INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA

The report warns that NAFTA and the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) treat water as a commodity, potentially preventing Canada from restricting large-scale water exports to the U.S. and Mexico. It details massive proposed projects like NAWAPA and the GRAND Canal, and identifies trends—such as the rise of water marketing and the impacts of global warming—that increase the likelihood of these transfers. The authors recommend forming a North American Water Task Force and pursuing legal frameworks that prioritize ecological and indigenous values over economic ones.

• The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 1988 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) likely prevent Canada or its provinces from restricting water exports because water is treated as a 'good' under their tariff provisions.
• The North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) is a proposed project that would dam major rivers in Alaska and British Columbia to divert water to the Great Plains and southwestern deserts, including 20 million acre-feet for Mexico, 13.9 million for California, 11.7 million for Texas, and 2.3 million for Idaho.
• The Great Replenishment and Northern Development Canal (GRAND Canal) proposes a dike across the northern end of James Bay to create a reservoir that would channel water into the Great Lakes and then to western North America.
• An Alaska-California Subsea Pipeline project, estimated at $110 billion, was investigated by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which concluded it could not compete economically with other options available to California.
• NAFTA's dispute resolution process is criticized for being closed to public participation and biased toward trade specialists, which may lead panels to favor large-scale water transfers over environmental protections.
• Several trends are increasing the feasibility of water transfers, including the existing construction of component dams (such as the Oldman River dam in Alberta and the LaGrande River projects in Quebec), the shift toward water marketing in the U.S. West, and the use of global warming as a justification for technological fixes.

APA

Hunter, D., & Orbuch, P. (n.d.). INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/InterbasinWater_NAFTA_1993.pdf

Chicago

Hunter, David, and Paul Orbuch. INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA. Center for International Environmental Law, n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/InterbasinWater_NAFTA_1993.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hunter |first1=David |last2=Orbuch |first2=Paul |title=INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/InterbasinWater_NAFTA_1993.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hunterndinterbasin, author = {Hunter, David and Orbuch, Paul}, title = {{INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/InterbasinWater_NAFTA_1993.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }