At last, a good step to saving Great Lakes

Dec. 18, 2005. 01:00 AM
Toronto Star

For the 40 million Canadians and Americans who live near the shores of the Great Lakes, an abundant supply of water is something they normally take for granted.

As residents in Ajax walk along the bike paths bordering Lake Ontario, or as cottagers near Kincardine wade in Lake Huron, it is almost impossible for them to conceive of waging legal battles for the right to have water to drink or fill bathtubs.

And yet for years, that has what has been occurring in many parts of the United States, where drought and industrial growth, urban sprawl and tainted underground aquifers have forced state and municipal governments to ask courts and lawmakers for access to new sources of fresh water.

Many of those U.S. towns and states have had their eyes on the Great Lakes, which contain 20 per cent of the world's fresh water. In the 1980s, several Canadian entrepreneurs proposed loading Great Lakes water into tankers and shipping it to the highest bidder.

And since the 1990s, politicians in states such as Arizona and New Mexico, hit by sustained droughts, have mused about diverting water through an existing Chicago canal linking Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and then overland to their parched areas.

That's why environmentalists in both Canada and the U.S. have been pushing Ontario, Quebec and the eight U.S. states that border the Great Lakes to reach agreements regulating who can draw water from the lakes.

They argue that if too much water is siphoned off, the entire Great Lakes ecosystem could be damaged, resulting in severe fallout for everyone who lives or works near the lakes.

Finally, though, their worst fears may be easing. That's because after years of negotiations, Ontario, Quebec, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois have reached a historic deal to prohibit massive diversions of lake water.

The deal, signed Tuesday in Milwaukee, is welcome, and long overdue.

It removes the biggest potential threat to the Great Lakes water supply, which would have seen the Chicago diversion canal used to ship vast amounts of water to the U.S. southwest.

It will also be a legal tool to protect the Great Lakes from environmental damage from lower water levels. At the same time, it will permit water to be removed under certain circumstances, such as bottled water.

The accord still must be approved by provincial and state legislatures, and ultimately by the U.S. Congress, which is expected to give it fairly easy passage. There will, however, likely be many U.S. court battles.

Within 24 hours of the agreement being signed, officials from one Wisconsin city were already planning how they could use the new pact to tap into Lake Michigan.

Waukesha officials say the city desperately needs a new water source because large amounts of radium have been appearing in its municipal wells.

Waukesha lies less than 50 kilometres from Lake Michigan, but is outside the Great Lakes Water Basin and thus barred from using water from the lake.

Still, despite the expected legal battles, the agreement is a victory for Ontario and all those who live near the lakes. It will mean a better chance for Ontarians to have continued access to clean, abundant fresh water.

Now, when a state or town asks for more water, Ontario and Quebec can intervene and say, "wait a minute."

For that, Premier Dalton McGuinty deserves praise for refusing to take the deal that was initially offered to Ontario.

It may not be perfect, but the new agreement is a good start at protecting the Great Lakes for generations to come.