The Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Engler urges changes to plan protecting Great Lakes

Statewire
April 18, 2001

A plan to guard against the sale or diversion of Great Lakes water needs to be strengthened so the Great Lakes states don' t lose their ability to protect the lakes, Gov. John Engler said Wednesday.

In a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, Engler warned that a strong agreement is needed to counter political power moving to the growing and water-thirsty southern and western regions of the country.

" I am very reluctant to accept any actual or perceived diminution of gubernatorial authority ... by way of this voluntary agreement, " Engler said.

The changes proposed in Annex 2000, an amendment to the Great Lakes charter of 1985, attempt to unite the Great Lakes states in setting limits on the diversion or sale of water within the Great Lakes basin to other parts of the country or abroad.

Before reaching formal agreement on the proposed changes, Engler and governors of the seven other Great Lakes states plan to consult with the premiers of Ontario and Quebec. They want to develop agreements by 2004 that would set rules on when Great Lakes water could be diverted.

In his letter to Ridge, Engler urged that the agreement scrap the exemption from review of water withdrawals of less than 1 million gallons a day.

He said the proposal does not differentiate between groundwater and surface water withdrawals, and that it might diminish the authority of governors or premiers to veto or approve any diversion of Great Lakes water.

Tracey Mehan, director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes, said the proposed exemption, to apply only until a final agreement was reached, raised a lot of questions and was not necessary.

Engler also said Michigan and other Great Lakes states will lose a combined nine congressional seats in 2002 because of the new census, a loss that threatens to shift power from the Great Lakes to Washington, D.C.

"Preventing the political power of water-short regions of America from determining the destiny of the Great Lakes is perhaps our greatest and most urgent challenge, " he wrote.