Diversion of Great Lakes water risks environment, Cdn sovereignty

[seemslikeadream]

By COLIN PERKEL

TORONTO (CP)
The Council of Canadians, which will present at Toronto hearings hosted by the Council of the Great Lakes Governors, also wants to make its "vehement" opposition to the proposal known.

...

As one example, environmentalists worry about dramatically expanding the existing Chicago diversion that siphons water into the Mississippi River leaving billions of litres of lake water far from their source.

...


A three-metre drop in levels would likely be catastrophic, destroying or heavily damaging shipping, recreation, aquatic life, hydro-electricity generation and ultimately jeopardize the entire regional economy.

...

About one-third of Canadians and 45 million people in all rely on what is the largest fresh-water eco-system in the world for their drinking water.

...

Given the importance of the lakes to Canada, the Council of Canadians wants Ottawa to condemn a deal that's being hatched almost exclusively south of the border.

...
more
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/09/19/635808-cp.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. Great Lakes plan raises diversion fears

Toronto's boardwalk on the shores of Lake Ontario. (CP File Photo

Last Updated Sun, 19 Sep 2004 19:49:29 EDT
TORONTO - A U.S.-Canada body that regulates water use in the Great Lakes has proposed new rules that could open the door to large diversions to the U.S., experts fear.

The Council of Great Lakes Governors, which represents eight states, Ontario and Quebec, said it has proposed rules that will:

Require any new or increased diversions from the lakes to improve the environment.
Use a "uniform, resource-based decision making standard" to assess proposals for new or increased water uses.
Make decisions collectively about new water uses in Great Lakes regions.

....

"The water marketing industry, in whatever form it takes with a world water crisis, has been handed over 'liquid gold,'" U.S. environmental lawyer James M. Brown said.

....
more
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/09/19/lakes040919.html

Hands off Great Lakes
Are the Council of Great Lakes Governors planning
to sell out our water?

ELIZABETH MAY

As an environmentalist with more than 30 years of activism under my belt, I am generally not vulnerable to complacency. But if there is any area of environmental concern I tend to feel is well in hand it is the Great Lakes.

...

There are serious issues of ongoing pollution of the lakes that engage Sierra Club volunteers on both sides of the border. No one could be complacent about the issue of Great Lakes pollution. But there was, I thought, no chance that anyone would suggest selling off Great Lakes water.

The IJC and the Canadian federal government have clear, unequivocal positions against any diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin. I thought that meant no diversions would take place. I was wrong.
For the last few years, something called the Council of Great Lakes Governors and Premiers have been developing a plan for diversions.
They call it the Implementing Agreement for Annex 2001. You have probably never heard of it. It was placed for public consultation on July 19 with a deadline for comments within 90 days — Oct. 18.
It is the product of three years of negotiation, primarily among the Great Lakes governors. The 40 million residents of the basin who depend on its waters get 90 days to figure it out.


One of the experts who has analyzed the agreement, Ralph Pentland, calls it tantamount to a "Water for sale" sign over the Great Lakes.
Pentland is not some wild-eyed radical. He was Canadian co-chair of the IJC study board on the issue of Great Lakes' diversions and consumptive uses and before that for nearly two decades was director of Environment Canada's water policy.
Pentland has compared the impact of the decision about to be taken over the future of the Great Lakes with another potential Aral Sea disaster.

....

Dropping water levels in the lakes will be part of our future. Water shortages and droughts will as well. Deciding in 2004 that it is a good business proposition to allow the transfer of tens of millions of gallons of water a day from the Great Lakes is nothing short of reckless.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095372613044&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

[Inland]

2. Hands off our water!

Why should we send our water to the deserts in the west or south so they can grow another golf course?

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Something even worse is envisioned: "The Grand Canal"

The Grand Canal would dyke James Bay, and send the waters of northward-flowing rivers south. In other words, turn James Bay into a fresh water reservoir(!)

Imagine how that would fuck with nature.

Geography refresher: here's the size of James Bay:



It's not currently in development, but there are people salivating over this. (Some of that saliva has Bechtel DNA.) And as water becomes a more pressing concern than oil, look for this to be activated.

