Proposed rules could shrink Lake Erie
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Proposed rules could shrink Lake Erie
By: Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch
Despite a pact to keep outsiders from collecting water from the
Great Lakes, the agreement doesn't stop cities and businesses from
draining billions 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.