It appears Wisconsin will approve the Great Lakes Water Compact. All the states and Canadian provinces that border the lakes are considering the compact. It sets standards for managing the water and making sure there are no long-distance diversions. Governor Doyle and legislators of both parties Wednesday announced a tentative agreement on Wisconsin’s version of the pact. WUWM’s Marge Pitrof has more.
There haven’t been many episodes in Wisconsin’s recent history in which Democrats and Republicans have congratulated each other on a job well done. But it happened at New Berlin City Hall. That’s where Governor Doyle flanked by lawmakers of both parties, announced they have reached a verbal agreement on the Great Lakes Water Compact.
“I believe that what we have agreed on today, is something that we're going to be able to look back, all of us, in five, 10, 15 and 20 years from today, and says, this was one of the most significant accomplishments of our time," the governor says.
Doyle says significant, because water is becoming a major issue of the 21st century for some regions as their source evaporates.
“People shouldn’t think this is some science fiction, because as we speak, Georgia is trying to take some of Tennessee’s land to get a little bit of the Tennessee River over water fights. And the water fights we have seen going on in the Southwest, there is no doubt that people already have and will look to the Great Lakes for that source of water,” Doyle says.
What the Great Lakes Compact does, is prevents long-distance diversions of water from the lakes, and it requires the communities that can use it because they border it, to do so responsibly. Until now, the issue was a thorny one in Wisconsin for a couple reasons. One, because the compact does not spell out how to deal with communities such as Waukesha and New Berlin. They sit outside the Great Lakes Basin…their surface water runs to the Mississippi River, yet they desperately need a new source of water because their wells are increasingly contaminated with cancer-causing radium. To settle the issue, Wisconsin’s version of the compact allows communities that are adjacent to the basin, to apply for water, as long as they meet certain conditions. Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson calls them reasonable.
“And that includes the water conservation we’re already doing, the rate change for our heaviest residential water users that we’re already gotten approved by the Public Service Commission, and return flow to a tributary that will be approved by the DNR that will show we can do return flow and in an environmentally-positive way," Nelson says.
Nelson says he intends to produce a role-model application so that other states accept it. That’s been the second big hang-up in Wisconsin. Some lawmakers did not like the fact that any Great Lakes governor could veto a diversion in another state. While Wisconsin will have to accept that provision, legislators and the governor hope the conditions the state has established in its document for local diversions, will allow them to happen. Keithe Reopelle is Program Director for the group Clean Wisconsin. It’s been monitoring the compact process. He says Wisconsin’s plan sounds good, but…
“We’ll see when the amendments get drafted. I certainly hope so, but a lot of the details, as you might imagine, come down to the drafting,” Reopelle says.
That drafting will take place over the next several days. Everything must be ready for lawmakers to vote on the compact when they meet in special session April 17th. After the remaining three states approve the compact, assuming they do, it then goes before Congress for final ratification.
While the compact process continues to unfold, Waukesha and New Berlin plan to continue their quest for Lake Michigan water because for them, time is of the essence. They’d prefer buying it through Milwaukee’s water utility because of its huge capacity, but could also tap into Oak Creek, Racine or Kenosha.
Share / Email
Print
Download
This story is part of a group. Click for more.
Email a Friend
Facebook
Del.icio.us
Stumble Upon
Digg
Newsvine
