Great Lakes pact is necessary to protect a great asset

They are not called the Great Lakes for nothin'.
Lakes Michigan, Superior, Ontario, Erie and Huron together comprise the largest repository of fresh water in the world. And water is a valuable resource in any of the four corners of the world.
For that reason, the proposed pact announced this week between the governors of eight border states and two Canadian provinces is an important one.
The Great Lakes Charter Annex would make diversion of large amounts of water from the Great Lakes to other areas of the country -- or the world, for that matter -- nearly impossible.
The agreement would allow new or increased withdrawals on any of the five Great Lakes only if provisions were made for returning treated water back to the lakes.
Approval needed
It would require the governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin , in consultation with the premiers of Ontario and Quebec, to unanimously approve any new diversion that would take outside the Great Lakes basin an average 1 million gallons a day over a 120-day period.
A super-majority vote among the Great Lakes governors -- 6-2 -- would be needed for a new or expanded withdrawal within the basin that results in a loss of an average 5 million gallons a day over 120 days.
And any entity using more than 250,000 gallons a day would have to show that it is taking steps to reduce demand for water.
Concern for the Great Lakes is warranted and the threat of cities, states or provinces that have access to the lakes attempting to profit by sale of water outside the region is not an idle one.
In 1998 , Ontario authorized a private firm to sell water drawn from Lake Superior to Asia. Fortunately that plan was dropped. There has been talk in the growing (and very dry) Southwest of building giant pipelines to bring fresh water from the Great Lakes to Nevada or Arizona or Texas or California.
A finite resource
While the lakes are great, they are not infinite, and tapping them to slake the thirst of other parts of the nation or the world might provide short-term profits for some, but would endanger the long-term health of the lakes for everyone.
Protecting the lake is no easy matter, not as easy as a compact. Nature plays a powerful force.
For instance, in Wisconsin, groundwater beneath Waukesha County once flowed into Lake Michigan and helped replenish the lake. But decades of municipal pumping west of the sub-continental divide has shifted the flow of water away from the lake.
So even with a compact to protect direct diversion of water from the lakes, they are not completely safe.
There is now a 90-day public comment period. At least two public hearings will be held, on Sept. 8 in Chicago and on Sept. 20 in Toronto.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, co-chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, said Monday he hopes a final agreement will be signed by the governors in the region early next year.
But getting an agreement through the various legislatures and Congress could take years.
There is no time to waste. The time to protect the region's greatest natural asset is now.