To understand water and bulk water exports and the issues as they relate to Canada you have to understand the big picture and the best way to do that is to take a look at North America from outer space.  Looking at a photo of North America taken from outer space, the first thing you notice is the colours.   

The colours reflect patterns of rainfall and snowfall over North America are the result of weather patterns in both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans which lift massive amounts of water into the air through evaporation and transport that water, fresh water without the salt and other minerals, to other regions of the planet. Most of that water falls directly back into the ocean as rain or snow, probably seventy percent, but the remainder falls on the lands masses of the earth, 30% of the earth's surface.

Looking at the photo of North America in summer, it is obvious that the brown areas of the photo represent those areas of North American that receive little rainfall or snowfall and the green areas represent areas of North America that receive more rain or snow.  The brown areas are the American southwest and northern Mexico.    

Looking back at the photo of North America, the other color one would notice is the color blue.

The parts of the photo colored blue are the lakes and the rivers where the rain and melting snow pools and accumulates before it finally drains away into the ocean.

Some lakes may have taken longer to fill that others and may drain more slowly than other lakes but, nonetheless, all the fresh water, the blue parts of North America, originates in the Oceans and will, eventually return to the Oceans. The streams brooks and creeks are too small to be reflected in a page sized photo of the earth taken from outer space but they are there by the thousands.

If you see any white in the photos, then you are seeing fresh water in its frozen state, snow or ice, waiting for warm weather to covert it to liquid so it, too, can begin its journey back to the ocean where it came from.

So, first and fundamentally, you must understand that all fresh water comes from the Ocean.  All fresh water originates in the ocean, falls on the land, and is carried back to the ocean by channels called rivers, streams, brooks, or creeks.  Even underground fresh water aquifiers are the result of rain or snow melt that trace their origins to the Oceans.

Fresh water is a truly renewable resource.  It arises in the Oceans and falls, in Canada, freely and in abundance courtesy of our mother, Mother Nature, as rain in the summer & snow in the winter.   The reader should get this right and the reader should get it now because there are a lot of mis-conceptions about fresh water.  

Looking closer at the photo of North America, you will notice that there is very little blue in the brown areas of the photo.

This is because there is very little water comparatively speaking in the American southwest and northern Mexico. In the brown areas, the water is precious. In the green areas, the water is valueless. The water is so valueless that the people allow it to wash away into the sea knowing that it will return each year as snow or rain. In Canada, most fresh water originally appears in the sky as snow flakes, accumulates on the ground and is so plentiful that people pay contractors to remove it from their driveways. This is no market for snow in Canada.  It is a nuisance.

Water and our home , Planet Earth, hove a long history together, 6 billion years, or thereabouts. as humans, we are mostly water, 90%, (some say), curiously, scientists report that Planet Earth is one of the few places where water exists in its three states, solid, liquid, and gas. Canada is one of those peculiar countries where, for six months of the year, water exists in its solid state as snow or ice and the country is, literally, covered in water.  However, every spring, the water melts and drains back to the Oceans from whence it came.  Politicians and environmentalists may tell you that fresh water is our most prescious resource but they do prescious little to preserve it.  In fact the water is so valueless that Canadian people allow it to wash away into the sea knowing that it will return each year as snow or rain. In Canada, most fresh water originally appears in the sky as snow flakes, accumulates on the ground and is so plentiful that people pay contractors to remove it from their driveways. This is no market for snow in Canada. It is a nuisance. 

In the 19th century American writer Mark Twain observed of the American southwest “Where whiskey is for drinking over and water is for fighting over”. People fight over water in the American southwest and in northern Mexico.

In the 1950's, retired Canadian General Andrew MacNaughten observed that eventually the Americans were going to need Canadian water and that Canadians should figure out how to sell it to them before they came and took it.

In the 1970's the National Security Administration of the United States reported that the biggest long term threat to the United States economy was the lack of fresh water resources in the American southwest.

Eventually, Canadian political and business insiders realized the enormous potential markets in the American southwest and northern Mexico that could be supplied with fresh water from Canada and a scheme was devised to make some money out of a worthless resource - Canada.

The body of water featured here is Williston Lake, British Columbia, the largest lake, a man made lake, in British Columbia. This lake re-fills itself from falling snow and rain every 2 years.By contrast, Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes, re-charges itself every 180 years and Lake Okanagan, in the dry region of south central British Columbia, has a re-charge period of 80 years.Williston Lake sits at an elevation of 2200 feet above sea level (671 m). A properly constructed aqueduct would permit water to flow down hill to California without the aid of expensive energy consuming pumping stations.Ten feet of water, taken fom the surface, every year, would provide approximately 4 million acre feet, annually, with minimal environmental impact in Canada. This is some of the purest, cleanest water in the world. If a fraction of the outflow of Williston Lake, 4 million acre feet, were diverted and sold in southern California for $1,000 per acre foot the annual revenue would be $4 billion. 

In some parts of Canada, without abundant rainfall, such as the southerly parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, average people are bitterly opposed to water exports.

In other parts of Canada, such as Quebec, which has an abundance of fresh-water, there is general sympathy towards earning revenues from the export of fresh water that usually flows into the ocean.

In British Columbia, in the 1980's, public opinion and political opinion favored the development of a water export industry from coastal streams and rivers. There was ample water and, as long as fish stocks were protected, there was no apparent environmental or other concern with extracting a moderate amount of water from the abundance or water resources that flowed into the ocean annually. The Government of British Columbia estimated that about 400 million acre feet of water flows annually into the Pacific Ocean from the coast of British Columbia.  This estimate excludes the Fraser river and rivers or streams flowing south, east and north.  Williston Lake drains to the north.

In short, the quantities of water and sources of water available for export in British Columbia are so huge and so varied that they far outstrip any conceivable demand. These issues of supply and demand presented a practical business problem because free market competition would invariably lower prices and, therefore, lower profits.

The solution was a monopoly.