Great Lakes Article:

Editorial: Protecting Great Lakes
The Capital Times (WI)
Published December 22, 2007

The protection of Wisconsin's most precious natural resource -- the fresh water in our rivers, our lakes and especially the Great Lakes that form the shorelines of this state -- must always be a high priority for legislators. So it is reassuring, indeed, that so many of them have signed on to a statement of principles recognizing the Great Lakes as a fundamentally precious resource critical to the environmental, economic and public health of Wisconsin.

The statement specifically emphasizes Wisconsin's responsibility to manage and protect these resources.

State Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, and state Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, began circulating the statement in conjunction with the second anniversary of the signing of the Great Lakes Water Compact. The statement builds upon that milestone by pledging to take action to ensure that Wisconsin has the ability to protect and manage our Great Lakes and other water resources for the continued environmental and economic health of the entire state.

"We remain deeply concerned that Great Lakes water levels reached record and near-record lows this past year, adversely impacting the economy and the environment. We are also concerned that some national and local political leaders in other populated water-starved regions of the United States are considering diversion plans to tap Great Lakes water," reads the statement, which is commendable particularly for its specificity.

Appropriately, the signers of the statement declare, "We believe there is an urgency to take pre-emptive action, both to protect the resource itself and to position Wisconsin well against outside influences that may threaten the resource and negatively impact the state's ability to manage it properly."

Those are not merely commendable but necessary sentiments, and we would hope that they will be embraced by all legislators.

Indeed, if there are any members of the Assembly and Senate who refuse ultimately to sign on for the protection of our Great Lakes, Wisconsinites will want to be reminded of their identities before the next election.

This newspaper will gladly provide that service to the voters, just as we will remind them of the leadership provided by Jauch, a senior member of the Senate, and Mason, a freshman legislator, on this critical issue.