It appears the Michigan House of Representatives, or at least some clueless members of it, are poised to grant the international bottled water industry -- perhaps in a committee and floor vote today -- a special exemption from a ban on Great Lakes water diversions. That ban, which appeared in a compact among the Great Lakes states signed less than 60 days ago, was touted with such joy by governors and environmental leaders. Now we're at risk of legislating it away.
Let's be clear: this language appears to allow the insertion of withdrawal pipes into the Great Lakes themselves and water withdrawn through them for the express purpose of bottling and selling to any market in the world. These withdrawals will be exempt from any review by the other Great Lakes states and will undercut the position of the states in trying to prevent water from being diverted through pipelines or tankers.
In fact, water bottlers could ship Great Lakes water in any quantity out of the Basin in bottles on tankers or trucks under this amendment without any regional review or possibility of veto, provided that no one could show that their pipes are affecting the Lakes -- and that would be a difficult test to meet until too many of those withdrawals have occurred to be undone.
Those whose people have lived here far longer than the Europeans can teach us a thing or two. Let's hope a few lawmakers rise in defense of the Lakes before it's too late. The clock is winding down and it's 11:59 p.m. in the fight over public vs. private control of the Lakes.
For generations we have heard the cries and felt the tears of our Mother Earth, felt the pulse of her life blood waters struggling to survive the abuses that have been heaped upon her. One hundred and fifty years ago we had a resource in the Great Lakes region that was considered inexhaustible. It lasted barely two generations. This was the White Pine forest. The White Pine of this century is Water.
-- Frank Ettawageshik, Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, December 4, 2004
Posted by Dave at February 9, 2006 06:40 AM