A minor debate rages in Michigan's community of environmental advocates and corporate lobbyists and attorneys over Gov. Granholm's temporary waiver permitting bottled water to be sent out of Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
It all began with a posting on the statewide Enviro-Mich e-mail list by MSU fisheries and wildlife professor Tracy Dobson questioning the Governor's waiver. A former environmental advocate who now practices corporate environmental law jumped all over Tracy, whose commitment to both humanitarianism and the Great Lakes is unquestionable.
Here's part of the exchange:
Tracy:
Is anyone else horrified by what I believe was an announcement by Governor Granholm to send GL water to the southern disaster area? Just as the public comment period ends on Annex 2001, a policy which seeks to protect the lakes by limiting diversions, seemingly without any consultation, this announcement. There are many ways we can help, but this makes NO sense!
Grant Trigger:
You cannot seriously believe there is any credibility in objecting to
sending water IN ANY FORM to the disaster area - you must be kidding -
honestly..................
This kind of irrational reaction is an embarrassment to decent people
and totally undermines the good any environmental organization can
expect to achieve. And my reply is constrained ...................
Tracy:
I couldn't be more in favor of Michigan participating in assisting our fellow citizens so badly hurt by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. And, providing water is a very useful, appropriate, and much needed activity. We should all be very pleased that our governor has responded to this situation quickly and forcefully. My concern was about the water source. I believe we have others available that are already filtered, etc., that would be more appropriate than drawing from the Great Lakes.
The ad hominen attack strategy on Tracy may not be by accident. Apparently, just before the Governor issued the waiver, Michigan business lobbyists started spreading the word that the Governor's bottled water export moratorium signed May 26 was standing in the way of hurricane relief. They were wrong.
The moratorium applied to "new or increased" water exports not those that predated the moratorium. Specifically:
This Directive applies prospectively only and does not apply to existing bottled water operations or those facilities with permits pending before the Department of Environmental Quality.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-118987--,00.html
The water that will go to the Gulf Coast is from already permitted sources. Still, the Governor's action sends a clear signal that her anti-export policy will never interfere with humanitarian relief, and disarms the opponents of yet another false argument they were beginning to advance to give Nestle and other water exploiters carte blanche to export Great Lakes water for commercial profit at public expense.
Similarly, the proposed Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact would exempt humanitarian relief from its anti-water export policy.
Both the original false claim against the moratorium, and the attack on Tracy, are efforts designed to portray a strong Great Lakes water protection policy and environmental advocates as unreasonable and inhumane.
Here's the text of the Governor's waiver.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-125751--,00.html
Posted by Dave at September 8, 2005 03:07 PM