| The Great Lakes contain almost 20 percent of all the fresh water on the surface of the planet and 95 percent of all fresh surface water in the United States. With world population growing, and fresh water becoming more precious, some people have been thinking about shipping and selling the water to other parts of the world. A few years ago, a company in Canada wanted to bottle millions of gallons of Great Lakes water and sell it in Japan. The proposal drew a lot of criticism and eventually was shot down. Today, some communities around the lakes would like to pump water to cities and suburbs just outside the Great Lakes basin.
These ideas worry a lot of people. They say pumping out water in large quantities would damage the lakes' ecosystems. The governors and premiers of states and provinces around the Great Lakes created The Great Lakes Charter in 1985 to address this. But the pressure for large water withdrawals has increased over the years, and now the same group is working on an amendment to the charter that will set standards for water withdrawals.
Cameron Davis is the executive director of the non-profit Lake Michigan Federation, and one of the authors of the amendment.
"We want to avoid making water a commodity because water is not like oil or textiles... it's something we all need to survive and to live. And the second that you start putting a dollar amount on your ability to tap into water, the second you start to make water a good such that it can be bought and sold to the highest bidder, we have a real problem."
Davis says the amendment will set strict guidelines for any proposal to withdraw water. He says any company or community that wants to move Great Lakes water will have to clearly address how they're going to return it or offer alternatives for restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem. |