A commenter on this blog said Friday:
Today a convoy of trucks, miles long, entered Louisiana carrying a precious cargo upon which lives depended. The cargo was not blood plasma or vaccines, but bottled water. After all that has been said about the "evils" of bottled water, perhaps we should now stop and think of the consequences that would have been if that bottled, prepackaged water had not been so readily available for consumption and mercy shipments. Proving once again that there is good and bad in everything - two sides to every issue - a balance. Perhaps reconciling both sides of the bottled water issue is not such a 'false balancing act' after all.
Provocative comment, at first glance. Is there anyone in the U.S. who is not relieved and heartened to see the drinking water-starved, often dehydrated hurricane victims of the Gulf Coast get bottles of water and a chance for life?
But what does this have to do with the unregulated withdrawal and private ownership of Great Lakes Basin water for consumer convenience?
The draft Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact which was up for public comment this summer has a strong anti-diversion policy -- and a humanitarian exemption.
Withdrawals from the Basin for the following purposes are exempt from Article 4:
...
(b) To use in a non-commercial project on a short-term basis for firefighting or humanitarian purposes.
No one objects to this. No environmental advocate would oppose providing bottled water to the suffering in the South. But most would suggest that the water come from a supply regulated to meet public health standards and publicly owned -- that is, water from a public water system which must meet stringent health standards and whose revenues go back to the public.
The issue is not bottled water per se -- it's the bottling of water that the public owns for private profit and consumer convenience, when there are plenty of cheaper, safe, satisfactory alternatives. The issue is private ownership of public water, be it in bottles, pipelines or tankers.
Nothing associated with the tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has changed that.
Posted by Dave at September 5, 2005 01:12 PM