Nov. 1--Great Lakes governors, famous for hoarding almost every drop of the world's largest freshwater system, are pushing for a tighter water-diversion law they hope will serve as a deadbolt when thirsty outsiders start banging on the door.
Perhaps they should pull their eyes off the peephole and take a look behind them to see what might already be going down their own drain.
An engineering study funded by a group of Canadian lakefront property owners this year claims a 1962 Army Corps of Engineers dredging project, done in conjunction with St. Lawrence Seaway construction, essentially pulled the plug on Lakes Michigan and Huron, sending an average of nearly 1 billion gallons a day out to sea.
Waukesha and its neighbors have a problem right now.
And right now the Baird study claims the lakes are losing an average of about 845 million gallons a day.
"It puts things in perspective," says Waukesha water utility general manager Dan Duchniak. "We're talking about a public health issue."
So -- the Army Corps of Engineers manipulates the Lakes and turns on a spigot sending over 800 million excess gallons of water a day out of the system -- and that's why we should manipulate the Lakes some more and permit Waukesha to take Great Lakes water? Why not turn off the first and prevent the second?
Waukesha's problem is not public health, but urban sprawl and inefficient use of water.
Posted by Dave at November 2, 2005 09:40 AM