Cuomo administration struggles with Great Lakes diversion application →

Buffalo News, February 27, 2016
Author: Tom Precious

Dyster, the Niagara Falls mayor, disagrees.

“Maintaining the compact by gutting it doesn’t seem to be a very sustainable future. It strikes me that the best way of (preventing) a whole series of legal challenges is to address this issue foursquare the first time it comes up,” Dyster said of the Waukesha application.

The eight governors remain mum right now.

But opponents are trying to convince at least one of the Great Lakes governors to cast a no vote this spring.

Waukesha has other options than tapping Lake Michigan, including use of an ultraviolet light system to treat radium contaminants at the well level, said Karen Hobbs, deputy director of policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“The Great Lakes compact was such a seminal moment in Great Lakes’ management. It was a really high point in how we look at the Great Lakes not only for drinking water but for the power of economies and recreational opportunities,” Hobbs said. “If we can’t adhere to the requirements that we all agreed to, then we really do a disservice to what we negotiated in that compact.”