Threats to Our Communities

1
Threats to Our Communities Our Water SPP,
Super-Corridors, NAFTA
Threats to Our Water
Threats to Our Water
North American Free Trade Agreement
NO WAY !
Adapted by Ruth Caplan, Sierra Club Water
Privatization Task Force Based on slide
presentation by Janet Eaton, Sierra Club Canada


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Threats to Our Communities and Water Topics
Covered

1. What is the SPP?
2. NAFTA Super-Corridors
3. The push is on to sell water !!
4. Trade threats to water under NAFTA
5. How are citizens are building resistance
6. Resources for learning more and getting active

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Security Prosperity Partnership of North
America ( SPP)

Agreed to by US, Canada, Mexico March 31st, 2005
Also known as NAFTA Plus

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Security Prosperity PartnershipWhat is it ?

What?
SPP launched March 2005 Waco Texas
President Bush, President Fox,
and Prime Minister Martin announced the Security
and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) for North
America on March 23, 2005 in Waco, Texas. Just a
handshake so no need to consult Congress or
Parliament. Through this partnership we
will ensure that North America remains the most
economically dynamic region of the world, a
secure home for our people for this and future
generations. Joint Statement by President
Bush, President Fox, and Prime Minister Martin


www.spp.gov
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Security Prosperity Partnership What is it?

What is?
Joint Statement by President Bush, President Fox,
and Prime Minister Martin, Waco Texas
The SPP builds upon, but is separate from, our
long-standing trade and economic relationships.
This partnership has increased
institutional contacts between the three
governments to respond to a shared vision of a
stronger, more secure and more prosperous
region. Whose vision would that be? Did
they consult you and me?

www.spp.gov
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Security Prosperity PartnershipHow does it
work?

?

• SPP Working Groups
• Creating a Corporatocracy
• 13 cross-border working groups made up of
  corporate leaders and senior government officials
  were established.
• 10 are on Prosperity (including Energy,
  Transportation, Food Ag) and 3 on Security
• They report to the three top Ministers within
  their governments twice a year and meet in
  person each March.
• Public and NGOs are not at the table
• www.spp.gov/prosperity_working/index.asp?dNamepro
  sperity_working

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Security Prosperity PartnershipHow is it
Working?
SPP Transportation Working Group
Will improve the safety and efficiency of
North America's transportation system by
expanding market access, facilitating multimodal
corridors , reducing congestion, and alleviating
bottlenecks at the border that inhibit growth and
threaten our quality of life (e.g., expand air
services agreements, and working with
responsible jurisdictions, will develop
mechanisms for enhanced road infrastructure
planning, including an inventory of border
transportation infrastructure in major corridors
and public-private financing instruments for
border projects.1 Multimodal corridors
will include dedicated corridor for utilities and
water pipelines. 2 __________________________ 1
http//www.spp.gov/prosperity_working/index.asp?
dNameprosperity_working 2 Texas Dept of
Transportation http//www.keeptexasmoving.org/proj
ects/

What?

www.spp.gov
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NAFTA Super-Corridors

NAFTA SUPER-CORRIDORS MEXICO TO CANADA
Photo Credit forthecause.US

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NAFTA Super-Corridors for cars, trucks,
trains water/oil pipelines

Projected Super-Corridors will have Water
Pipelines
Continental Integration North American Union

www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/printer_4218
.shtml
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NAFTA Super-Corridor Artists Rendition
Water Pipelines

Continental Integration North American Union

www.forthecause.us/000ftc-newstopic-nafta-corridor
.shtml
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NAFTA Super-Corridors

• The SPP, with its Transportation Working Group,
  accelerates NAFTA Super-Corridors with their
  proposed water pipelines!
• National transportation bodies and cross border
  consortia like the North American Super Corridor
  Coalition -- NASCO -- are also fueling this
  process.
• NASCO- North American Super- Corridor
  Coalition
• Mission is to develop the worlds first
  international, integrated and secure, multi-modal
  transportation system, along the International
  Mid-Continent Trade Corridor, to improve both
  trade competitiveness and the quality of life in
  North America. www.nascocorridor.com/pages/about/a
  bout.htm

