How Canada could slow, block Waukesha's Great Lakes diversion

As a March 14th comment deadline and final decision-making loom, the Wisconsin water expert Jenny Kehl explains that while Canada has only an advisory role to play when assessing whether Waukesha may access Great Lakes water under the terms of a 2008 US/Canada water management compact, a 1920 treaty between the two nations could be brought into play:

Canada will refer back to an ….older treaty from the 1920s about jointly managing the Great Lakes. [It requires] if significant decisions are made about the stewardship of the Great Lakes, both countries would have to agree,” she says. 

Kehl believes if the Great Lakes states approve the diversion, Canada will use the treaty. “They will veto at that point, using that mechanism,” she says. 

 
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