Some info:

The chief proponent of the GRAND Canal scheme, Thomas Kierans of St. John's, Newfoundland, describes his proposal as an "environmental project", one that "fixes the plumbing system of the continent." The scheme, estimated to cost between $80 billion and $130 billion, is novel. But it is only the most recent of many schemes Kierans and other engineers have devised to capture the waters of Canada's northward-flowing rivers for use in the south - rivers that otherwise are said to "waste their way to the sea."

Kieran's scheme - GRAND being an acronym for Great Recycling and Northern Development - envisages a dike across James Bay and the creation of a new freshwater lake through the impoundment of rivers that now empty into the bay. This fresh water would then be pumped back to the Great Lakes basin and beyond.
http://www.survivalistskills.com/grand.htm

And more here:

http://www.topix.com/~sean/watercon2.html
http://www.sierraclub.org/ecoregions/hudsonbay.asp
http://www.canspiracy.8m.com/article4.htm
http://www.think-aboutit.com/Conspiracy/secret_toronto_bilderberg_meetin.htm
http://nyfma.tao.ca/nyfma02569.html
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1997/102397/news6.html
http://www.cquest.utoronto.ca/env/env234y/bht/water.html

yo, seems :hi:

[seemslikeadream]

4. Great Lakes agreement nears completion

Tb News Source
Web Posted: 9/16/2004 4:08:30 PM
If Lake Superior emptied its banks and flooded North America, the continent would be covered by a foot of water.

This isn’t stopping an environmental group from working with both the Canadian and American governments to all but prevent future withdrawals from all five Great Lakes. Bob Olsgard of the Lake Superior Waterkeepers said the binding agreements, which complement the 2001 Annex to the Great Lakes Charter, will apply to any new project undertaken once the deal is signed and approved by both the Canadian and U.S. governments. Olsgard, a native of Ashland, Wisc., said developers and municipalities will have to follow strict guidelines in order to make use of the water.

“They have to show that there is no harm to the system whatsoever, they have to show that they are employing the best practices in the world in terms of conservation and, and this is kind of new, they have to actually show that they are going to improve the system so that when all is said and done the water they are withdrawing from is better than before they started,” Olsgard said.

They will also be required to return an equal amount of water to the system, which may prove to be too costly for most to accomplish and is the key component in the deal, said Olsgard.

A proposal in Wakashaw, Wisc asks to move 20 million gallons a day to new strip malls and subdivisions, while in Ontario new developers just outside the Lake Huron and Lake Ontario basins will soon be looking for water sources and be forced to go through this process if they want to use Great Lakes water, a hassle they may no longer wish to undertake.

A variety of pipeline proposals to ship water to the Midwestern and southwestern United States have been on the drawing board for years, something the conservationist fears could cause irreparable harm to the tenuous Great Lakes Basin ecosystem. And in 1998 the Ontario government quietly handed out a permit to Sault Ste. Marie’s Nova Group, allowing them to ship billions of gallons of water to Asia. No public hearing was held and unless a local newspaper uncovered the scheme, the company would have continued to withdraw 600 million litres a year out of the lake until 2003.
more
http://www.tbsource.com/Localnews/index.asp?cid=69971

:hi:Minstrel San

[Minstrel Boy]

5. The Aral Sea

Watch its degradation, from 1960 to 1995, thanks to mismanagement:

http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/aralanimation.mpg

What a catastrophe. And it can happen here. Why can't it? We're even thirstier.

http://www.grida.no/aral/aralsea/english/arsea/arsea.htm

[sam sarrha]

6. get used to it.. with the destruction of step grasslands flowing water

only become the source of seasonal flooding and erosion.. ground water will disappear.. river will dry up. water will become the major source of war..as it is now in occupied Palestine.

[seemslikeadream]

7. National Agenda for Great Lakes Restoration Calls for Strong Federal Leade

National Agenda for Great Lakes Restoration Calls for Strong Federal Leadership and Funding

WASHINGTON - September 16 - Compelled by serious threats to the health of the Great Lakes, national environmental leaders and scientists have set a first-ever agenda for priority actions the U.S. government must undertake to restore and protect the Great Lakes ecosystem, according to a new report released today by the Wege Foundation.