NASCO Super-Corridor with connecting routes

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NASCO North Americas Super Corridor Coalition

NASCOs stated mission is to develop the worlds
first international, integrated and secure
multi-modal corridor system to support
international trade. Originally the I-35
Corridor Coalition, focus is on interstates
35/29/94 From almost immediately after NAFTA
took effect, NASCO has sought out and backed
Corridor-related initiatives to enhance border
security, safety and the operational efficiency
of the existing transportation infrastructure.
www.nascocorridor.com

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NASCO Promoting endless more
the US in general, and our Corridor through
its heartland in particular, face daunting
challenges in adapting to absorb the coming
tsunami of burgeoning cargo freight
tonnage. www.nascocorridor.com

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NAFTA Super-Corridors Trans -Texas Corridor not
just a highway

• The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a proposed
  multi-use, statewide network of transportation
  routes in Texas As envisioned, each route will
  include
• separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large
  trucks ( six automobile lanes, four truck lanes)
• freight railways ( two lines)
• high-speed commuter railways
• infrastructure for utilities including water
  lines, oil and gas pipelines, and transmission
  lines for electricity, broadband and other
  telecommunications services (on the outer edge)
• TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) will
  oversee planning, construction and ongoing
  maintenance, although private vendors will be
  responsible for much of the daily operations and
  collect the tolls. _______________________________
  __________
• www.keeptexasmoving.org/projects/

Recommended Routes Trans-Texas Corridor
Continental Integration North American Union
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NAFTA Super-Corridors Trans-Texas Corridor
Water Threats

Water is one of fourteen major concerns of the
Corridor Watch Group. Here is what they say about
water Potential threats to Texas water created
by the Trans Texas Corridor are very
serious. Water pipelines are in the plan. The
Trans-Texas Corridor Plan acknowledges that
water pipelines will facilitate the transfer of
"water over long distances." It appears that
water wells placed on the Trans-Texas Corridor
(state land) are not presently subject to any
local control or regulation. HB-3588
(legislation) allows TxDOT to lease land along
the Corridor for any commercial or industrial
purpose, could that include water mining? If so,
such enterprises apparently will not be subject
to regulation by ground water conservation
districts. ______________________________________
__________ www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/cw-i-water.ht
m
Continental Integration North American Union

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NAFTA Super-Corridors Trans-Texas Corridor
Other Threats
Corridor Watch Issues Concerns

• Confiscation of land by eminent domain
• -- 584,000 acres of farm and ranch land
• Loss of business in hundreds of communities
• Environmental issues air water contamination,
  loss of habitat ecosystems fragmentation
• Costs
• Misplaced transportation spending
• -- Toll income to foreign Spanish Cintra
  Corporation!

Continental Integration North American Union

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Trans Texas Corridor Part of a Larger Scheme

Its not just Texas. Its part of the
Super-Corridor network going through Kansas City
to Canada and Mexico
Continental Integration North American Union

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NAFTA Super-Corridors Trans Texas Corridor
Other Threats

Monthly Review NAFTA Corridor Threats "The
human and environmental costs of the Texas leg of
the I-35 NAFTA corridor cannot be kept secret
indefinitely. The final toll of the damage caused
by the NAFTA corridor system, which will entail
more lost jobs, the increased use of fossil
fuels, and continuing dependence on imported oil,
will also include mass consumption of prime
farmlands, displaced populations, disrupted
communities, and widespread environmental
damage." ________________________________________
___ The NAFTA Corridors Offshoring U.S.
Transportation Jobs to Mexico, Richard D. Vogel
/www.monthlyreview.org/0206vogel.htm

