Water Alert! The North American Water War Begins

Waukesha, Wisconsin has fired the first shot in the water war in the Great Lakes.

They have filed a request to divert water from the Lake Michigan watershed.

I won't bother to argue their reasons--they're irrelevant to the actual problem.

If this request is permitted, it will set a precedent which we will regret.

The Great Lakes are one of if not the largest masses of fresh water on the planet.

There is an international agreement between Canada and the US prohibiting the movement of water outside the Great Lakes Watershed.  This request will either violate the treaty, and/or set a precedent for permitting the export of Great Lakes water.

Waukesha won't take much--but the precedent will permit places like Los Angeles, Phoenix & many others to put in their requests.

The treat exists for good reasons, and so far, there have been no life/death issues raised to justify the request--and it probably shouldn't be honored anyway.

As is, many people living in the desert SW already believe that when they run through their own water, they can simply take the Great Lakes.

This request, if honored, opens the door legally for the government to remove what is likely to be the next extremely scarce resource on the planet--taking it 'elsewhere.'

This water and the ecosystems in and around it, are vital to the entire continent merely in their influence on weather. But removing water will eventually destroy the current situation and create a new, scarce water ecology. Incidentally putting the people who live around the lakes in a position similar to that which the SW put itself into by overpopulation and poor water management.

There are thousands of ways in which Waukesha's request is different in character and result from what will happen when we pipe it to SoCal. none of which matter, for it is not their needs or use which is the problem, it is the potential problem that it creates in easing the ability of others to steal this resource.

Like the little Dutch Boy with his finger in the dike, the drain may be unnoticeable at first, but will extend inevitably until the Lakes run dry.