As I continued to watch the unfolding horror in the Gulf of Mexico, it dawned on me that the repercussions of the disaster would be magnified ten thousand times if the problem had occurred in a major fresh water source such as the Great Lakes.   While the effects of the events unfolding in the Gulf are horrendous, they would be a proverbial drop in the bucket compared the consequences if a similar oil spill in the Great Lakes. 

Forty million people depend upon the water from the Great Lakes for drinking water, while nobody drinks the water from the ocean.   Since people can only live for about three days without water without serious consequences, the results of an oil spill in fresh water would be catastrophic.   

Did you know that Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Canada allow drilling for oil in the Great Lakes.   BP and several other oil companies have shown interest in drilling for oil and natural gas under the Great Lakes.  Geez, doesn’t that just warm your heart.  

You don’t see oil rigs or platforms in the lakes themselves like you do in the Gulf of Mexico, but slant drilling for oil under the Great Lakes does exist.  Slant drilling takes place from oil rigs on shore, which drill at a slant under the bottom of the lake. 

While a 997 report form the Michigan Environmental Sciences Board concluded that slant drilling poses “little or no risk” to the lakes, the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has proven that we should all be concerned about the fallout from an oil rig disaster.  While the oil from a slant drilling rig should not ever actually be transported through the water, try to imagine the consequences if there was an earthquake or some other “accident” that rapidly spilled large quantities of oil to be spilled into the Great Lakes.   Millions of people could be without drinking water and the death toll would be unimaginable.  I don’t imagine our governments have contingency plans in place to handle that type of disaster scenario.

There is nothing good about the Gulf oil spill.  If one were looking for a silver lining to the event, it would have to be based upon the hope that our society will stop, or reduce the foolish practice of burning hydrocarbons for energy.  Alternatives are available, but we have to put safety and the environment ahead of corporate profits. 

It doesn’t appear that there is any imminent danger to the Great Lakes from oil drilling laws, but lets make sure that our fresh water lakes can never be subjected to the same fate as the Gulf of Mexico.  Drilling for oil under fresh water lakes should be permanently banned.  There are other places to find oil in the short term until we finally do something intelligent about implementing alternative fuel sources.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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