Continental Integration North American Union

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NAFTA Super-Corridors Labor Threats
Undeniably, both the U.S. and
Mexican labor movements have suffered serious
setbacks under NAFTA. But the offshoring of U.S.
production and transportation jobs and the
wholesale exploitation of Mexican workers are
just one facet of global capitals assault on
international labor and must be considered in
that context . The preparation for this
massive offshoring has been in progress for more
than a decadethe ongoing privatization of the
Mexican economy and the ground transportation
rules of NAFTA are facilitating the plan to
divert jobs to the south. _______________________
__________________________ The NAFTA
Corridors Offshoring U.S. Transportation Jobs to
Mexico. Richard D. Vogel www.monthlyreview.org/02
06vogel.htm

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Kansas Inland PortNub of Super-Corridors

Located in the heart of America at the hub of
the transcontinental and NAFTA trade corridors,
Kansas City is a center of choice for
warehousing, manufacturing and distribution.
Business has prospered due in large part to the
region's abundant, multi-modal transportation
network.


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Kansas Inland Port
www.kcsmartport.com/sec_corridors/corridors.htm
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Canamex NAFTA Super-Corridor

Continental Integration North American Union

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Canamex NAFTA Super-Corridor

CANAMEX Trade Corridor was established by
Congress the year after NAFTA was approved. The
CANAMEX Trade Corridor, as defined by Congress in
the 1995 National Highway Systems Designation
Act, is a High Priority Corridor. www.canamex.o
rg

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Canamex NAFTA Super-Corridor

Canamex lists as accomplishments 2Q 2002
Construction on the I-10/I-19 interchange in
Tucson, a key project for the CANAMEX Corridor,
began in June. 4Q 2002 The Governor's CANAMEX
Task Force reports attracting over 86 million in
federal funds for the Hoover Dam Bypass
project. www.canamex.org/accomplishments.asp


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I-5 Corridor in California Another NAFTA
Super-Corridor
The Shasta Valley Enterprise Zone, located in
the scenic valleys of Northern California...is
a state-designated economic development
area.... Shasta Business Park promotes
itself.... We Have All Of The Great
Connections. Trucking and the I-5 Corridor
Located along Interstate 5, the largest truck
corridor in the United States, the Shasta Valley
Enterprise Zone is uniquely positioned to offer
companies access to direct routes to Canada and
Mexico (NAFTA Treaty Nations), and all
international sea and airports in between.
www.shastabusinesspark.com/enterprisezone.html

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I-5 Corridor in CaliforniaMoving Water

Crystal Geyser Spring Water Bottling Company has
purchased 30 acres of land in the Shasta Business
Park to construct what will become the largest
spring water bottling plant in the World. The
water from Mt. Shasta is the purest of all water.
From carbon dating, its age of over 8,100 years
and the filtration processes it has gone through
makes it the very best. This same water is
available to the residents of this integrated
community. www.shastabusinesspark.com/enterp
risezone.html

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How Does the SPP Threaten Our Water ?
?
Bulk Water exports will take place from
Canada Manitoba, Newfoundland, Quebec, and
British Columbia in two to five years.
Paul Michael Wihbey GWEST, Sept 22, 2006,
Global Business Forum Banff
WATER EXPORT

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Security Prosperity Partnership Water is on
the Table !
The Minutes of a 2004 meeting of
the Task Force on the Future of North America
which drafted the SPP was leaked by the Council
of Canadians. It says No item - not
Canadian water, not Mexican oil, not American
anti-dumping laws - is off the table' rather
contentious or intractable issues will simply
require more time to ripen politically. _________
______________________ Leaked report of
the Task Force on the Future of North America,
2004. Council of Canadians Website
www.canadians.org/browse_categories.htm?COC_token
23_at__at_36cbd3e6423c06caef59921ad88ba514step2catid
374iscat1

No item not even Canadian water is off the SPP
table !
Continental Integration North American Union

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Security Prosperity Partnership Water and
Oil are on the Table !

