[getsmart-l] Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears

[Jane Hanlon]

Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears TheStar.com - Ontario -
Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears 
 
<http://multimedia.thestar.com/images/82/6f/a9f48c434397a9533a605bbbd139.jpe
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CARLOS OSORIO/AP FILE PHOTO 
The potential commercialization of water in Lake Michigan, seen here from
the Mackinac Bridge, as well as the other Great Lakes, is at issue in the
details of a pact designed to preserve the lakes. 
July 22, 2008 
Linda Diebel
National Affairs Writer


A pact designed to preserve the Great Lakes is in reality a "slippery slope"
that threatens severe harm to the world's largest body of fresh water, a top
U.S. environmental lawyer has warned Canadians.

"In effect, a precedent is being set, in that it allows for the
commercialization of water. You are privatizing it," James Olson said
yesterday of an agreement among eight Great Lakes states now before the U.S.
Congress and linked to Ontario and Quebec through a side deal.

Among other concerns, Olson criticizes an exemption in the Great Lakes
Compact allowing water to be removed by private industry as long as it's not
"bulk diversion" - in other words, restricted to containers no more than 20
litres in Canada or 5.7 gallons in the U.S., with no limit on the number of
containers a business, such as a bottler, can sell.

That means an important legal precedent has been set giving water a
"product" exemption from the diversion ban on Great Lakes water at the heart
of the deal. It is a product to be exploited for private gain, and not to be
recognized as a public trust.

While Olson is worried about the gradual loss of water levels through the
activities of, say, bottling companies, under current limitations, he
predicts these quantitative restrictions will turn out to be mere
formalities destined to be overturned in court challenges.

"The agreement has been reported to have a veneer of glory around it, but
it's much less than that," Olson said in an interview from Traverse City,
Mich. "But it can do great public harm, including to Canadians."

Olson, who has battled the Nestle Corp. in court over its Michigan bottling
operations, is an ally of the Ottawa-based Council of Canadians in opposing
the agreement. In 2003, he won a court case against Nestle's Michigan
production of its "Ice Mountain" brand using Great Lakes water, a decision
that was partially overturned on appeal, according to Olson, granting the
company 100 million gallons annually.

He also argues that water that comes from what should be the public domain
should have a notice on the label to warn people they're paying to drink
their own water.

The deal before Congress had its origins in a 1998-99 battle in Ontario over
the proposed export of up to 600 million litres of Lake Superior water
annually to Asia by the Nova Group. 

After Mike Harris's government approved the sale, the public reacted
angrily, forcing a rethink and denial of the permit.

That set in motion talks for a formal agreement to protect the Great Lakes
and St. Lawrence water basins by preventing pipelines or other bulk exports.

In 2005, an agreement was reached among the Great Lakes states, Ontario and
Quebec. Throughout the talks, the Ontario Liberal government was a proponent
of a tough agreement.

In the end, the desire to reach a deal led to compromise, including the
"product" exemption for water. Olson said the quantitative restrictions were
"stuck in at the last minute," when environmentalists realized what had been
done. "It was really quite tragic," he said.

A spokesperson for the Ontario environment ministry yesterday argued people
should not be concerned about the Great Lakes, saying: "We're not talking
about the transfer of water between water basins in bulk. Or if you were
going to be transferring massive amounts of water from watershed to
watershed, that would be serious.

"Clearly, in Ontario, we forbid the bulk transfer of water and we have done
so since 1999," said the spokesperson, adding that, beginning next January,
Ontario will charge $3.71 per one million litres on the sale of the
province's water.

He said he recognizes "many people have expressed concerns about water
bottlers in Ontario, particularly multinationals taking the resource out of
the watersheds" but stressed less than 1 per cent is taken by these global
corporations.

In the United States, a separate Great Lakes water agreement, without
inclusion of the Canadian provinces, must have congressional approval. A
final hurdle was overcome earlier this month when the last state - Michigan
- signed the agreement.

"This marks a significant step forward in safeguarding these waters on the
U.S. side of the basin," Michael Wilson, Canadian ambassador to the U.S.,
said July 11. "It is our hope that the U.S. Congress will move quickly in
providing its consent to the compact."

However, Meera Karunananthan, water resources analyst for the Council of
Canadians, fears that the agreement further erodes the responsibility of the
federal government to safeguard Canadian water.

"From a Canadian perspective, two agencies are mandated to protect our
sovereignty over water," she said, referring to the International Boundary
Waters Treaty Act of 1909 and the International Joint Commission, the
binational referee that regulates disputes.

"Those agencies are being gradually eroded, along with Canadian
sovereignty," she said.



http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/464750 
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