Australia's Diversions and the Great Lakes

Robert Thorpe: Chicago Skyline ~Enlarge

Australia is the driest continent on Earth. So what can we possibly have in common with the water-rich Great Lakes states? Water diversions, for one thing.

Here in Western Australia, we have been piping water out of Perth to the Goldfields since the end of the 19th century. The Golden Pipeline, a 560 km aboveground drinking water pipeline, was an amazing feat of engineering and the reason that Australia was able to have a gold boom at all. In fact, our ingenuity with water (along with our abundant supply of minerals) is one reason this dry country is able to thrive.

However, this dry country is becoming even drier; and in recent years the motivations behind our water projects have been more sinister. In 2005 pumping 65 gigalitres of water from the South West Yarragadee aquifer was marketed as a solution to Perth’s water woes. The proposal was eventually struck down for its potentially damaging social and environmental impacts, but only after a fight and millions of taxpayer dollars. There have even been proposals to bring water from the Ord River in the Kimberley by boat or pipeline, which is basically the equivalent of taking Michigan water around to the Gulf of Mexico. Here, the bountiful seasonal floods have offered politicians plenty of material to convince the public that it is not conservation or alternative sources closer to home that we need, when the north is simply flooded with water waiting to be used. Much the same as the Great Lakes, even in Australia we have water sources whose “size belies their fragility”. 

Much of this debate highlights a “country versus city” mentality where it is common to avoid talking about the real issues (e.g. water conservation, water use in agriculture). For instance, in Victoria, a plan to bring water from the country into Melbourne is a source of tension, particularly in a state in the midst of a drought where little water is left for the environment after people have had their fill.  In New South Wales, former Prime Minister John Howard recently came under fire for funding a politically advantageous pipeline between two key electorates.

These are just a few examples that ‘water wars’ are alive and well, but it is clear that water will continue to be a political tool in the US, Australia and elsewhere. In this sunburned country, I can see even more clearly why the Great Lakes must be protected from such diversions.

Sarah Clement is a Project Manager with Beckwith Environmental Planning, an Australian consultancy providing social science research and environmental planning services to private and public sector clients. A Michigan native, Sarah holds a Bachelor's of Science in Environmental Studies and Applications from Michigan State University (USA). She has experience in the fields of social research, environmental science and planning, public engagement, program and policy development, social marketing and behavioural change and evaluation. Prior to coming to Australia, Sarah held a number of positions in the non-profit, private and public sectors in the USA. In the private sector, her focus has been on water source protection and planning, wetland protection, biodiversity conservation, regulatory compliance and litigation, including monitoring, site investigation and remediation activities. She also spent time as a research assistant with the Michigan Senate and Michigan State University. With AmeriCorps VISTA she worked as a community organiser and environmental educator for a watershed protection group working to clean up surface and groundwater impacted by coal mining in rural Appalachia.