Wow, one headline really caught my eye this week: "Canada and US to Renegotiate Great Lakes Water Treaty." Of course, like most non-alarmist news articles, this one seemed to slip under the radar of most mainstream media outlets. Even the one source I saw it in barely gave it more than a few paragraphs, and half of that was off-topic on passport and free-trade issues. And while that in itself shows how important most people see this as, the rewriting of this treaty does have the potential for some pretty significant impact on water usage in the Great Lakes Basin, not to mention set a potentially powerful precedent for cross-border water negotiations in the future. To put you in the right frame of mind, here are a few tidbits to chew on*:
1) The Great Lakes Basin Watershed is the largest freshwater system on the planet
2) It contains an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of freshwater. Or in other terms: about 1/5th of the world's freshwater, and 90-95% of the US supply.
3) The lakes have approx. 17,549km of shoreline. This is equal to 44% of the circumference of the Earth.
4) The population within the Great Lakes Basis is approx. 35 million people.
5) It is not only a major water source for those 35 million people, but is a critical economic pathway - a major transportation and shipping link.
6) Despite its size, it is a fragile ecosystem that needs to be protected, and hence this treaty NEEDS to be re-evaluated.
The original treaty has just celebrated its centennial, and so the issues that formed its inception have obviously matured. If you live in the region or have read any of the books on water related risks, or even seen the documentaries that reference issues in the region, you may be familiar with some of the stories that have come from the region. There is the story about the bottling company that has pumped so much water out of the watershed (and shipped the water away) that nearby wells and creeks have run dry. There is the story about tankers looking to fill directly from the lakes to ship the water to Asia for bottled markets there. There are stories about proposed pipelines to expand the distribution of the lake water - that 35 million people could grow drastically if this option takes hold.
Sitting here today, I don't know which players will be at the table renegotiating this treaty, but is it critical that the watershed management, the protection of both the quality and quantity of the water, be at the forefront. Should the discussion fall into a battle of who has more rights to the water, it will spell trouble for everyone involved, on both sides of the border, and both sides of the industry/consumer coin. The only way to maintain the interests of all involved is to maintain the integrity of the watershed itself. Watershed management in ANY watershed is a tough balancing act, but with the focus on such a massive cross-border area, the complexity is sure to skyrocket. I will be following the development of this with much interest. Now if only the media would do the same.
To see the article, in all of its brevity: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/06/13/boundary-waters.html. * Some facts taken from: http://www.great-lakes.net/
1) The Great Lakes Basin Watershed is the largest freshwater system on the planet
2) It contains an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of freshwater. Or in other terms: about 1/5th of the world's freshwater, and 90-95% of the US supply.
3) The lakes have approx. 17,549km of shoreline. This is equal to 44% of the circumference of the Earth.
4) The population within the Great Lakes Basis is approx. 35 million people.
5) It is not only a major water source for those 35 million people, but is a critical economic pathway - a major transportation and shipping link.
6) Despite its size, it is a fragile ecosystem that needs to be protected, and hence this treaty NEEDS to be re-evaluated.
The original treaty has just celebrated its centennial, and so the issues that formed its inception have obviously matured. If you live in the region or have read any of the books on water related risks, or even seen the documentaries that reference issues in the region, you may be familiar with some of the stories that have come from the region. There is the story about the bottling company that has pumped so much water out of the watershed (and shipped the water away) that nearby wells and creeks have run dry. There is the story about tankers looking to fill directly from the lakes to ship the water to Asia for bottled markets there. There are stories about proposed pipelines to expand the distribution of the lake water - that 35 million people could grow drastically if this option takes hold.
Sitting here today, I don't know which players will be at the table renegotiating this treaty, but is it critical that the watershed management, the protection of both the quality and quantity of the water, be at the forefront. Should the discussion fall into a battle of who has more rights to the water, it will spell trouble for everyone involved, on both sides of the border, and both sides of the industry/consumer coin. The only way to maintain the interests of all involved is to maintain the integrity of the watershed itself. Watershed management in ANY watershed is a tough balancing act, but with the focus on such a massive cross-border area, the complexity is sure to skyrocket. I will be following the development of this with much interest. Now if only the media would do the same.
To see the article, in all of its brevity: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/06/13/boundary-waters.html. * Some facts taken from: http://www.great-lakes.net/
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