Michigan Politics
Great Lakes Guardians Keep Dogging Prez Hopefuls
By George Weeks

It's an uphill struggle, but Great Lakes governors and lawmakers are accelerating efforts to get the dwindling band of presidential candidates to commit to funding restoration of the lakes and outlawing diversion of water.

It was a mighty feeble effort during last month's Michigan primary because the Democratic contenders declined to campaign here, fearing national party threats over Michigan moving up the primary in defiance of crazy-quilt national rules for the nominating process.

Senator Carl Levin, who for three election cycles has been fighting the stranglehold that Iowa and New Hampshire have on the process, and Governor Jennifer Granholm early on pressed Democratic contenders to commit to the lakes.

The two leading Republican contenders, Arizona Senator John McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, said the right things about the lakes, but the economy was the dominant issue in the Michigan primary, won by native son Romney.

Last week, the bipartisan Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, whose members include those from states representing more than a quarter of the delegates at stake in this week's Super Tuesday, sent letters to the candidates urging support for the lakes, including the Great Lakes Compact that is awaiting approval of state legislatures and Congress.

Senator Patty Birkholz (R-Saugatuck), who chairs the caucus, said in a statement distributed by the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Office of the National Wildlife Federation:

"For state legislators who are on the front lines in the battle to restore and protect the lakes, we have one question for each presidential candidate: 'Will you use your leadership as President to pass Great Lakes restoration legislation and to outlaw water diversions?'We're looking for presidential candidates who will not turn their backs on the lakes, because every day we wait, the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly." Super Tuesday states included Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The caucus pitch isn't that tough a sell in the Democratic field, which has narrowed to Illinois Senator Barack Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

While Republicans Romney and McCain have pledged to oppose diverting water from the Rust Belt to the Thirst Belt, it should be noted that politicians tend to divert from pledges. President George W. Bush has not delivered pledged funding for the Great Lakes.

Particularly important to note during current deliberations in Lansing is that the compact has flaws that absolutely must be corrected by legislative "tie-bar" action.

Cyndi Roper of Lansing-based Clean Water Action, which is among 50-plus members of the Great Lakes, Great Michigan Coalition, delivered to legislators a plea by ex-Governor Bill Milliken, a Republican, for the Democraticruled House and GOP-ruled Senate to resolve differences on corrective action sought by Democratic Governor Granholm.

Failure to approve the compact without such action, wrote Milliken, "could be an invitation to those outside of Michigan to export or divert water."

Milliken's "Dear Legislator" letter accompanied a widely-cited assessment in legal circles by Traverse City attorney Jim Olson, known statewide as guardian of groundwater, which is as important a public trust to protect as are the visible, flowing waters that are fed from below ground.

Olson, attorney for citizens seeking curbs on the Ice Mountain bottling operation in Mecosta County, said: "Once the floodgate is opened or the bottle uncorked, international trade law or federal and state constitutional provisions will make it difficult, if not impossible, to close."

Should the states want to adopt the compact "as is," Olson warns, there are "flaws and defects in the Compact that must be cured or addressed by states through separate tie-barred water law amendments before the Compact is enacted. If this is not done in a proper and thorough manner, the purposes of the Compact's protection of the Great Lakes will be seriously eroded."

So those state legislators who want action from the White House need to make sure corrective action is taken in their own state houses.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.