Why Wisconsin Could Take A Dive On Great Lakes Management

Because the foxes aren't merely inside the hen house - - they've got the keys and are busy redecorating it.

Question is: will the ideologues named to run the Department of Natural Resources leave Waukesha up Underwood Creek without a paddle, or water to float in?

Read on:

The new senior managers at the DNR who are about to direct the implementation in Wisconsin of the Great Lakes management Compact include influential people who tried a few years ago to weaken the Compact's key diversion standards and procedures, or who have pre-judged Waukesha's diversion plan even though the DNR's in-house and apolitical experts, citing substantial deficiencies for months, are still calling the application incomplete.

It starts at the top: new Gov. Scott Walker indicated his biases in favor of Waukesha's stalled application for a Lake Michigan diversion last year by supporting the application's controversial plan to dump treated wastewater for return to Lake Michigan into Underwood Creek - - even though the DNR has indicated to Waukesha in writing that the city needs to do far more research on the entire application and the return flow plan in particular.

Then there are the Compact skeptics and one-time obstructionists whom Walker has put into key environmental and state government management positions: new Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, DNR Deputy Mike Moroney and Executive Secretary Scott Gunderson.

Familiarize yourself with their Compact thinking.

Both Gunderson and Huebsch are former Republican legislative leaders who had been in league with Compact enemy State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin).

Lazich led what became a failed effort to amend the Compact to reduce the number of states required to approve out-of-basin  diversions - - always knowing that the City of Waukesha would be the major beneficiary if that loophole were created.

Those efforts were pushed knowing they could completely derail the Compact and leave the Great Lakes unprotected.

Now Lazich doesn't have to take to the Senate floor and rant about the Compact (audio here): she can call her pals in the administration and tell them what to do for Waukesha County.

Gunderson early on had indicated his support for Waukesha's diversion intentions prior to the city's completion of its application, though with some misunderstanding, explained here, and he had joined forces with Lazich, Huebsch and far-right, state's rights leaders in Ohio in their failed, two-state effort to make diversions easier.

New DNR Deputy Secretary, Attorney Matt Moroney, actively sought on behalf of the Wisconsin Home Builders to make related changes in the Compact and in Wisconsin's implementation, laid out here.

These people didn't succeed in weakening the Compact - - and a diversion to Waukesha will still require the unanimous consent of all eight Great Lakes states - - but these same folks are now in a position to dilute or kill the state's analysis of the Waukesha application.

New DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp has had a long history of DNR-bashing, and told employees by email on the eve of walking in the door that de-regulation on behalf of Walker is a key goal.

I have broken out some of the DNR's 49 areas of concern about the application, here - - and this is all preliminary to the DNR's completion of an environmental impact statement, and hearings - - if the Walker crew does not dilute, hamstring or deep-six the pre-Stepp/Monroney/Gunderson work.

My take: there would be a short-term political opportunity to curry favor with Waukesha voters if Walker signals to the DNR that it should take a pass, or kick the incomplete application down the road to the other states to sort out - -  but for Wisconsin's national standing, and for Waukesha's water supply needs that would be a long-term negative.

Because the seven other states are still needed to approve Waukesha's application  - - I can hear Mary Lazich yelling, "I told you so" - - and whether it be Michigan, or New York or whichever, one or more states will rebel against any effort to give lip service to such an important regional water management document, and responsibility, that was years in the making.

One result: litigation on all sides, breaking the bank and guaranteeing that Waukesha will never make the June, 2018 clean water supply deadline it has made a court-ordered promise to meet.

If Wisconsin goes rogue in its precedent-setting Compact review - - Wisconsin will go diversion-free, leaving Waukesha up Underwood Creek without a paddle.