Proposed rules could shrink Lake Erie

[irishbobcat]

Kasich and the GOP are hell bent on destroying Ohio!!!!


By Spencer Hunt

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Proposed rules could shrink Lake Erie

Despite a pact to keep outsiders from collecting water from the Great Lakes, the agreement doesn't stop cities and businesses from draining billons of gallons each day from Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario.

And their growing thirst, environmental advocates say, could hurt those natural wonders.

In Ohio, critics say the state is opening up Erie to even more punishment.

In fact, they say two bills in the legislature would allow new or expanding businesses to drain even more water from Lake Erie and its surrounding streams.

The bills would raise the amount of water that could be drawn from Erie without government review or a permit to 5 million gallons a day. That's enough to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools.

The bills also would allow businesses to draw as much as 300,000 gallons of water a day from small, relatively unpolluted "high-quality" streams, and set a 2-million-gallon cap for streams and underground aquifers.

Now, the cap is 2 million gallons from the lake, streams and underground aquifers that supply Erie with water.

The rule was enacted in 1988. Any city or business that drew water before then is not required to obtain a permit and is not limited by any cap.

The proposed Ohio caps far exceed those enacted or proposed by Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario, all of which border Lake Erie.

Kristy Meyer, the Ohio Environmental Council's clean-water program director, said less water in Lake Erie could damage fish populations and worsen already serious problems with sewage pollution and toxic algae "blooms."

"We have over 250,000 jobs sustained by tourism. We get over $10 billion in revenue a year from tourism from the lake," Meyer said. "Who wants to go to a lake choked with toxic algae?"

Lawmakers and business groups that support the bills say their plan will protect the lake while attracting new industry and jobs.

"You aren't going to have new power plants or steel mills if you overly restrict access to the water," said state Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, a Chesterland Republican. "Lake Erie is not running dry."

Ohio cities and businesses draw about 3.5 billion gallons a day from the Lake Erie basin. Other states and Ontario drain an additional 7.4 billion gallons a day, according to the Great Lakes Commission.

Cleveland drew an average of 224.6 million gallons a day for drinking water and to supply businesses in 2009, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

FirstEnergy's Eastlake and Bay Shore power plants drew more than 1.3 billion gallons a day in 2009 to help cool generators.

Ohio agreed to join the Great Lakes Compact in 2008 to shield Lake Erie water from other states and foreign countries faced with chronic droughts and growing populations.

The compact requires each Great Lakes state to devise plans to manage and preserve lake water by 2013.

Minnesota would require a permit for any new business that would withdraw more than 10,000 gallons a day from its Great Lakes. Indiana would require a permit for any new business that would take more than 5 million gallons a day from Lake Michigan. To date in Ohio, no city or business has applied for a permit to draw more than 2million gallons of water a day, said Leonard Black, a planner in the soil and water resources division of the Department of Natural Resources.

Grendell said the higher limit would be attractive to businesses and still not harm the lake.

"The one thing that's going to attract industrial businesses to northeast Ohio is the availability of water," he said.

In Michigan, new or expanding businesses must apply for permits to take more than 2 million gallons a day from Lake Erie or more than 100,000 gallons a day from nearby streams or groundwater.

Patricia Birkholz, director of Michigan's Great Lakes Office, said her state's standards haven't hurt business.

She said Ohio's caps are too high.

One problem, everyone says, is that no one knows how much water is too much.

"There is no scientific evidence to show that existing water withdrawals are creating any problem to the Lake Erie watershed," said Jennifer Klein, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce's environmental policy director.

But John Stark, freshwater conservation director with the Ohio Nature Conservancy, said pollution-sensitive fish in high-quality streams would definitely suffer if a business increased the amount of water it draws each day.

State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, the House bill sponsor, said Natural Resources would track the lake and warn lawmakers of any dangers.