Water: a Dwindling Resource and an Increasingly Desirable Commodity

The United States' Southeast and West are in a phase of severe, chronic water shortages. Atlanta's water supply for four million people, Lake Lanier, could be dry in as little as four months. Experts in the Southwest foresee a 30 to 70 percent reduction in snowpack in coming years. This will dramatically reduce flow in the already beleaguered Colorado River, which provides water to 30 million people in 7 states. Click here for a recent article in the New York Times about the water situation in the Southwest.

All this has our increasingly thirsty country eyeing the Great Lakes more hungrily. Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson, presently governor of New Mexico, hinted that a "proper use" of natural resources involved outsourcing of Great Lakes water to cities like Las Vegas. He quickly denied this after public outcry from Great Lakes states.

It's not just rivers and lakes in the South and West that are threatened by over-consumption, inappropriate development, and global warming, however--the Great Lakes are also shrinking. Levels in Lake Superior are at record lows, and water in Lake Ontario is seven inches below normal. Cargo ships that carry bulk materials must lighten their loads by 270 tons for each inch that lake levels drop. Click here to read the full article in New York Times.

The International Joint Commission, which helps manage US-Canada shared water resources, is starting a five-year, $17 million study to determine whether lower lake levels are a result of cyclical variation or climate change.

Great Lakes water should stay in the Great Lakes. But it's threatened from the outside and the inside. The population in Great Lakes States has decreased, giving Western states a surge of political clout. And some Great Lakes residents who ought to know better think to profit from dry conditions in the U.S. and China by building colossal water pipelines. Canadian journalist Diane Francis rejoiced the commoditization of our water on her financial blog, saying it will fetch a "hefty price" on international markets.

One thing is certain--we will be having a lot more discussion, arguments, and maybe even war about water in our future.