Milwaukee Business Journal: Waukesha plan to tap Lake Michigan gets DNR OK, but debate is just beginning

Milwaukee Business Journal, June 25, 2015
Author: Sean Ryan

"Environmental organizations such as the Wisconsin Compact Implementation Coalition are pushing Waukesha to do more, hoping to establish a stronger enforcement precedence for the compact. They will be among the groups providing input to the DNR during a public comment period that ends Aug. 28. The final plan could be modified based on that feedback.

"A particular point of criticism is Waukesha’s application to expand its water service area to surrounding communities when it taps Lake Michigan. Those surrounding communities have not proven the Great Lakes are their only viable source of drinking water, which is a requirement of the compact, said Peter McAvoy of the Compact Implementation Coalition. Waukesha and those surrounding communities also have not created water conservation programs that meet the compact’s standard, he said.

“The amount of attention this is getting in the region, other states and the Canadian provinces is pretty significant, and that is only going to increase,” McAvoy said. “To jeopardize (the compact) with something like this for convenience, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Read the full article here.