If the so-called Annex 2001 isn't the final answer to saving the Great Lakes, what is? Good question.
Maybe the best place to start is this: what could Michigan do if it is serious about stopping water exports for the foreseeable future? The key is to remember that Michigan is the only state almost exclusively within the Great Lakes Basin. That is, it can't export water from the Lakes within its boundaries. New York can. Ohio can. Indiana can. Illinois does. Those states have competing interests; they want to protect the Lakes from raids from other regions, but may want to tap the Lakes themselves.
Here's a try at a Michigan program:
#1 -- Pass a strong water conservation law. In the meantime, implement the world's best water conservation education program.
#2 -- Recognizing that the other 7 Great Lakes states want to export water from the Great Lakes Basin, but within their boundaries, hold fast to the veto power granted each Great Lakes governor by the federal Water Resources Development Act.
#3 -- Rewrite the proposed Annex agreement, keeping such advances as the "resource improvement" standard, but toughening the standards for review of out-of-Basin exports even if within a Great Lakes state.
#4 -- Work with Ontario, which also has a strong interest in keeping the Great Lakes intact, on research regarding the ecological and economic effects of lowered Great Lakes water levels.
Posted by Dave at July 21, 2004 03:33 PM