When Las Vegas Runs Dry in 2010, Don't Think The Great Lakes Won't Be Offered As Relief

Some published predictions about the City of Las Vegas running dry (that's water supply, not booze) as early as 2010 ought to be a kick in the pants to Wisconsin water policy obstructionists like State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), because the more she and her cronies delay the pending Great Lakes Compact from being implemented, the more the Great Lakes are vulnerable to wholesale, even distant diversions.

The diversion protections in the Compact, which are coordinated with conservation practices spelled out in the Compact, function as a plan to reserve Great Lakes water for rational, pragmatic uses in the Great Lakes basin.

Without the Compact - - Lazich is a member of a state legislative study committee tied up in knots for a year over Waukesha County demands for self-interested exemptions and exceptions - - the Great Lakes remain vulnerable to wholesale and thoughtless withdrawals.

Lazich and her allies on the committee and in the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce are also concerned that Michigan might block a Waukesha County community's request for a diversion.

But the greater threat is that the entire Great Lakes system could be tapped for diversions to faraway locations that could not return any water - - something bad for Waukesha County, all of Wisconsin and the entire Great Lakes region.

Some people have said Las Vegas, or Alabama, are too far to pipe water.

Let's not forget that the same thing was said about piping out Alaskan oil, too.