parts of the country.

"Those arid states are going to be very water hungry," said Allison Wolf, legislative director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which has pushed to protect Lake Superior. "The notion that the next century is the one where water scarcity will really come to the fore is not science fiction."

No pipe to Phoenix

In February, Minnesota became the first state to approve the binding agreement, negotiated in 2005 by the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. The region contains 35 million people and almost 20 percent of the world's fresh water. The biggest of the five lakes -- Superior -- is the largest lake in the world by surface area.

Called the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, the agreement bans large diversions from the basin -- the entire area drained by those water bodies -- and requires each state or province to adhere to standards of water conservation and efficiency. It also requires them to observe a shared, regional strategy for preserving the lakes and the economy they sustain.

"The Great Lakes -- particularly Superior -- already are having a very large problem with loss of water" from drought and evaporation linked to global warming, said state Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, one of the chief authors of the legislation to ratify the compact. "It's had a huge impact on the shipping industry."

Huntley rejected the idea that states should share their vital resources. "Because Phoenix overbuilt, is that the rest of the country's responsibility to fix?" he asked. "Maybe they should shut the sprinklers off on their golf courses."

Huntley noted that researchers at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory have published data suggesting that dwindling winter ice cover is causing Superior to warm twice as fast as the surrounding climate and exposing it to prolonged winter evaporation.

In August, Illinois followed Minnesota in ratifying the compact, and legislation is pending in the other six states. Congress also must give its consent in order for the pact to become law.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's office said that in Canada, where no federal approval is required, Ontario and Quebec are moving forward with provincial implementation of a separate, companion agreement.

Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said the governor was pleased that Minnesota was the first state to ratify and believed the agreement is needed to prevent "any raid on Great Lakes water."

Milwaukee's beer exception

Some environmentalists believe the compact doesn't go far enough because it makes exceptions for bottled water companies and other manufacturers, such as brewers, who sell Great Lakes water as part of their products.

It also grandfathers in diversions such as the Chicago River, which years ago was made to flow backward, out of the basin. Further, it makes exceptions for those communities -- none of which is in Minnesota -- that draw their drinking water from the basin but discharge their effluent into an adjacent watershed, such as the Mississippi River's.

Kent Lokkesmoe, head of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' water division, said local exceptions were necessary to make an agreement that would pass in every state.

"Everybody agreed we shouldn't be diverting water out of the Great Lakes, but the devil is in the details," Lokkesmoe said. "There was lots of concern over bottled water, but they also make a lot of beer in Milwaukee, and not all of that water is staying in the basin. But realistically, you aren't going to water the lawns of Phoenix with bottled water."

Wolf said she hopes that once the compact makes its way "through the thicket of all the other states," Congress will honor the resolve of people in the Great Lakes region by giving its approval, as it has to other interstate compacts.

But she added that far greater challenges may lie ahead:

"With some of the climate change challenges, these issues will be more and more front and center. The whole planet will have to undertake this discussion."

Larry Oakes • 1-218-727-7344

Larry Oakes • loakes@startribune.com