You May Have Nicer Weather, But We Have WATER!

This issue is going to become a bigger and bigger dilemma, especially when there are droughts like the one Atlanta this last year.

Lisa -- I agree.  Desalination of ocean water is so incredibly expensive that it may not be enough to solve the problem.  Water could become a very valuable commodity in the coming decades.

We have to keep other our of our water don't bend to the pressure of balancing the budget.

Terry -- If the Great Lakes were tapped to supply the water needs of the desert southwest, it would significantly lower lake levels over a period of time.  Many Americans don't understand how much the country relies upon Great Lakes shipping as a part of our economy.  And pumping water out of Lake Superior or Lake Michigan affects everyone "downstream".  Barge traffic in Chicago and Cleveland would stop.  Our manufacturing economy would suffer.   

Eric...I can understand how those of you who live around the Lakes would feel this way..but I have a real problem with holding one of lifes necessities...water...hostage! The south West and Western US are not a foreign country! Surely there is a way to assist without it being a negative

Hi Joan -- This is an enormously complex subject.  When I referred to OPEC in my post, I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

I don't think the goal of the Great Lakes Compact is to put a stranglehold on water supplies.  At the same time, I believe much of the American public takes the Great Lakes Reservoir for granted.  And that is a huge mistake.

Let's say the Great Lakes states permit billions of gallons of fresh water to be pipelined to another part of the country.  The result must be considered.  Lake levels will drop and Great Lakes shipping will be hampered or halted altogether.  Ask the huge agricultural, mining and manufacturing industries that ship a significant percentage of America's coal, grain, gypsum, lumber, taconite ore and manufactured goods what will happen to end-user prices for EVERYBODY.  With the high cost of diesel and the effect it is having on the trucking industry, can anyone really believe that doing away with one of the nation's largest common carriers (Great Lakes shipping) would not create massive economic problems?

Let us then say we "solve" the lake level problem by undertaking enormous dredging projects.  Where do you put the soil?  What does such massive dredging do to to fish and other aquatic habitat?  What are the long-range effects on the greater Midwestern and Eastern United States ecosystem, such as the loss of species of aquatic birds.  What does it do to the Great Lakes fishing industry, and to tourism? 

I think you get the picture.  There are myriad problems associated with the simplistic idea of siphoning off a few billion gallons a year from Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.  It will take decades to arrive at a policy that will protect this hugely valuable natural resource and at the same time address the needs of the American economy. 

Thank you for commenting!

This is a huge issue I agree. I must say that I agree with Joan's comment above. That would be like letting mobile homes languish in rented lots after a devastating hurricane, while people are left homeless...wait bad example...letting ice be driven around the country in semi trucks because the logistics can't be figured out while people are dehydrating in New Orleans! What occurred in New Orleans was and is unacceptable and should cause a deep sense of shame for all Americans! This shortage of potable water is a very slowly unfolding example of a similar crisis. We in Georgia have had a severe drought that still continues, in spite of increased rainfall amounts so far this year. I cannot imagine that it would be acceptable to anyone to allow Americans to go without water! We are part of the US and we produce much of the food for this country so we cannot be ignored except at great personal peril. Even if we were not large food and cotton producer, as people, it is not right to ignore the needs of vast swaths of the country! A solution must be found before crisis level is reached. A protectionist policy would simply force the federal government to step in and take action. On a tangential matter, I thought that only the federal government had the power to make and ratify treaties with foreign governments. Is the Great Lakes Compact legal?

Rich -- The Great Lakes Compact has been granted Congressional consent through Public Law 90-419.  It was the result of an Act of Congress that took place nearly forty years ago.

Prior to that, the "Treaty of 1909 Relating to Boundary Waters and Questions Arising Between the United States and Canada" was also an important governing document dealing with Great Lakes issues and jurisdiction. 

I agree this is a very complex issue.  States and provinces bordering the Great Lakes (and thereby exercising shared jurisdiction) include New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario. 

The Great Lakes is governed by both Canada and the United States.  Therefore no particular region or state (or group of states) may exercise governance over the use of water from the Great Lakes Basin without the approval of Canada. 

Lake levels are managed (through a series of locks and dams) by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers and various Canadian agencies.  Great Lakes shipping is considered one of North America's most important strategic common carrier routes. 

Control of the Great Lakes is of strategic importance.  The Great Lakes Basin is also an incredibly valuable resource to the Americas.  I'm sure the Great Lakes Basin Compact website can explain our respective governments' position on these issues far better than I can.  You may also wish to visit the Nature Conservancy webpage that deals with protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Thank you for clarifying how this was done. I had no clue that there had been an Act of Congress to allow for this. The water and the lakes themselves of course hold great importance for both the US and Canada. The commerce is an important part of both country's economies. I have also been a very vocal supporter of the Nature Conservancy since college, though I am not familiar with their position. I will visit both websites. I do think that Congress should revisit this issue as it is a more far reaching concern today than it was perhaps 40 years ago. I think the science, I am sure good for its day, that helped to inform the Congressional decision many years ago, was far less comprehensive than it is today. It would be unwise to allow the archaic science of yesterday inform such an important issue. IMHO, this issue should be addressed again.

Rich -- Some of the misunderstanding about the importance of the Great Lakes merely results from a lack of information. 

There is the matter of scale.  Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are huge bodies of water, resembling inland seas more than lakes.  Their sheer size and location makes them of strategic importance (Homeland Security has beefed up its presence on the Great Lakes in the past few years for this reason).  Major Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Racine, Green Bay and Duluth are on the Great Lakes.  The public is unaware of the huge amount of commerce, including international shipping, that goes on there.

Enormous quantities of coal and iron ore are rail shipped from states as far away as Montana to Duluth, where they are loaded onto freighters.  On any given day in Duluth harbor, you'll see ore freighters of foreign registry arriving and departing. 

A drop in the lake level of a foot is enough to cause the Army Corps quite a lot of concern.  As bays and channels become less navigable due to reduced water depth, freighters become grounded, forcing them to carry lesser loads.  This in turn affects the economic feasibility of moving goods.  There is an economic "chain reaction" that the consumer doesn't grasp when that happens. 

I could go on and on about this, but again the Great Lakes Commission site is the best place to gain understanding about the Basin ecosystem and role in the American economy.

Water will be the new oil.  All life depends on water.  We all need to practice using it wisely.

Georgina -- I'm thinking that the water problems are going to have to be solved by a combination of conservation/recycling and desalination strategies.  Aquifers don't last forever and it doesn't work to keep tapping reserves like the Great Lakes without considering other options as well.

To think someone would want to tap the Great Lakes is an absurd idea in and of itself.  Lakes Superior & Michigan are down significantly right now without anyone tapping their supply.  Why should we have to irrigate the West & the Southwest?  If it is that an inhospitable place to live & work maybe some of those folks should get out of there and move back to the areas that have the water they are looking for.

Water is one of our resources here in the upper midwest, we should have a say in how it is used.

Brian Bartley

Brian -- To some extent, there's always been a bit of friction between people in the sunbelt states and the north country.  Dwellers in places like Los Angeles enjoy making wisecracks about the "snow belt", but it's forgotten occasionally that our region is very important to the economic health of the nation.  And when there's a water shortage, it's not much consolation that the sun is shining!

Draining the Great Lakes isn't going to happen anyway.  The states bordering the Great Lakes Basin don't control the water anyway.  Canada exercises considerable control and governance over that same resource. 

It's a real dilemma.  The predictions I've read suggest that water shortages in the sunbelt could become epidemic in the next twenty years, as population swells and demand for water increases.  One of the biggest wastes of water is watering lawns and golf courses (I'm gonna irritate the heck out of golfers here).  Even if the watering goes on at night, a significant portion of that water is lost to evaporation.  Environmentalists suggest that lawns and greens be watered using subsurface drip irrigation, instead of sprinkler systems which toss the water into the air. 

If the water problem isn't solved somehow, it will have long-term effects on population growth, residential and commercial development, retiree migration and, of course, property values in the sunbelt.  Nobody wants to hear the bad news, but it isn't going to go away on its own.

Eric, it's sort of scary to think that we could get that desperate for water - something we so take for granted!  

Pat, it could happen.  The droughts we experienced last year were just a taste of things to come.  All it would take is one really long climate-affected drought in the wrong place to cause a panic over water supplies.

Water may be scarce than oil someday. Your post was very informative. In California water is becoming more and more an issue we need to solve

This Is Why I Own Property In Michigan by Lake Michigan, Great Time to Invest in the Great Lakes

Daniel, your state government has actually taken some pretty proactive steps to deal with water conservation.  There's more to be done, of course, but it's a good start.

