Chicago Trib takes note of GL compact
Former Michigan reporter Tim Jones does a good job of tracing the politics behind the pending Great Lakes Compact, and pointing out that the immediate threat to the Lakes is not Arizona but the Great Lakes states.
How many more Waukeshas and Lowells are there? The vast majority of territory in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are outside the Great Lakes Basin, and old industrial centers with troubled water systems could eventually be lining up to obtain clean water from the lakes. That would set up some politically difficult confrontations in the new and more localized water wars.
"There will be others coming because of radium and groundwater issues," said Jodi Habush Sinykin, a lawyer for Midwest Environmental Advocates, in Milwaukee.
Michigan is a threat, too, even though it is almost entirely within the Great Lakes Basin. Its thoughtless sanctioning of water diversions in bottles could doom the whole compact, but that's another story.
How many more Waukeshas and Lowells are there? The vast majority of territory in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are outside the Great Lakes Basin, and old industrial centers with troubled water systems could eventually be lining up to obtain clean water from the lakes. That would set up some politically difficult confrontations in the new and more localized water wars.
"There will be others coming because of radium and groundwater issues," said Jodi Habush Sinykin, a lawyer for Midwest Environmental Advocates, in Milwaukee.
Michigan is a threat, too, even though it is almost entirely within the Great Lakes Basin. Its thoughtless sanctioning of water diversions in bottles could doom the whole compact, but that's another story.
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