Good news and bad for the Great Lakes - In Other News

If forecasts hold true, the Great Lakes should be rising this summer after four years of record low water levels. But as if Great Lakes boaters haven't had enough trouble with Mother Nature, now thirsty states in the west are eyeing those "sweetwater seas" which contain some 20% of the world's surface freshwater.

It may sound far-fetched, but an increasing number of proposals have surfaced in recent years to divert water from the Great Lakes to metropolitan areas that have outgrown their watersheds or to states that are water-short to begin with. All the while, Great Lakes boaters have had to cope with record low water levels that have been leaving many boats and marinas high and dry for the past three seasons.

But Great Lakes advocacy groups are on the offensive now, pushing for a ban on unregulated water diversions and mounting public relations campaigns to thwart schemes that range from piping water to the desert to selling it abroad by the bottle.

The Lake Michigan Federation and other regional organizations are floating a water use plan they want adopted by the eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces. The six-point plan would prevent excessive water withdrawals that could throw the natural hydrologic cycle out of balance.