711.4216 M 58/61
The British Ambassador ( Howard ) to the Secretary of State
Sir: In your note of March 21st last you were so good as to inform me that a permit had been granted on the 3rd of that month by the Secretary of War to the Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago authorising a diversion from Lake Michigan, through its main drainage canal and auxiliary channels, of an amount of water not to exceed an annual average of 8,500 cubic feet per second, the instantaneous maximum not to exceed 11,000 cubic feet per second.
I now have the honour to inform you that before considering further the situation resulting from the decision of the Secretary of War to allow an increase of the flow through the main drainage canal and auxiliaries beyond the limit of 4,167 cubic feet per second specified in the permit of 30th June, 1910, and the consequences to navigation, power and other interests on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence waterway system resulting from this continued diversion, against which the Government of Canada have been compelled to protest repeatedly and against which they must still protest, the Dominion Government desire to ascertain precisely the extent to which the new permit will modify the actual conditions which obtained during the year immediately preceding the 3rd March, 1925.
Inasmuch as previous permits on the part of the Secretary of War have authorised a certain total flow in the main canal and auxiliary channels, either by direct limitation of flow or by authorization of channel capacity, the Government of Canada interpret the permit of March 3rd last as having been issued on a similar basis, with the sole exception that modification has been made in the total amount [Page 564] of water specified. In other words, the flow permitted under previous permits included all waters from whatever source passing Lockport, and under the permit of 3rd March, 1925, this flow is not to exceed an annual average of 8,500 cubic feet per second.
The Government of Canada would, therefore, appreciate being advised as follows:—
- First,—What has been the actual average flow of the water passing Lockport during the year ending 3rd March, 1925;
- Second,—By what amount will this average flow of water passing Lockport be immediately reduced under the terms of the permit of 3rd of March;
- Third,—By what amount will this average flow be further reduced by 31st of December, 1929, the date upon which the new permit terminates.
I have [etc.]