Bracing for Battle

Pople always need water, and a presentation about protecting it in our region brought them out in droves Aug. 20.

The Aral Sea has suffered tremendously from diversions for agriculture in the last four decades.

A standing room only crowd of over 250 people heard former Newsweek correspondent Peter Annin discuss his book, Great Lakes Water Wars, at the Baileys Harbor Town Hall.

Annin was speaking as part of the Door County Environmental Council lecture series.

In an hour-long presentation Annin expertly reviewed material familiar to those who have followed the path of the Great Lakes Compact in recent years.

The compact was finally approved by the eight states in the Great Lakes basin this year, and swiftly passed through the United States Senate. It is expected to get approval from Congress in the next legislative session before going on to the President for approval. President Bush and candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have all expressed support for the compact.

Veteran Newsweek correspondent Peter Annin answers questions after his presentation in Baileys Harbor Aug. 20.

Protecting the fresh water of the Great Lakes for the region has become a hot-button issue as states in the Southwest and Southeast have struggled with water shortages. Meanwhile water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron have plummeted, spurring efforts to re-address diversions and put new mechanisms in place to regulate future water takings by municipalities and manufacturers.

Annin said the compact was particularly important given the predictions of coming water shortages around the globe.

“According to the United Nations, two thirds of the world will face water shortages of some kind by 2025,” Annin reported, including much of the U.S. “The Great Lakes are surrounded by an arch of water tension.”

Though the Great Lakes contain enough water to cover the lower 48 states in 10 feet of water, Annin said only one percent of that volume is renewable in the form of precipitation and ground water.

Annin’s research detailed the startling effect that water diversions have had on Great Lakes water levels over the past century. The diversion which famously reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900 is estimated to have lowered levels by 2.5 inches, while the “drain hole” created in the 1960s when the St. Clair River was dredged accounts for an estimated minimum drop of an additional 14 inches, and possibly much more. The Army Corps of Engineers is in the middle of a five-year study of that diversion’s impact and possible solutions.

A ship sits in the sand where it once floated in the Aral Sea.

The compact would regulate diversions in the future, requiring the approval of all eight member states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec for any new diversions.

“The Great Lakes Compact is all about drawing a line,” Annin said.

And that line will likely be tested soon after passage, and not necessarily by far-flung states or nations across the globe. Annin said the first challenge will likely come in Wisconsin, where the Milwaukee suburbs of Waukesha and New Berlin have diversion proposals on the table to help them meet their water needs.

“The biggest hole or challenge will come when municipalities are denied diversions,” he said. “Then the question will be whether they file suit to challenge an aspect of the pact or the pact itself. That will be the test.”

The core of Annin’s book and his message Aug. 20 is that though the Great Lakes are massive, they are not to be taken for granted. To illustrate the point he refers to the often-told story of the Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Karakalpakstan in central Asia.

Once the fourth largest inland body of water on the planet, it was diverted to death to fuel the agricultural needs of its region. Today fishing boats sit on its sandy bottom, piers extend into the sand with no water in site, and a once thriving ecosystem is all but gone. In less than 40 years, it has shrunk to less than 10 percent of its original size.

Annin acknowledged that the ecosystem of the Aral Sea, in the desert, is much different than that of the midwestern United States, but the lesson is worth noting.

“It’s hard to convey how shocking it is to visit a place that is so ecologically devastated by the hand of man,” Annin said. “After seeing that, you cannot stand on the shores of a Great Lake and argue that they’re invincible.”

For more information on Peter Annin, the Great Lakes, and his book, visit http://www.Greatlakeswaterwars.com