Critics: Great Lakes Compact loophole allows bottled water

Lawmakers and concerned environmentalists are sounding the alarm on the Great Lakes Compact just weeks before the historic agreement may be ratified by Congress. They say a loophole would allow businesses to sell bottled Great Lakes water — exactly what the compact was supposed to prevent.

“The compact contains major loopholes that could allow water to be transferred outside of the basin and could result in the privatization of Great Lakes waters for commercial sale, thus undermining the intent of the agreement,” warned U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, in an Aug. 20 letter to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

“The compact contains major loopholes that could allow water to be transferred outside of the basin and could result in the privatization of Great Lakes waters for commercial sale, thus undermining the intent of the agreement,” warned U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, in an Aug. 20 letter to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The compact prevents Great Lakes water in containers 5.7 gallons or larger from being exported outside the natural drainage basin. The agreement exempts water used to produce a product that’s transferred out of the watershed — for instance steel or beer. The problem is, the compact defines a product as intended for “intermediate or end-use consumers” and bottled water could fall under that definition, Kucinich said.

Work on the compact intensified after public outrage in 1998 when a Canadian company wanted to sell in Asia the equivalent of 50 tankers per year of Lake Superior water.

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Source: The Post Tribune

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