Given the likelihood of freshwater becoming a much more valuable resource due to overuse of our aquifers and rivers, the U.S. and Canada should be treating the Great Lakes and their watershed as a strategic reserve. The longstanding fast-and-loose approach to their ecology and water quality should not be tolerated any more, as a matter of national security. This extends well beyond underwater pipelines and should include real efforts to prevent agricultural nitrate pollution (and the poison algal blooms it causes) and other issues rooted in run-off from the watershed, as well as invasive species and direct water pollution by coastal cities/industries and the shipping industry. /rant