Here’s why the Great Lakes should care about a court decision affecting water in the southwest

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 Red River at crossing of Texas State Highway 207. Photo: Wikamedia commons.

Red River at crossing of Texas State Highway 207. Photo: Wikamedia commons.

 

Texans and Oklahomans don’t just clash over football. They also have a long history of battling over water, with the most recent conflict playing out in the Supreme Court. Justices recently ruled that the Tarrant Regional Water District, located in North Texas, cannot divert water from Oklahoma river basins.

In a region like the Great Lakes, this case may seem irrelevant, but according to environmental attorney Saulius Mikalonis, the Great Lakes Basin should take note. Mikalonis explains why the Great Lakes should care about the Supreme Court’s decision.
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SCOTUS rules on water divergence by Great Lakes Echo

 

 

One thought on “Here’s why the Great Lakes should care about a court decision affecting water in the southwest

  1. Interesting story, though I suspect any requests for the internationally shared and governed GL water would necessarily trigger involvement of the IJC, not to mention NEPA reqs at federal and state levels. It would be a massive technical undertaking, to be sure, but an even more massive socio-political undertaking. That said, an equally massive undertaking, though perhaps more sustainable in the long run, would be strengthening land-use policies in chronically drought stricken areas to curb land speculation for ever more residential development, adding further strain to an already over-burdened water supply. I think Bill Milliken said it best back in the early ’80s, as he coined the term ‘Parched Belt’ as an alternative and perhaps more apt characterization of what then, as now, was widely perceived as the ‘Sun Belt.’ One person’s “Rust Belt” exodus is another’s “Winter, Water Wonderland.”

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