Jane, you need to come up to Madeline Island so I can introduce you to Lake Superior!

:)

Eric, the thing that irritates me about the sunbelt people is this.  We choose to live here in Minnesota. We pay the higher taxes, dodge the potholes in the roads from the winter, put up with the snow & ice, the salt on our cars, fight mosquitoes the size of airplanes and traffic in the cities that makes you want to scream!!  I for one love the changing seasons, seeing the flowers bloom like they are beginning to do, seeing the trees bud and the ice coming off of the lakes.  I love being on the lake in the evening crusing slowly and holding my wife's hand.

It just bugs me when someone that lives 1500 miles away wants a piece of what is mine.  The have the weather and the lack of humidity.  They should stop trying to grow grass in the middle of the desert for  lawns and golf courses.  Look at the problems Georgia had with water this past year and still there was alwways someone on the news that was caught watering their silly grass.

Brian Bartley

Brian -- Things aren't all rosy in the sunbelt.  They have hurricanes in the southeast as well as alligators roaming into homes.  The entire sunbelt is vulnerable to water shortages.  Southern California has earthquakes.  In general, wages there are lower and there is more poverty in many of the "sunny" southern states. 

Midwesterners are to blame for the popularity of the sunbelt as much as anyone.  The vast majority of people I know who are within ten years of retirement age are aspiring to retire to the sunbelt.  I lived in Arizona for a couple years, and Tucson was full of people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. 

It may be that the sunbelt won't be able to continue to absorb the huge influx of retirees from the northern and northeastern portion of the United States.  I don't care for sixteen-inch snowfalls or below-zero windchills or tooth-jarring potholes any more than the next guy, but I'd think twice before investing my life savings to retire someplace where there's a strong likelihood of water shortages in the future. 

The Bartley Group - I feel I must speak up for those of us in Georgia who have been dealing with this drought for a while now. Most Georgians obey the watering restrictions that are in place. To pick out individuals highlighted on the news and use them as the face of Georgians is a horrible example of stereotyping and is irresponsible. We are no less responsible than our countrymen in any other state or territory. We in Georgia share what water resources we have with the people of Alabama and Florida. Our freshwater releases insure the survival of vital downstream drinking water and sensitive environmental areas. While our Governor has fought to lessen the water releases from our lakes in order to ensure water supplies for Georgians, the courts have ruled against the governor and the water releases were ordered to continue. Please note, many Georgians disagree with the governor's position on halting water releases and believe that water is not a commodity that should be hoarded. I hope that you understand that not all Georgians are represented by those few who break the law.

Rich, I am very sorry that I offended you.  It was not my intention to point the finger at all Georgians.  I was trying to use that one example of how shortsighted a few individuals can be.  When I lived in Wisconsin a few years ago we had major water bans and it seemed like everyday that soomeone was getting "busted" for sprinkling their lawns or washing their cars in the driveway.  I have a number of very good friends that are in the Atlanta area at Coldwell Banker Buckhead.

Eric, I don't think that the sunbelt folks have everything peaches & cream.  Everyone has to deal with different issues regardless of where they live.  However, all of those mid-westerners that have transplanted themselves to the south should have know that they were trading one issue for another.  I get irritated when someone moves to a different area for the benefits of that area and isn't willing to accept the negatives that come with it.

I'm a transplanted Green Bay Packer fan & I've learned to accept that if I want to watch NFL football regularly in Minnesota, the team is probably going to be wearing purple.     AAAAAHHHHHHH

Brian Bartley

Eric - Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  As a native Minnesotan, I've had the opportunity to enjoy the Great Lakes and all the wonders that they offer ever since I was just a kid on summer camping trips around Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.  We all need to do what we can to conserve and preserve the gifts that nature has given us. 

Brian -- I like the sunbelt and have lived there at several points in my life.  But once in awhile I'm reminded of the Mark Twain quote, "nothing good ever came of a warm climate".

I understand the border battle thing between the Pack and the Vikings.  A friend of mine was driving past Lambeau Field on football Sunday a few years ago and got his car (with Minnesota plates) egged!

Lynn -- The Great Lakes Basin is an immensely important ecosystem and resource that has been taken for granted by most of the United States.  The water debate is just one dimension of the need for Great Lakes conservation.  I hope we don't fail in our attempts to preserve and protect it.