Vt. lawmakers told of water crisis ahead

[YankeyMCC]

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MONTPELIER - Lawmakers studying legislation that would protect Vermont's ground water heard dire warnings yesterday from a Canadian author about a worldwide shortage of fresh water that she said could worsen exponentially in the coming years.
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"It's going to surpass energy as a national security issue for the United States," said Maude Barlow, an Ottawa-based environmentalist and author of the books "Blue Gold" and "Blue Covenant."

"There are alternative forms of energy, but we haven't yet found an alternative to water," Barlow told a joint hearing of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee and the House Committee on Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.

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But she said that even with a new law in place, Vermont might be targeted by litigation brought under the North American Fair Trade Agreement saying the state's efforts to limit water withdrawals interfere with international trade in bottled water.

"The bottled water companies are everywhere in New England," with large companies like Nestlé looking to buy up smaller ones, as Nestlé already has done with Poland Springs, Barlow said.

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Senator Virginia Lyons, Democrat of Chittenden and chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said the idea of a public trust as applied to a lake is that someone with a home on the shore can use the lake, but can't take all the water from it.

Sets up new permitting and reporting requirements. Commercial and industrial users would have to report withdrawals of more than 20,000 gallons per day and obtain a state permit for those larger than 57,600 per day.

Exempts all but the largest farms, which would have to report to the Agency of Agriculture if they withdraw more than 50,000 gallons per day.

Allows courts to impose attorney's fees on the loser of a public trust lawsuit, a measure whose backers said would discourage such suits.

Sets up a new permitting system that would require those seeking permits to show their water withdrawal will not have an adverse effect on state water quality standards, wetlands, or other users.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/04/03/vt_lawmakers_told_of_water_crisis_ahead/

[izzie]

1. My kids think I am a nut because I tell them water wars are coming

I believe there has all ready been a court case of a water problem in Can. with this free trade business. I am sure I read about it a few years ago. I am sure Maine is in for big problems. Water and the woods are starting to be controlled by corp. out side the US and if we think of the greed of the USA corp. we can also plan on world wide corp. being into greed also. A few people in Maine will not stop them from making money. I am sure we will wait until the problem is on us before we see it.