Re: E-M:/ When is Great Lakes diversion not a diversion?

[Claire Maitre <claireoleary@comcast.net>]

On Dec 10, 2006, at 8:37 AM, David Holtz wrote:

The question of who really owns Michigan's waters--private corporations or the public--will be answered this year as Nestle Corporation eyes up to nine water mining projects in Michigan under the state's new 2006 water use law.  That law, famously, redefined what a water diversion means to exclude anything in containers of 5.7 gallons or less. What was less discussed at the time the bill was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor was the two-year free-for-all given Nestle and other water mining companies.  During this "grace" period even the law's limited standards for preventing adverse impacts on rivers from water mining may not apply, or will apply only if a huge hurdle of proof is overcome.   Thus the rush by Nestle to get pumps in the ground ASAP.

As author, blogger and Clean Water Action policy advisor Dave Dempsey has noted, Michigan is opposing as an unlawful diversion a proposal by New Berlin, WI to remove from the Great Lakes basin 340 million gallons a year.  Yet if all of Nestle's proposed or studied water mining and packaging operations are approved in Michigan, they would total well over 500 million gallons per year. 

So when is a diverson not a diversion?  Maybe when it happens in the Great Lakes State. 

What's truly at risk?  Here are some water facts:

Percent share of all water on Earth that is freshwater  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.5 

Percent share of all freshwater that is frozen in glaciers and polar icecaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 

Percent share of all freshwater that is available for human use  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .<1 

 

Average annual per-capita freshwater consumption, North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,851,170 liters 

Average annual per-capita consumption, Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245,944 liters 

 

Population worldwide without access to secure water supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.1 billion 

Population without access to adequate sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.6 billion 

Annual deaths attributed to dirty water and poor sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.6 million 

 

Annual global consumption of bottled water, liters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 billion 

Percent share of bottled water that is actually tap water  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 

 

Annual global spending on bottled water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .US$100 billion 

Annual global spending on clean water and sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .US$15 billion 

 

Number of people living in countries that are overpumping aquifers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.3 billion 

Source: WorldWatch Magazine, Nov/Dec 2006

(Red: my emphasis)

Claire Maitre