Are We Losing the Great Lakes?

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Lake Michigan's water level has dropped nearly four feet since 1997. How low will they go?

How low will lake levels go? - Michigan, Great Lakes Environmental & Conservation Issues - MLive.com

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last time I was near the lakes was in 85,, 86 and people were worried their homes were going to be inundated. The story makes a linkage with global warming in the future but cites other reasons for present water levels. It'll be interesting to see what the three year long studies come up with.

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The U.S. Senate has given its consent to the Great Lakes Pact. The pact, which allows water to be removed from the Great Lakes system by private industry as long as its not by "bulk diversion", is an agreement among eight Great Lake states and is linked to Ontario and Quebec through a side agreement. The house is expected to pass this resolution when it returns to the Capitol in September. President Bush has indicated that he'll sign it.

James Olson, a top environmental lawyer from Michigan, criticizes the pact because no limit has been set on the number of containers an enterprise, such as water bottling, can sell. He warns, "In effect, a precedent is being set in that it allows for the commercialization of water. You are privatizing it."

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so we are no longer wondering whether we are losing the great lakes. We know where they are, they are in water bottles going to Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and California. Bulk transfers would be such a bad deal.

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According to Environment Canada's freshwater website, Freshwater Website - Environment Canada / Site Web sur l'eau douce - Environnement Canada, only 1% of the waters of the Great Lakes are renewed each year by snowmelt and rain. Some of the water that is taken from the lakes also finds its way back into the system; but when the rest is gone, it's gone forever.