Thirty-Five Groups Call For Stronger Great Lakes Diversion Rules
A very large coalition of organizations across the Great Lakes wants formal rules in place before requests for diversions of water piped outside the Great Lakes basin have their pivotal, regional review.
The first such application has been filed by Waukesha, WI, but is in the most preliminary phase of review by Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources and has not reached the other Great Lakes states or the Regional Body and Council managing the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 for broader consideration .
The Compact sets up review procedures, but the Regional Body and Council have yet to write rules for how to process an out-of-basin application.
At a June 10 meeting in Chicago, regional Compact officials will decide whether to issue interim rules - - the organizations want final rules issued instead - - prior to Waukesha's application being considered.
There is plenty of time for regional officials to get their ducks in line, as the DNR's review will easily take six months to a year - - perhaps longer if substantial rewriting is required, or if the eventual public hearings also surface new and better analyses for Waukesha and the DNR to consider.
In fact, officials in charge of drafting Waukesha's application delayed submitting the final draft to the DNR until six weeks after the Waukeska Common Council approved an earlier draft for submission to the DNR, and there is a dispute over whether that final draft needs a Common Council vote.
Note also that the Wisconsin DNR is performing its review without having written its administrative rules defining how a Wisconsin community should draft an application.
I have been writing about this point for some time now. Sample from a year ago, here.
Yes, the DNR is offering guidance to Waukesha, and is writing a plan for analyzing the application, but without traditional and legally-binding administrative rules, the procedure will be ad hoc.
The other Great Lakes states should not repeat Wisconsin's 'no-rules-first' mistake.
4 comments:
Hmm...I see nothing but a bunch of like-minded, left wing, enviros. I wonder how difficult it was to get this "large coalition" to sing from the same hymn book?
35 groups across a multi-state, two-nation area? That's pretty decent organizing, friend.
Whatever; a couple of quick e-mails is probably all the "organizing" this required. And we're not friends.
Wow anon, you sound like a medusa in Waukesha city hall. You knew this was comming and you still picked the fight you couldn't win. Good luck, you're going to need it.
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