....

Healing Our Waters: An Agenda for Great Lakes Restoration reports recommendations of nearly 100 scientists, environmental and conservation leaders, business and foundation professionals and educators from throughout the U.S. and Ontario, who called on the federal government to lead a coordinated effort to restore the Great Lakes.

“There are already federally supported, regional efforts to restore the Florida Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay and the Louisiana coastal region," said Representative Vernon J. Ehlers (R-MI). "These programs are sustained because a strong coalition of committed individuals and organizations rallies to support them. Hopefully, this report will spark a similar effort across America supporting the restoration and protection of the Great Lakes.”

The restoration agenda calls for $20 billion in new federal funding, to be managed in partnership with $10 billion from the Great Lakes basin states, to reduce pollution, prevent harm from invasive aquatic species, remove failing dams, upgrade sewage infrastructure, improve monitoring and evaluation, encourage use of renewable energy sources, and expand wetlands habitat. The report also calls on the federal government to reduce by 90 percent reductions in mercury emissions by 2007 and for federal funding and leadership to clean up and restore the 31 toxic “Areas of Concern” identified by the U.S. government 17 years ago.

“We must increase awareness of the serious consequences of degrading our Great Lakes," stated Tom Kiernan, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Parks Conservation Association and one of the authors of the recommendations. "These lakes contain over 95 percent of America's surface fresh water. They are an uniquely significant ecosystem, and home to places of exquisite natural beauty like Isle Royale, Indiana Dunes and the Apostle Islands National Parks.”

....

“Although we saw progress a generation ago, in the past decade the health of the Great Lakes has declined,” explained Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “The onslaughts of invasive species, pollution, and habitat destruction have combined to seriously stress fish and wildlife, and we are now seeing ecosystem-wide impacts that threaten the very life of the lakes. Without effective and immediate action at the federal and regional levels, the future of the Great Lakes is in peril
more
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0916-01.htm

[sam sarrha]

8. we have a strong federal leader who plans to save them..by selling the

water to corporations who know how to use it better than letting it just evaporate away in a lake..

[baldguy]

9. The states bordering the Great Lakes are opposed to this also.

Water is going to be THE critical resource this century, and all the diversion proposals seem to come from red states - states that bribing industry by eliminating environmental regs.

[htuttle]

10. THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND

Seriously. They can start this project, but it will never be finished.

[seemslikeadream]

11. Experts pour cold water on bilateral plan for lakes

Pact to stop export of Great Lakes water doesn't go far enough, academics say

By ALANNA MITCHELL
Monday, September 20, 2004 - Page A8


A Canada-U.S. pact to block exports of water from the Great Lakes, which goes before public hearings today in Toronto, needs serious revision if it is to protect the economy of Southern Ontario and the fragile health of the massive basin, according to two academic reviews of the plan obtained by The Globe and Mail.

....

The basin is a key driver of the North American economy and its resources are responsible for about $200-billion (U.S.) in economic activity in the United States. For that reason, both Canadian and U.S. governments have had an agreement since 1972 to restore the biological health of the lakes, which had become polluted by industrial wastes.

Now, the dangers come from other sources, such as non-native species invading the lakes, chemical pollutants carried through the air, pathogens in runoff water from farms and cities, and global climate change. Already, the levels of the lakes have fallen to lows not seen in decades. At the same time, thirsty communities outside the basin -- largely in the United States -- are clamouring to take drinking water from the lakes.

....

As well, as it stands now, the proposal would effectively give the power to make decisions over water withdrawals to the United States, even though the economic effects of further withdrawals would be greater on the Canadian side.


"Residents of the basin are water hogs," he said, adding that they use far more water than people in Europe or Japan who have comparable standards of living. Mark Winfield, a political scientist at the University of Toronto and program director of the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, said in his review that the pact needs to make it even tougher to take more water out of the lakes.

...

more
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040920/LAKES20/TPEnvironment/

[Karenina]

12. Kick!!!

:kick: