Death by 1000 Straws - The Importance of Preventing Diversion From the Great Lakes Basin

By Howard Hehrer

"We will know the worth of water when the well runs dry", once observed the incomparable Benjamin Franklin. Never has this historical gem had such literal implications as it does today in America, where residents are quickly discovering that the most essential of natural resources isn't quite as bottomless as we had assumed. This is bad news for the Great Lakes Basin, which is surrounded by parched neighbors yearning to slake their thirst with cool, bountiful water from our shockingly fragile water supply, ecosystem, and natural wonder.

To the west of the basin, Minnesota farmers have battled over water rights to the Milk and St. Mary rivers for hundreds of years. If you look farther to the west, you see thirsty farmers nestled in southern Oregon wrestling with the federal government over rights to the Klamath River Basin after an endangered species cut their water supply and threatened their livelihoods. Similar battles raged in the south, where federal government officials were forced to all but pry the depleted Colorado from regional farmers so its water could be dispersed throughout the sprawling metropolises of Los Angeles and San Diego.

In the arid deserts of Tuscon, Arizona, huge sinkholes have sprouted as a result of huge drops in the water table. To the southeast, Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been suing each other for decades over the water rights to the Apalachicola River Basin while steadily sucking it dry. Even in the East, where water shortages appear to be less prevalent, the Ipswich river outside of Boston has occasionally run dry; overdrawing of the groundwater feeding the Ipswich robbed it from its integral base flow.

Because the population in all of these areas is rising, the blossoming water crisis will only get worse, and current water shortages will be enhanced by the drought cycle. "The United States is heading toward a water scarcity crisis," warns Robert Glennon, a professor of law at the University of Arizona and author of Water Follies, an influential book detailing the disastrous effects of excessive groundwater pumping around the United States. "Our current water use practices are unsustainable, and environmental factors threaten a water supply heavily burdened by increased demand."

It's only natural, therefore, for inhabitants of the Great Lakes Basin to wonder: we have all this water; they don't have much, so when will the thirsty come knocking? Well, whether we have realized it or not, much has already been attempted and, in some cases, done to deplete our precious lakes of their natural blessing on one of the most geographically stable locations on earth.

Consider the infamous Ogallala Aquifer: a huge underground water resource supplying virtually all of the water to the high plains. Contrary to popular belief, the resource is not a large, cavernous, underwater ocean, but water that has filled in cracks and crevasses in the arid Great Plains over thousands of years. Nature finds it difficult to replace even small withdraws from this integral resource this region, much less the mass consumption of today. "A continuation of existing usage patterns is expected to result in depletion, or near depletion, of this sole major source of water in a large portion or the High Plains," said a federal report in 1982.

Although the stasis of the day was unsustainable, local farmers counted on their government officials to keep them afloat. In 1976, the Great Plains banded together to push through controversial legislation requesting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a $6 million study looking into the practicality of transporting water from neighboring states into the region.

Naturally, the response of nearby states to the proposal (much less the results) of this study was nothing short of alarm, and induced the rage of the governors of Great Lakes States, as one member, Minnesota, fell under the category of 'neighboring'. State legislatures had long feared the prospect of Great Lakes water getting sucked to the parched American Southwest, but the Ogallala Aquifer states suddenly appeared to be a much more immediate threat. Not only was the demand higher here; they were also closer.

Although the study interpreted 'adjacent' in a relatively rational way that would not allow for the diversion of Great Lakes water, the scare was the closest the Great Lakes Basin had come to suffering a massive parasitic tap draining millions of gallons daily from the region. The results of the study were significant for two important reasons: it served as an ominous warning that the future would hold more water shortages and more runs at Great Lakes water, and showed the impartibility of transporting water from the basin to other areas of the country. In a study done by University of Michigan professor Jonathan Bulkley researching the additional cost of transferring Lake Superior water to the Missouri River, where Lake Superior could theoretically connect with 2 of the Corps' Ogallala diversion schemes. The purpose of the study was to show just how outrageous the price tag would be to transport water out of the Great Lakes Basin.

The proposed 611-mile canal included in the proposal was capable of transporting 10,000 cubic feet of clean, crisp Lake Superior water every second from Lake Superior to Yankton, South Dakota. Adding to the cost, transportation of the water would require 18 pumping stations, as the majority of the water's trip is uphill. Tack on an additional 7 million dollars for the power used to simply operate these stations, and the project faced a $27 billion mountain (in 1982 dollars). The mass transportation of water from the Great Lakes started looking more like fact than fiction.

Despite the massive price tag placed on the transportation of water, Great Lakes Basin residents still called for governors and legislature to take action that would prevent any future attempt at stealing basin water. These pleas were stifled with a Supreme Court ruling in 1982.

The case unfolded in the remote sections of rural Nebraska, but thundered loudly across the United States - particularly the Great Lakes Basin region. It begged the question: could a state prevent water from being diverted outside its boarders? The Sporhase case began with a small Nebraska farmer who owned property straddling the Nebraska-Colorado boarder. Under the state law, Sporhase was not allowed to transport water pumped from his Nebraska property to his Colorado side; he challenged the law as a violation of the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution. That summer, in July of 1982, water was declared an object of commerce. As such, states were disallowed a monopoly on water supply, and were prohibited from interfering with water in terms of interstate commerce. Sporhase effectively killed any tactics the basin states may have used to ban the diversion of water outside of the basin.

So what can we do to prevent the redirection of water outside of our delicate basin? The sad reality at this point is: not much. But that doesn't mean the basin states haven't taken any action since the Supreme Court decision on Sporhase. In fact, one could argue that the decision charged some sleepy governors and alerted them to start taking more aggressive approaches.

Action started in January 1982, when Governors from the 8 Great Lakes Basin States formed the "Council of Great Lakes Governors". The purpose of the assembly was to help organize regional responses to a diverse array of Great Lakes issues, highlighting the diversion threat. Later that year during a meeting on Mackinac Island, a declaration was made that no Great Lakes water would be diverted without the clearance from every Great Lakes governor, premier, and federal governments in the United States and Canada. Despite lacking the power of law, the message sent a clear message that the Great Lakes States were not interested in allowing its precious water to leave its basin.

The Great Lakes are a precious natural resource, as well as a defining characteristic of the geographical area. Just as Arizona has the Grand Canyon, the west has picturesque sunsets, and the east is blessed with economic advantages associated with the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Lakes basin is blessed with water. It's important to remember that less than 1% of the basin's volume enters the lakes each year, so endless withdraws are impossible, and their draining will be apparent both in the dip in lake levels as well as the disappearance of streams and rivers. Excessive exporting of water has reduced much smaller water resources (like the Ipswich watershed) to dusty reminders of our water management negligence, and eyes will always be fixed on the grandest and richest water supply of all: our beautiful, natural wonder in the Great Lakes.

Howard Hehrer (May, 2010)

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