Leading Michigan Businessman Urges Strong Great Lakes Preservation

James Hettinger, a major Michigan industrial park developer (profile here) writes a powerful essay for a business audience about the urgent need for leadership for conservation and against diversions of Great Lakes water.

Hettinger describes falling lake levels and the threat to the Great Lakes from within the region - - indifference - - and outside of the region - - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's suggestion this fall that Great Lakes water could be piped to the dry Southwest.

Contrast Hettinger's public stance, eloquence and comprehensive view to those expressed by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce.

These Wisconsin groups want to weaken the pending Great Lakes Compact - - a regional water management, conservation and diversion-limiting agreement designed to do exactly what Hettinger is says can help to save the Great Lakes.

The Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce, in its posted opposition to the Compact, has had months to correct its statement that two Canadian provinces would need to approve a diversion request by Waukesha communities - - a flat-out error that only serves to stir up unneeded anger against our national neighbors to the North.

In fact, is there one noted Wisconsin business leader who could have written what Hettinger has?

None of the business leaders on the state's failed legislative committee that was supposed to draft Wisconsin's Compact enabling bill said or did anything approaching Hettinger's attitude.

Excerpts from his commentary are below, which I have italicized, though the full essay linked at his name at the top is worth reading and saving:

"There can be little doubt but that lake levels are declining.

Compounding the situation is the emerging question as to whether or not fresh-water bottling operations are contributing to the diminishing water levels by sucking the groundwater out of the earth.

It may well be that the decline of the lake levels is part of a great natural cycle occurring over long periods of time and that nature will eventually seek equilibrium. That is not so difficult to accept because a mere 20 years ago we were concerned with high water levels.

It may well be that the industrialization of the earth has laid the basis for a warming that exceeds the natural cycle, through even warmer temperatures and less rain and snow that cause greater evaporation of lake waters without the usual replenishment.

The preceding paragraphs, however inadvertently, still illustrate the complex relationship between our great state of Michigan and 20 percent of the world's freshwater supplies. Be it boating, fishing or the bottling of fresh water, the relationship is intricate, and should it ever unravel we will be more than amazed at the impacts...

If I have a dream for the year 2008, it would be the year we in Michigan formed a strong consensus that we are going to become aggressively proactive with respect to our Great Lakes.

And I do not care what Gov. Bill Richardson says, they are our Great Lakes.

We are the ones who brave winter snow, summer mosquitoes and no-see-ums, highway reconstruction zones, and strange state government to enjoy these lakes.

Increasingly our role becomes something beyond an aggressive proactive approach to the management of the Great Lakes -- we should seize the reins of leadership and act by example.

It is going to be much more difficult for Gov. Richardson to advocate for water diversion if he sees residents of the Great Lakes region engaging in leading-edge water-management practices."