Make your voice heard about this precedent setting plan to divert water out of the basin
To the Expositor:
The Department of Natural Resources of the State of Wisconsin has approved the City of Waukesha’s request to divert 10.1 million gallons a day from Lake Michigan. The application has now been forwarded up and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec will have a say in this decision.
Ontarians have an opportunity to comment, right now, via email, mail or online at www.waukeshadiversion.org. After March 14, 2016 our comments will no longer be welcome.
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 email mnrwaterpolicy@ontario.ca.
Some of the reasons why the Waukesha diversion should be rejected include: the request has inflated future water demand estimates; water will be used for localized industrial purposes; reasonable alternatives to pumping water from Lake Michigan exist; and Waukesha has done little to conserve water and its conservation plan is inadequate
Lots of information is available on the internet at a myriad of websites including a report found at http://www.greatlakes.org/compact which states:
“An alternative plan developed by two engineering firms would solve the city’s water problem and cost Waukesha taxpayers tens of millions of dollars less than the current proposal to divert water from Lake Michigan.”
The bottom line is that Waukesha does not meet the high standards set in the Great Lakes Compact for approval to divert water outside of the Great Lakes Basin. However, the political will, which is strong and present (7 of the 8 Great Lakes Governors are very right-wing), may break the compact open encouraging a ‘flood’ of diversion applications.
Make your voice heard. Just say no! It’s easy to leave your public comment at www.waukeshadiversion.org.
Therese Trainor
Dean’s Bay