The leaked report goes on to say
Mexican oil and Canadian water - are invested
with greater emotion than are those same natural
resources in other countries. ...Consequently,
policy recommendations on these issues are best
considered long term goals.
Water a long term goal of the SPP !
Continental Integration North American Union

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The Push to Sell Canadas WaterBlue Gold!!!
Money Week, which provides analysis of the week's
financial news, with practical investment advice
says There are countries that have an
over-abundance of water and here there are
opportunities for sale to other countries.
Canada, for example, has the same amount of water
as China, but just 2.3 of its population. Brazil
has far less need of its water than many of its
neighbours. As the value of water rises,
countries like these will start to export their
spare reserves to those more in need and
willing to pay. Pipelines will spring up,
connecting states and countries. Tankers will
transport water across the sea as often as they
do oil. Water will be on the move. And those who
can transfer it will be there to benefit.
_____________________________________________Merr
yn Sommerset Webb. Money Week. May 12, 2006 How
to profit from the world's water crisis
www.moneyweek.com/file/17125/look-to-a-very-liquid
-investment.html
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The Push to Sell Canadas Water !
October 2005 The Walrus -- Elizabeth May
responds The fact that climate change will
result in persistent droughts on our prairies and
reduced water levels in the Great Lakes is a good
argument against engineering water transfers
south of the border. We are fighting for an Annex
agreement to the Great Lakes Charter that will
prevent diversions, with climate change cited as
a reason. Adapting to climate change will
certainly mean keeping our water wthin natural
watersheds and basins. All the more reason that
we cannot risk diversions or mega-dams, and why
we must reduce fossil-fuel emissions. ---
Elizabeth May, at the time, Sierra Club of Canada
Director, now leader of the Green Party of Canada


Water Warning - Get Ready for Floods, Dams and
Selling our Water to the US by Chris Wood.
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Threats to Our Communities and WaterNAFTA
Increases the Threat
North American Free Trade Agreement

• Water was not excluded from NAFTA. This means
  water transported commercially across the
  US/Canada border would probably not survive a
  NAFTA corporate challenge if any government tries
  to limit the quantity being exported.
• The revised Great Lakes Compact is intended to
  stop large withdrawals from the Great Lakes
  Watershed, but also has loopholes which allow the
  siphoning off of water for sale by the bottled
  water industry.
• Canada has much fresh water eyed by entrepreneurs
  and investors for export to lucrative US market
  as well as global markets.

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Threats to Our Communities and Water NAFTA
Increases the Threat
North American Free Trade Agreement
Such exports set a dangerous precedent for
treating water as a commodity which means the
price is set by the market place. This impacts
all communities. As the water managers of Aurora
CO and Southern NV Water Authority say to the
reporter in the 10/21/07 NYT Magazine cover story
The Perfect Drought "Mulroy and Binney each
told me they think a true free-market water
exchange would create too many winners and
losers. 'What you would have is affluent
communities being able to buy the lifeblood right
out from under those that are less well heeled,'
Mulroy said."

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SPP and NAFTA Super-Corridors States Fight Back!

?
States say No Way to SPP NAFTA
Super-Corridors

• 19 states introduced resolutions in 2007 calling
  on the U.S. to get out of the SPP
• Resolutions passed both Houses in Idaho, Montana,
  and Oklahoma and were sent to the U.S. Congress
• Texas sent bill to Governor requiring the
  attorney general to produce a report on how
  NAFTA/SPP/NACC/WTO/GATS would effect state law

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SPP and NAFTA Super-Corridors States Fight
Back!

?
Idaho says No Way to SPP NAFTA
Super-Corridors
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the
First Regular Session of the Fifty-ninth Idaho
Legislature, the House of Representatives and
the Senate concurring therein, that we
emphatically urge and petition the Congress of
the United States and particularly the
congressional delegation representing the state
of Idaho to use all efforts, energies and
diligence to withdraw the United States from any
further participation in the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America or any
other bilateral or multilateral activity that
seeks to advance, authorize, fund or in any way
promote the creation of any structure to create
any form of North American Union.

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Security Prosperity PartnershipMontebello
Canada August 2007
While heads of state met at Montebello to discuss
next steps for the SPP, protestors turned out to
make their voices heard.

