GLIN==> Fixing the IJC Great Lakes diversions report

[Reg Gilbert <reg@glu.org>]

Great Lakes United Sustainable Waters Watch #12
Week of February 14, 2003

FIXING THE IJC GREAT LAKES DIVERSIONS
REPORT

The U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission is asking the
public to comment through March 3 on its forthcoming report on preventing
diversions and protecting Great Lakes water quantities. The preliminary
work on the report needs significant improvement if the report is to play
a useful role in protecting the region's waters.

The report could have a significant impact on proactive efforts by the
region’s provincial, state, and federal governments to protect basin
waters from export, diversion, and misuse. Find preliminary materials
prepared for the report on the IJC’s Web site at
www.ijc.org/pdf/tf_finale.pdf.
Find also a 2000 report issued by the IJC on the same issues at
www.ijc.org/boards/cde/finalreport/finalreport.html.
 
Last year the federal governments of Canada and the United States asked
the commission for the second time in three years to look at:

o     The potential for bulk water removals and
diversions and the possible effects of such removals and diversions over
time
o     Basin “consumptive use,” that is, the amount of
water lost to the basin through evaporation or incorporation into
products
o     Current laws and policies that may effect water
sustainability in the basin as a whole.

The IJC is a six-member body established by the 1909 U.S.-Canada Boundary
Waters Treaty, in which the two countries pledge not to pollute the lakes
or affect water levels to the detriment of the other country. Three
commissioners are appointed by the prime minister of Canada, three by the
president of the United States. 

Disappointment

To the surprise and disappointment of the Great Lakes
environmental community, the IJC’s preliminary materials, prepared by an
appointed task force, dismiss most concerns about Great Lakes basin water
quantities. The materials assert that there is:

o     No basin consumptive use problem (despite basin
per-capita water consumption double the developed-world average)
o     No threat of large-scale diversions (on the
meager basis that past proposals were economically impractical)
o     No threat to the lakes from possible near-basin
removals, because the “no net loss” policy used in the 1998 Akron, Ohio,
diversion should solve the problem
o     No need to hurry to change current state and
provincial laws to protect basin waters, because it will be difficult to
achieve and there is no pressing need for reform at the moment.

Critique

The IJC report’s preliminary materials are oriented to the
short term and are not informed by a precautionary, protective ethic. The
impetus for the commission’s water quantity report was the relatively
recent understanding by most of the region’s governments that in the long
term there may be proposals to divert and export bulk water from the
Great Lakes. The report is intended to provide government with
recommendations on how to best protect the lakes from these and other
threats to the basin ecosystem related to water quantity. Unfortunately,
rather than provide a solid basis for protective recommendations by the
commission, the task force materials paint a false picture of basin water
use and long-term demands that encourages complacency.

Among its many omissions, the task force material fails to:

o     Investigate specific large-scale water removal
scenarios in the context of master variables such as continental water
supply, continental climate change, and the price of energy
o     Technically assess the most plausible
large-scale removal scenarios, particularly the possibility of 1) a
substantial expansion of the Chicago diversion to supplement future low
flows in the Mississippi, and 2) the conversion or supplementation of
existing petroleum pipeline infrastructure to move water south and
southwest
o     Critique U.S. proposals to replumb the Great
Lakes to facilitate movement of huge ocean-going ships. The last such
replumbing, in the 1950s, resulted in a 40-centimeter (15-inch) drop in
the level of Lakes Michigan and Huron
o     Investigate the potential for proliferation of
pipelines that move water from Lake Huron or Georgian Bay and transfer it
into the Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario watersheds
o     Go beyond investigation of aggregate basin
“consumptive” water use (loss of water through evaporation or
incorporation into products) to assess impacts of consumptive uses in
local watersheds, where substantial ecosystem damage is already occurring
in some cases
o     Technically assess the current state-provincial
water withdrawal data collection system for comprehensiveness and
accuracy
o     Assess the long-term impact of water
withdrawals on the sustainability of the basin ecosystem if basin
population increases and economic growth return to historic averages and
if climate change results in lowered water levels.

The task force materials are also inexplicably dismissive of the
ambitious effort by the basin’s states and provinces to reform basin
water withdrawal law to protect the ecosystem and reduce the likelihood
of large, damaging exports and removals. 

Recommendation

The commission members cannot personally address these
deficiencies in the short time before the scheduled March 15 release of
the final report. Therefore the commission should ask the Canadian and
U.S. federal governments for a substantial extension of their deadline
and appoint a new task force to conduct a more thorough
investigation.

In general, the commission’s final report should be technically much more
sophisticated than the current information they have gathered allows. The
final report should recommend actions for basin water-related problems
that are already clear, but also suggest precautionary measures for
future scenarios deemed possible.

Action

The comment deadline is Monday, March 3. Please take a look at
the task force materials and write the commission about these or any
other concerns and recommendations you may have related to the materials
or the commission’s eventual final report. Be sure to include in your
comments a description of any water quantity problems you know are
occurring in your area.

You can reach the Canadian section of the commission at
commission@ottawa.ijc.org, or by
calling Fabien Lengellé at 613-995-0088. You can reach the United States
section at
commission@washington.ijc.org, or by
calling Frank Bevacqua at 202-736-9024.

For more information, write Reg Gilbert at reg3@glu.org or call
716-886-0142.


Great Lakes United’s Sustainable
Waters Watch is produced by Great Lakes United's Sustainable Waters Task
Force with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Hahn
Family Foundation, The John R. Oishei Foundation, The Joyce Foundation,
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