Great Lakes Cities Need Dependable Water Levels

It has been argued for years in the Great Lakes region that conserving water levels is crucial to the water-dependent economies of the cities, states and Canadian provinces that are on the water.

And that is why adopting the pending Great Lakes Compact now is so important.

The longer that the Compact's implementation is delayed - - as is happening in several of the Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin - - the longer the lakes remain vulnerable to a number of stresses.

Declining lake levels is among the leading problems that can undermine economies from Minnesota to Quebec to New York state.

Dan Egan, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's resident Great Lakes expert, offers a timely example - - the City of Waukegan, IL, on Lake Michigan just to the south of the Illinois-Wisconsin border, has decided, for economic reasons, to re-define its port from industrial to an all-recreational, smaller boating destination.

Waukegan wants upscale boaters, and the retail expansion that will follow, to boost its local economy.

Makes sense, so long as the water levels remain stable.The worst thing that could hit Waukegan, and for that matter, Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee - - communities up and down Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes - - would be falling lake levels preventing boats from getting to piers, and in and out of harbors.

That's not fantasy or conservationist propaganda.

It's happening right now in some Lake Superior ports, chronicled here, as water levels have dipped there to their lowest level in 80 years.

It's an under-covered and under-appreciated story in southeastern Wisconsin because it's happening far away, Up North, but it's real.

So when you read that Waukesha wants to divert water from Lake Michigan, and has not agreed to return that water to the lake, it's time for citizens and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to strongly object.

Likewise to any other out-of-basin community in the entire Great Lakes basin, particularly those that have no history and commitment to conserving the water they have.

It's no surprise that political and business leaders in Waukesha County are leading the charge in Wisconsin against adopting the Great Lakes Compact, because the Compact (first passed in 1985) has amendments pending that set first-ever conservation standards and diversion procedures.

And defines the kind of diversion Waukesha wants - - even with a guarantee of so-called "return-flow" - - as a last resort. That's a standard that Waukesha and many other water-hungry communities would have a tough time meeting.

Where sprawl builders hold political sway, (think Western Waukesha County, think Pabst Farms and more), Lake Michigan water will lead to more annexations of open land and greater profits for developers - - and the levels of the Great Lakes are a secondary concern.

If Waukesha can put its pipe into Lake Michigan, other communities in Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Ohio and elsewhere will get their straw into the lakes, too.

It is in the greater public interest for Wisconsin and the rest of the Great Lakes states (Minnesota has already approved it) to adopt the amended Great Lakes Compact now.

And to orient water management towards conservation, so that the state's water-based industrial and recreational economies and Great Lakes levels can be sustained far into the future.