Environmental Groups Pose Detailed Questions About Waukesha's Diversion Plans

The City of Waukesha is planning to seek, under the terms of the Great Lakes Compact, a diversion of up to 24 million gallons daily from Lake Michigan.

That diversion across the subcontinental divide to a community wholly-outside the Great Lakes basin would be the first sought under the new Compact, so for legal as well as environmental reasons it is crucial that the application be carefully constructed and completely and publicly justified.

Though the application has not been filed, enough of Waukesha's intentions are known that half-a-dozen environmental groups have sent Waukesha officials a list of detailed questions to bring more of the city's plans into the light.

Those groups have posted those questions on a new blog, here.

I expect that these questions, Waukesha's answers, and other materials will help inform the discussion in the region about water diversion policy across southeastern Wisconsin.

Since the application would have to be approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - - and the DNR has not written the administrative rules it needs to implement the new Compact - - and also must be approved unanimously by the other seven Great Lakes states, I'd guesstimate that serious consideration of a Waukesha application is two-to-three-years away, at the earliest.

The timing of the environmental groups' questions is apt, as both Waukesha and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission are holding public meetings next week on water supply issues.

The SEWRPC meetings will touch on more than its recent study recommendation that Waukesha receive Lake Michigan water.

Waukesha is seeking a lot more water than what SEWRPC is recommending in a regional scheme designed to conserve water and replenish a stressed deep aquifer beneath Waukesha County and much of the region.

I'll post those schedules over the weekend.