MI and six other state’s representatives approved the Waukesha, Wis., application to divert water from the Great Lake Tuesday afternoon.
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Passed into law in 2008, the Compact sets standards for water use within the Great Lakes basin and bans diversions outside of the basin, with limited exceptions. Also like Pleasant Prairie, Waukesha is neighbors with communities in the Great Lakes watershed, allowing them to tap into a seemingly endless supply of Lake Michigan water. The city is required to reduce the amount of radium in its drinking water supply by 2018, and the wells it now uses as a are contaminated with radium, the Journal-Sentinel explains.
The historic agreement was approved in 2008 to erect a legal wall to protect the largest source of fresh water in the world, preventing water diversions by communities outside the Great Lakes basin.
However, she said most residents in MI and other states were opposed to the diversion.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday in Chicago, the Great Lakes Compact Council approved the first out-of-basin diversion of Great Lakes water under the binational Great Lakes Compact.
Ontario and Quebec are also members of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative but were not given the opportunity to vote on this particular request. “He has not made a final decision on how MI will vote yet, but has committed to ensuring that science will drive his decision rather than emotions or political rhetoric”. Representatives of the governors also added amendments allowing the Compact Council and the states to enforce the conditions of the diversion, and allowing other basin states to audit Waukesha’s performance.
Under the new agreement, Waukesha must submit annual reports to the compact council documenting the daily, monthly and annual amounts of water diverted from Lake Michigan the prior calendar year.
Mayor John Paterson is irate after a group of eight US governors voted Tuesday to allow a small Wisconsin town to draw its drinking water from Lake Michigan.
We appreciate the serious consideration that was given by the Compact Council to the tens of thousands of Great Lakes residents who voiced their concern that Waukesha’s original application did not meet the requirements of the Great Lakes Compact. About 30 percent of the water we pump from our deep aquifer wells is water than comes from the Lake Michigan watershed, without being returned.
The governor and other proponents say the plan is backed by strong science, negating the concerns of critics. The city is only 17 miles from the lake.
In rebuttal, the city said it was merely complying with a statewide policy of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources, which wants developing cities to align new water service with sewer service.
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Under the city’s plan, its utility there would build a system that connects with Oak Creek’s, use and treat the water and then return it to the lake via the Root River.
