Earth Equity News

Great Lakes States Act to Restrict Access to Lakes' Water. By Tim Jones, Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2008. "Piece by piece, a 5,500-mile wall around the Great Lakes is going up. You can't see it, but construction is progressing nicely, along with an implied neon sign that flashes, 'Hands off -- it's our water.' The legal pilings for a 1,000-mile segment of the wall are scheduled to be sunk Tuesday when Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle finalizes his state's approval of the so-called Great Lakes Compact, a multi-state agreement designed to protect and restrict access to nearly 20% of the world's supply of fresh water, contained in the five Great Lakes. After that will come Ohio, where later this week the legislature is expected to make it the sixth state to endorse the water agreement and advance a strong regional warning to chronically dry regions of the South and West that Great Lakes water is staying here. 'The Great Lakes are our Grand Canyon. It's our resource to protect, it's the backbone of the region,' said Joel Brammeier... [of] the Alliance for the Great Lakes. States, cities and countries have been arguing over water rights for decades, but the fights -- often called water wars -- have taken on a heightened sense of urgency in light of prolonged droughts, mounting evidence of climate change and, closer to home, declining lake levels."