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The multi decade projectsucceeded in creating almost.10 million new irrigated acres, leading to thriving cotton and rice production. Butthe impact on the Aral.Sea was. ..unimag1nable. The fake started shrinking in the 196.0s and has since lost 90 percent of its surface area and 96 percent -of its volume. Water levels have dropped by .9.3 vertical feet28 Bustling lakeside fishing vilIages became ghost towns whose city docks now overlook sprawling deserts dotted with abandoned fishing boats; the coastline, Fong -since receded beyond the horizon, is often.miles and rriiles.away.z9 The words and actions.of U.S. political leaders through the years have caused significant concern among citizens and governors of Great Lakes states: According -to a 2001 Associated Press article, for example,. President George W. Bush said he wanted "to talk to Canadian Prime.Minister Jean Chretien about.piping [Great Lakes] water to parched :states in the -west and southwest." Seven years. later, New Mexico. Gov. BiII:Richard.s.on, them running.for the Democratic presidential nomination against Barack.Obama, told the Las Vegas Sun he favored a "national water policy," noting thatt"states like Wisconsin are awash in water."30 But the abiding example of the Aral Sea has perhaps done as much as anything to galvanize protective sent! men ts.among citizens and leaders !n the Great Lakes region. As Peter Anin notes in his excellent book The: Great Lakes. Water Wars, "the Aral Sea disaster has been invoked repeatedly by. Great Lakes environmentalists as an ecological rallying cry: an example of what not to become," Nonetheless, there have been many attempted large-scale diversions of Great. Lakes water over the years --some. successful, others not. Perhaps.the.most: prominent ongoing .diversion.from the Great Lakes is the Illinois diversion (also known as the.Chicago River diversion), constructed in the.late 19th century,.M.Chicago.was transformed from a frontier town to a major city, the Chicago River, which flowed into. Lake Michigan, became increasingly polluted with raw sewage and industrial. wastewater that threatened to foul-the:city's freshwater intake from Lake Michigan. The,city conceived a bold plan. By constructing.a.canaI connecting the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River,. they couId.reverse the flow of the Chicago River. Instead of the Chicago River flowing into Lake Michigan, Lake Michigan would flow into the Chicago River, merging with the river and diluting its pollution before flowing through the canal to the. Des. Plaines : River and eventually entering: the Mississippi River just north of St. Lou is..31 After lawsuits.by the city of St. Louis —which, as.you might imagine, was not happy about the diversion —and other Great Lake states.(concerned aboutthe.potential lowering of lake.levels by as much as six inches), and after several. Supreme Court opinions,. a couple.of acts .of Congress, and a consent.decree, the: diversion was:a.pproved and continues in place.to this day. Water flowing out of the Great Lakes Basin via the.Chicago. River diversion is more than offset by two diversions into.the Great Lakes, from Long Lac and.the.Okogi Riven in northern.0ntario. These diversions, completed in 1941 and 1943 respectively, both redirect water that would have flowed north to.James Bay to south -flowing rivers. that eventually reach Lake. Su east.ofThurider Bay, Ontario.32 The goal of these diversions was:to increase the flow of water Into and through the Great Lakes to. increase Canadian hydro. capacity to power the manufacture of. criticaI materials for fighting World War II. While the Chicago, Long Lake, and Okogi. River diversions constituted impressive, large-scale engineering accomplishments, they would have.been significantly overshadowed byseverai.gargantuan water.divers.lons involving.the Great Lakes.that were proposed, but never undertaken,. in the 20th century. For sheer audacity, none tops the Great Recycling and Northern Development (GRAND) Canal of North America, the brainchild of a Newfoundland engineer named Thomas Ki.erans whose goal was nothing less than to ensure. a eel iable. supply of fresh water for the entire continent. Kierans proposed constructing an enormous dike that would separate Jaynes Bay from Hudson. Bay, everituaIlytu.rningJames Bay into a giant freshwater lake. Through a. see! es of nuclear reactors and hydro darns, water 'in the newly .des.alinated James Bay would then be pumped to the:Great Lakes and from there to the U.S. Midwest, South, Southwest, and even to Mexico.33