What

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Security Prosperity PartnershipEnergy Workers
Respond to SPP
On August 18, 2007 energy workers from Mexico,
the United States, Canada and Quebec together
with the Four North American networks fighting
NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership
(SPP) met in Montreal. They issued a Solidarity
saying in part We share the concerns of civil
society movements that the SPP is a new and
powerful instrument created by government and
corporate elites to shape the destinies of our
nations without democratic participation or
oversight.   We reject the security agenda of the
SPP which links NAFTA and trade to the limiting
of civil liberties, mass surveillance, racial
profiling and the failed and disastrous military
and foreign policies of George W. Bush.   We
challenge the neo-liberal assumptions of
prosperity which have led to increasing
disparities of wealth and power in each of our
countries. 

Can

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Security Prosperity PartnershipEnergy Workers
Respond to SPP

Can
Solidarity Statement continues These and other
elements of the SPP-corporate energy agenda are
unsustainable and sacrifice the needs of workers
and communities in each country to the profits of
energy corporations.   This is an agenda that
fails to address the need for each country to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a new
round of far reaching goals after 2012.  

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Security Prosperity PartnershipEnergy Workers
Respond to SPP

Can
Solidarity Statement conclusion Energy policies
will shape our world in the 21 century.   These
policies will lead either to democratic,
sustainable development or to global
environmental disaster and new wars of
aggression.   Energy workers, their unions and
social partners in Mexico, Canada and the United
States will act together for democratic,
sustainable national development of our energy
resources.  

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Digby Neck--Is This Our Future?

• Digby Neck Islands
• Present Economy
• Tradition of community economic development
• Sustainable
• Small Scale, localized
• Community based
• Participatory
• Eco -tourism
• Retirement area
• Small scale fishing
• Marine research
• Learning , discovery
• Intermediate technology emphasis

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In Stark Opposition gt Basalt Assault

• Digby Neck Islands Clayton Concrete mega quarry
  is tied to global economy
• Industrialization of unique bioregion
• Undemocratic imposition on local community by
  foreign corporation
• Derails local sustainable development by
  introducing large scale, unsustainable industry
• Cumulative impacts as more industries attracted
  by deep sea port
• Part of SPP grand plan!!!

Industrial aspects of a quarry
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Digby Neck Model Economy vs the SPP Basalt
Assault
Citizens have said No Way Sierra Club has fought
with them Key government panel just rejected
quarry as unsustainable! Community by community
we must see the big picture and reject the SPP!!
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Resources to Resist Water Privatization and
Commodification

• Sierra Club www.Sierraclub.org/CAC/water
• Alliance for Democracy www.thealliancefordemocra
  cy.org
• Food and Water Watch www.foodandwaterwatch.org
• Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation
  www.savemiwater.org
• Defending Water for Life in Maine
  http//defendingwaterinmaine.org
• Save Our Groundwater (NH) www.saveourgroundwater
  .org
• McCloud Watershed Council www.mccloudwatershedco
  uncil.org
• Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton (CA)
  www.cccos.org
• Felton Flow www.feltonflow.org

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Resources to Resist the SPP/Super-Corridors

• Stay tuned to these websites to learn more and
  take action
• Texas Corridor Watch www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/in
  dex.htm
• Council of Canadians www.canadians.org/
• Common Frontiers www.commonfrontiers.ca/
• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
  www.policyalternatives.ca
• Judicial Watch www.judicialwatch.org
• Conservative websites in the U.S. are also
  sounding the alarm about threats from the SPP
  and NAFTA Super-Corridors, e.g.,
• World Net www.worldnet
• Phyllis Spivey www.newswithviews.com/Spivey/phyll
  is3.htm
• Steven Yates www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven.h
  tm
• -

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End Notes

This power point was researched and
created by Janet M Eaton, PhD, independent
researcher and educator, and the Sierra Club of
Canadas International Liaison to the Corporate
Accountability Committee and Water Privatization
Task Force. It was revised and updated
October 2007 for presentation in Tucson AZ by
Ruth Caplan, Chair of the Sierra Clubs Water
Privatization Task Force and Coordinator of the
Alliance for Democracys Defending Water for Life
campaign.
Continental Integration orth American Union