MANITOULIN—An official with the Sierra Club of Canada Great Lakes section and a local resident both agree that if the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin, gets approval on its petition for the diversion of Lake Michigan water, it would be a precedent setting case and will probably lead to many municipalities along the lake asking for the same in this precedent setting case. Meanwhile, the province of Ontario is encouraging residents to provide their input on the proposal.
“The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has also put out a notice for comment on this issue,” said Mary Muter, of the Sierra Club, late last week. We think this needs to go to public comment,” she said, pointing out “there are several environmental groups that are requesting a public meeting on this whole issue. And the province of Ontario itself has the right to comment on the proposal.”
“The Sierra Club feels this proposal would be precedent setting,” stated Ms. Muter. “Many other communities on the Great Lakes would want the same diversion rights.” The Sierra is calling for Ontario to release a position on the proposal.
“This (Waukesha) initiative has been going on ever since we’ve had the water level problems in Lake Huron,” stated Manitoulin resident Mike Wilton. “It’s been talked about for at least 10 years and is coming to light again.”
“They (Waukesha) are talking about taking over 38 million litres of water each day, from Lake Michigan, but this will be a drop in the bucket. They say it will be enough to take them to 2050 but you watch their needs are going to change and their population is going to increase and then they will be asking for more water,” said Mr. Wilton. “They are asking for special permission to divert this water. First of all, they shouldn’t be diverting the water out of the watershed, they should be cleaning up what they have and putting it back into the watershed, as most cities do.”
“In this case Waukesha will take water from Michigan and use it, and then divert the water to the Mississippi River,” said Mr. Wilton. “They call it a diversion but actually it is a snow job, and they will get away with doing minimal clean-up. In every other city except Chicago the water that is diverted goes through the sewage plant and then is returned back into the watershed. It’s just wrong to allow Waukesha to do this.”
“It will be precedent setting and other municipalities in the area will want to do the same as well; and in turn the Great Lakes Compact agreement which called for no more diversion will basically be useless,” said Mr. Wilton.
Ms. Muter continued, “the city of Waukesha is saying the problem is with ground water, but it is treatable.” She pointed out, “I was at a meeting in Milwaukee two and a half years ago, at which time this position was put forward. I asked how many other Wisconsin communities alone would want the same diversion approval; I was told it could be between 30-40 communities. And this is just for the state of Wisconsin, not the other states that are near by.”
Ms. Muter said, “we think the Waukesha proposal should be turned down; it would mean the compact agreement would basically be changed. Treating ground water is a fact of life, and this proposal is nothing more than precedent setting and many other communities will then be able to follow this and make their own applications for water to be diverted.”
In a letter dated January 29 to all stakeholders, Jason Travers, with the Ontario Natural Resources Conservation Policy said, “in accordance with the agreement signed by the Great Lakes premiers and governors in 2005, the State of Wisconsin submitted the City of Waukesha water proposal application to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional on January 7, 2016. The city of Waukesha, Wisconsin has applied to the Wisconsin DNR to divert up to an annual average of 10.1 million gallons (38.2 million litres) of water per day from Lake Michigan. Waukesha is located outside the Great Lakes Basin but within a county that straddles the basin boundary. Therefore, the diversion potentially qualifies for a ‘straddling county’ exception to the ban on diversions under the agreement.”
“Ontarians have an opportunity to comment on the Waukesha proposal through the Regional Body’s public participation process. A two-month comment period began on January 12, 2016 and will close on March 14, 2016,” wrote Mr. Travers. “We encourage stakeholders and the public to submit comments through one of the methods, (email, mail or online), identified on the Waukesha diversion website (www.waukeshadiversion.org).
The next regional body and compact council meeting is scheduled for February 17-18 in Waukesha. The meeting on February 18 includes additional public information meetings and a public hearing, explained Mr. Travers, referring to the Waukesha diversion website for more information on how to participate.
The government of Ontario will be holding an information session via webinar on Thursday, February 11 to provide interested stakeholders with background information on the agreement and its provisions. If you are interested in participating in the webinar, please contact mnrwaterpolicy@ontario.ca.
After the public comment period closes, the Regional Body will meet to consider a declaration of finding on whether the proposal meets the provisions of the agreement.
