Great Lakes Blogger

who owns the Great Lakes?

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - As governors of the Great Lakes states debated how to prevent outsiders from staking a claim to their precious water, advocates warned that without a deal, the region would be at the mercy of an increasingly powerful - and thirsty - Sun Belt.

But since the eight governors shook hands on a water compact in December 2005, the loudest complaints have surfaced within the Great Lakes region itself, where people find it easier to say “no” to Arizona than to restrain their own appetites.

http://www.pall-times.com/articles/2007/03/31/news/news2.txt

Here's where the wingnuts come in:

Ohio is another battleground. State Sen. Tim Grendell, an outspoken property rights advocate, wants the states to renegotiate parts of the compact - particularly its declaration that Great Lakes waters are held in public trust.

That would void private ownership of farm ponds, wetlands and even well water, said Grendell, a Republican from Chesterland: “The government is being encouraged to take people's property without paying for it. That is flat-out un-American.”

This argument is absurd. The Great Lakes and the waters feeding them have never belonged to private parties. If Sen. Grendell prevails, it's not well owners who will benefit; it's corporate water miners like Nestle, who would love to see the Great Lakes converted in law from public trust resources to privately owned, bought and sold commodities. Sen. Grendell, one hopes, does not receive significant campaign support from the water miners.

an inconvenient warming

A warming climate will likely enhance the continuing spread of disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes, said Mike Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

A warming climate may also accelerate the rate of species change in Minnesota's forests, which Lee Frelich, University of Minnesota forest ecologist, has already detected.

"We think outbreaks of native insects as well as other insects invading will be a major way the forest will change," Frelich said.

Osterholm said he thinks global warming will have its greatest human impact where it reduces water resources, either through evaporation, intensified agricultural uses, pollution or simple increased human population.

"We're not going to see the melting of the poles," Osterholm added. "But we could see some major impact on water, and that's where Minnesotans have to be concerned. Minnesota is all about water."

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1089117.html

growth and the Great Lakes

Ann and John Mahan have probably traversed the Great Lakes as much as anyone in recent times, and here's their report:

This intimate relationship with the Great Lakes ecosystem over time gives us considerable cause for concern over the accelerating rates, patterns, and effects of growth in the region.

It is noticeable from the ground, but when returning by air after several years the changes are startling. Sprawl races along primary transportation routes, then secondary, then tertiary roads. Greenspaces, forests, wetlands, and farms are replaced by yet another me-too strip mall, industrial park, or gravel pit. We are witnessing the loss of our ecosystem's collective lungs, livers, kidneys, and sources of nutrition, while towns decay from the center out. Not all communities have succumbed to this. A few have creatively developed an immunity, kept their uniqueness, and revitalized around this uniqueness. But the pattern is evident almost everywhere.

http://greatlakestownhall.org/opinion/guest.php?forumid=3&topicid=636&postid=&topicsubject=&dontscroll=1#thisweekspeaker

The health metaphor is also one that environmental groups and some scientists used in their paper, "Prescription for a Healthy Great Lakes." As the Mahans say, from the air it's readily apparent that "growth" in many areas of the Great Lakes is more cancerous than healthy. But "better land use planning" is not a sexy issue like cleaning up toxic hotspots and building better sewage treatment plants.

new Great Lakes metaphor: "soft underbelly"

We've been hearing about invasional meltdowns and national treasures, but now this from the Canadian defense debate...

Mr. Kenny said when it comes to the Great Lakes, which the committee called the "soft underbelly of Canada's coastlines," the U.S. government is a lot more serious than is Canada about guarding against security breaches such as gun and drug smuggling.

He said the U.S. government currently has about 2,200 people patrolling the Great Lakes, while only 14 RCMP officers are doing the same for Canada. Those RCMP officers are backed up by local police forces stationed around the Great Lakes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070329.NORTH29/TPStory/National

3M and drinking water

One verdict should already be in: this country needs a new chemicals policy, particularly one requiring thorough evaluation of health risks before the introduction of new substances into trade.

An attorney representing the 3M Co. said on Tuesday that the company has been falsely accused of withholding information and covering up data about the toxicity of chemicals that have contaminated groundwater in the east metro area.

"This is all about 3M-bashing," Ashley Cooper said in a packed Washington County courtroom. "Allegations of hiding the truth weigh heavily on the people who are 3M."

Attorney Martha Wivell, representing the residents, told a different story. At the same time 3M was dumping PFC wastes at its Cottage Grove plant and at nearby landfills, she said, the company knew its products were harmful and even sold some of them to be formulated into pesticides.

"3M created a product that it knew by the mid-1970s was toxic, bioaccumulative and persistent in the environment, and they didn't tell anyone about it," Wivell said.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1083885.html

stunning superior ice image

http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=140668

oh fer crying out loud

If the Detroit News had its way, all environmental good behavior would be strictly voluntary and we could do away with such nasties as the Clean Water Act.

The shipping industry has had more than 20 years to come up with a voluntary solution to ballast water pollution -- thank goodness Michigan finally had the guts to call its bluff.

One hundred eighty invasive species in the Great Lakes...and a new one every nine months on average. Billions of dollars in economic damage. Shipping industry, won't you please voluntarily do something? Please?

It's no surprise that Gov. Jennifer Granholm must travel the world to get new business for Michigan. State government has a bad habit of giving existing business the back of its hand.

The most recent case in point is the Great Lakes shipping industry. The shippers and port owners have filed suit in Federal Court, contending that Michigan's fees, inspections and permit requirements for international vessels are a barrier to international and interstate commerce. They have a point.

Worse, shippers and port operators say Michigan officials have been uncooperative to the point of being "vindictive" in working out a compromise on the state's shipping regulations.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/OPINION01/703270309/1008

another view of Washington's Great Lakes, er, commitment

This is just a little acidic...

WASHINGTON — For the last couple of decades, the capital has treated the Great Lakes like the proverbial little old grandmother.

On birthdays, relatives gather in her loft for a little party and paper hats. Then the offspring evaporate and let granny swelter in solitary in summer and freeze the rest of the year.

The Great Lakes have been treated with even greater contempt.

...

Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton co-sponsored a big bill, making statements about how much they care.

An outfit called Healthy Lakes issued a gushing release claiming a new era for the five great ponds. It quoted Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, making this absurd comment: “We are making great strides preserving our great natural resource for our next generation.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/40127.html

wetland permits generally issue in Michigan

Those who say it's easy to get wetland permits are wrong; they often require considerable reworking of plans to drain, dredge or pave them over. But those who say too many permits are denied by overzealous regulators are themselves denying reality. According to a DEQ report for fiscal year 2006:

Total permits issued                       3121 (71%)
Issued modified                               878 (21%)
Issued after the fact                        201 (4%)
Denied                                           113 (3%)
Closed                                              95 (2%)

water and corporations

The unquenched thirst of corporations for water is one of the reasons for the water crisis. Agriculture, much of it fueled by profit-driven, industrialized food systems around the world, uses about 70% of the world’s available water. Industry uses another 20%, leaving just 10% for people and their communities. As corporations have claimed a growing share of water in recent decades, the water remaining available to people has rapidly diminished.

Nestlé has responded to critics of its water practices with the argument that the corporation doesn’t really use that much. In reality, Nestlé is the world’s leading bottler of water, using 1.86 liters of water for each 1 liter bottle it sells. This extra .86 liters of wastage, multiplied by the 22 billion liters of water that Nestlé bottles annually, would provide enough water to meet the annual needs of more than one million desperately thirsty people around the world.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0322-30.htm