Great Lakes water must be protected from all diversion requests: Letter to the Editor

Great Lakes water must be protect from all diversion requests: letter to the editor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 25, 2015
Author: Janice Oakley

You probably haven't heard this news. As someone who is passionately interested in the Great Lakes Water Compact, I just accidentally found out a city outside the watershed (Waukesha, WI) has requested permission to get a diversion of water - 10 million gallons per day - out of Lake Michigan. Because this is the first diversion request, we need to set a precedent or it will mean "death by a thousand straws." Lake Erie could be affected, so we should all have been complaining about this - if we had gotten any news coverage in Ohio about it. The compact allows for minimum exceptions - if all alternatives have been tried - they haven't in this case.

But, it is up to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to approve it - and then the governors of all Great Lakes states plus Quebec, Ontario and various First Nations tribes. We worked so hard for decades to pass this compact. We need to ask Gov. Kasich to oppose this diversion and future similar diversions. If people want Great Lakes water, let them move here. It's our greatest resource and we must protect it.

Janice Oakley,
Sagamore Hills