Two conferences on water exports in Chicago the last three days. One is featured in the linked article, and has to do with those sprawling communities either straddling the border or just outside the border of the Great Lakes Basin. They're wasting water, they're growing -- and they want to slurp from the Lakes. But other alternatives have to be exhausted first.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb05/302393.asp
Today's conference, at the Chicago Kent College of Law, got at the assumptions behind the proposed Great Lakes interstate compact designed to set rules that would limit, but not prevent the shipment of water out of the Basin. The upshot to anyone who went to the meeting with an open mind is that the assumptions are flawed, and the Great Lakes states have a sound footing for saying "no" to all experts for the foreseeable future. Which means the governors had better go back to the drawing board and strengthen the draft they put out last year -- or risk being remembered as the governors who let the lakes slip away for no good reason.