Since its inception well over a century ago, the reality of a navigable waterway that extends from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay has been a central part of the fabric of Ontario. Constructed between 1833 and 1920, the Trent-Severn Waterway was designated to be of “national importance” in 1929 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and was considered to be an engineering marvel at the time. It was initially built for two specific purposes: to provide a useful watercourse that would enhance the logging industry and to provide a transportation corridor in the southern part of the system. The system currently contains 44 locks, the world’s tallest hydraulic lift lock, a marine railway, approximately 160 dams and water control structures and forty one reservoir lakes in the Haliburton Highlands that provide supplementary water to ensure that navigation levels are maintained. Geographically, it is Canada’s largest national historic site with more physical assets than any other, serving a regional population in the millions and supports the economies of more than 100 communities throughout its watershed. However, after nearly 180 years, it seems all is not well in this vast region of South-Central Ontario. The original waterway mandate, which focused purely on navigation, is now challenged to meet the expanded needs of a modern era. The TSW (Trent Severn Waterway) has always had its critics but it is now confronted by a multitude of stakeholders with sometimes diverse demands, and it’s response seems to fall short.
To begin to appreciate some of the problems, the initial mandate of the waterway and how it has been traditionally facilitated must be examined. From the beginning, the basics of the system were clear...
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For almost two centuries the TSW, in dealing with public pressure, has pointed to its original mandate. The concern is that in doing so it fails to recognize that increasingly, the entire waterway is an expanding recreation base, which not only requires water for navigation but also requires an equitable supply of water to support recreational uses and to maintain and enhance the natural environment. The TSW, although maintaining their original position, has over the years made provision for “new” uses of water including diverting vast amounts to white water canoeing events, water filtrations plants and increased municipal uses. Clearly times have changed and the TSW must recognize that it must adapt through not only a change of mandate but also a change of governance that would recognize and better co-ordinate the vast amount of stakeholders within the system.
Tule Lake Committee. Kinenhi: Reflections on Tule Lake. San Francisco: The Tule Lake Committee, 1980.
Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real but vastly unknown issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its reader. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306) This includes referencing many different acronyms such as, FTAA, NAFTA, GTAA and WWF. FTAA, NAFTA, and GTAA are the villains of this story. Simply put, the privatization of water would end in socioeconomic turmoil and dehydration worldwide.
In 1999 the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association encouraged the continuation and further development of waterborne market and restoration on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway of places ...
Without multi-state agreements concerning changes in usage patterns, this could bring about intervention by the Federal courts that would effectively halt Atlanta’s development until the usage disputes were resolved. By comparison, some western states water lawsuits have lasted for decades, typically freezing usage patterns “as is”. (Barr, 1999) The southeast can ill afford to have Atlanta – the region’s single largest engine of economic growth – brought to a standstill because of this issue.
Macfarlane, Daniel. "Rapid Changes: Canada and the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project." University of Waterloo. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
What we have seen in late January has proved that the city of Phoenix needs one more water treatment facility. The tax revenue that will be lost if a water crisis every happen again will pay for the building of the new facility. The water department has known of this problem for years but has chosen not to rectify the hazard. City officials chalked up the high levels of sediment in the water to Mother Nature, but they acknowledge that a series of decisions by water officials could have worsened the problem. (Villa, Fehr-Snyder, 1) The water department knew and Frank Fairbanks knew that maintenance was required on rotating bases, on each facility and chooses to take two offline during the “winter” or “rainy months”.
Water has long been a controversy in countless places worldwide and Colorado is no exception. The water rights in Colorado involve different stages within the Prior Appropriation Law; the senior and junior water rights. Senior water rights are privileges that were the first to be issued on unappropriated streams in Colorado and are to be filled before the junior water right holders. Junior water rights are similar to senior water rights, but are filled after the senior water holders take their allotted amount (Wolfe Prior Appropriation Law). The water in Colorado is just that; Colorado’s water, owned by the people and restricted by the state. However, Colorado is required by law to send over 30 million acre – feet of water to seven western states (“Missouri River”). An acre – foot is “The quantity of water required to fill one acre with one foot of water and is equivalent to 43,560 cubic feet or 325,850 gallons” (“Missouri River”). The State enforces all water laws in Colorado even though they are not straightforward and are riddled with loopholes. These water laws came into effect “As early as 1879” (Hundley, Jr. 53). In the laws, there are even more constraints and idiosyncrasies including; owning ground water, owning surface water, senior rights and junior rights, and the use and reuse of rainwater or graywater. Water users in Colorado need to familiarize themselves with the laws and regulations involving water in order to receive the allotted water and the reasoning behind that number.
Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.
As global temperatures and ocean levels rise, the water levels of the Great Lakes continues to fall. As the lakes hit their all time lowest level in global history in 2012, society remains ignorant to the imposing doom that lurks ahead. Since the Great Lakes make up the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth and are responsible for approximately 21% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, this issue is becoming one of the largest environmental and economical issues our modern world faces. The effects of this issue include destroying animal habitats and a major economic market; shipping. Water levels in the Great Lakes have been dropping for the past fourteen years, but it wasn’t until boats were scraping the bottom of Lake Huron that people began to take notice. This terrible environmental issue has been dubbed a long term cycle of over evaporation and not enough precipitation to replenish the Lakes. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has been monitoring this issue for a decade and has made startling discoveries, such as in 2012, he discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron’s water levels only rose four inches after winter, whereas the Lakes have been regularly recorded as gaining a foot of water after the winter season had ended. This amount of water added is not enough to maintain a proper water level during the dry, hot summer seasons that evaporate much water from the Great Lakes. While some scientists say that this is just a cycle that will adjust itself naturally, most experts that have been studying this phenomenon, such as Kompoltwicz, would agree that the issue has gone to far
People in the northern United States during the early nineteenth century wanted to rapidly industrialize and increase the amount of money they were making. The Erie Canal they believed was a great way to reduce the distance and time of shipping goods to the west. They also realized that the canal would probably increase their markets, which would mean a larger profit. The problem with all of this was how people had to destroy parts of nature in order for this to happen. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a prominent writer during the time, described the canal as “too rapid, unthinking advance of progress.” (57) Hawthorne and his supporters were very upset to see how forests and swamps were being destroyed and ruined in order t...
The first and most challenging problem associated with building the Mackinac Bridge arrived long before the bridge was even designed. Financing such an enormous project was no easy feat. In 1928, the idea of connecting the upper and lower peninsulas was proposed to Congress for the first time (Brown 4). At the time, the suspected bridge project was very much under government scrutiny and control. In fact, the initial boost in interest in pursuing the construction of a bridge came about due to the depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) had been created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal economic plan which would fund certain construction projects with th...
The United States Pacific Northwest has historically been a significant player in the global fishing industry. However, over the last half-century, the fish population in the area has been declining at an alarming rate. Popular species of fish such as cod and salmon have been particularly susceptible to these decreases. What once was a region flourishing with abundant fish populations, is now in danger of being exploited to the point of extinction of certain species. The majority of these population drops is attributed to increased industrialization and overfishing in the region. The ocean is a commons, as defined by Garrett Hardin in his “The Tragedy of the Commons”, and is being exploited as an open resource, resulting in a reduction of fish and industrial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. Enforced government regulation is the only viable course of action to deter the declining fish populations. Fisheries have been exploiting the region, and limiting the amount of fish one can catch, particularly of specific species, may lead to more balanced levels of fish population.
The current size, inherent values, and economic status of the United States owes greatly to the paramount figures and events that took place during the Early National Period of the country. However, while there is no doubt that such events- and the figures behind them- were of great importance and have molded the country into the pristine product that it is today, the various construction projects of that time have gone largely unnoticed. Canals, being one of the most prominent advances in transportation, are prime examples of forgotten catalysts of the American nation. The construction of canals- particularly the Erie Canal- during the 19th century played a key role in the geographic, economic, and cultural development of the country by allowing an easier and faster mode of transport, and contributing greatly to the preservation of the Union during the Civil War.
... line the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal.
Waterfront projects are usually master planned with a unified design theme undertaken to broken down into multiple development stages continued over many years. These parcels of land once industrial are rezoned and made viable for a range of different socio-economic opportunities. Considering these factors of long standing disinvestment and the rezoning, the most common challenges to be considered