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Martin Sattell: Water compact has serious loophole

Martin Sattell  —  8/07/2008 6:01 am

Dear Editor:

While the Great Lakes Compact will ensure unprecedented protection of Great Lakes water from siphoning for use in other locales, it will not protect the natural resource from outsourcing by private enterprises.

If the compact passes in its present form, corporations will be exempt from adhering to the bill's most integral part: the ban on Great Lakes water exportation. Corporations like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi will still be able to draw off water and sell it for profit all over the country in a variety of products.

The driving force behind the compact is a sober recognition of the reality of global water stress in the near future. If the goal of the compact is the conservation of this considerable 22 percent of the world's fresh water, then I find its measures wholly insincere. By ineffectively safeguarding our water from private enterprises that put financial gain first, we risk the dangerous consequence of jeopardizing public health. Corporations profiting from the commodification of the most essential resource to our health is contrary to the compact's intention.

When, after its recess, the House revisits the compact resolutions, more representatives should rally behind Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., (one of the lone outspoken critics of the grave loopholes of the compact) in order to address these shortcomings.

Martin Sattell

Bayside, Wis.

Martin Sattell  —  8/07/2008 6:01 am