Scott Walker has a serious Great Lakes water diversion problem

The Milwaukee shoreline on Lake Michigan

The long-anticipated entry of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker into the Republican presidential mix came off without a hitch, notable in that the governor has managed to dodge questions about his administration’s controversial plan to divert water from the Great Lakes.

Regional opposition to the diversion of Great Lakes water to parched states such as California and Arizona has been staunch and bipartisan for many years.
In Michigan, the Great Lakes State, the idea of selling portions of our greatest natural resource to Western states invokes angry invectives from people of all political stripes.

The Wisconsin plan is certainly not that dramatic. But it sets a disturbing precedent by allowing the city of Waukesha, located inland, west of Milwaukee, to siphon millions of gallons of Lake Michigan water on a daily basis for the town’s drinking water needs. The amount of freshwater is relatively small, but it proposes allowing Waukesha to bypass a 2008 agreement among Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces that prevents the withdrawal of drinking water from any of the five Great Lakes by communities that are not located on the shores of one of those lakes.

Snyder may have a say
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, an outspoken opponent of any weakening of this Great Lakes Compact, may have something to say about Walker’s Department of Natural Resources approving the Waukesha diversion.

Walker

More importantly, Walker’s strategy for winning the presidency relies on him carrying the states of the Upper Midwest, which have turned decidedly Democratic over the past 40 years of presidential elections. In fact, Walker’s ability to win gubernatorial elections in 2010 and again in 2014 in the face of President Obama’s two victories in Wisconsin is among the governor’s biggest selling points.
So, approving the Waukesha water diversion – or remaining mum about it for as long as possible – could hurt Walker’s overall campaign plan, which has put the governor as a favorite to win the GOP nomination.

George Weeks, the longtime sage of the Michigan political scene for The Detroit News, wrote this weekend about the issue for his hometown newspaper, the Traverse City Record-Eagle:

“Snyder is a prime leader among governors on Great Lakes issues. It remains to be seen how he’ll respond if Walker supports the city of Waukesha’s plan to divert 10.1 million gallons of water a day from the Great Lakes.
“Citing a … news report that a Wisconsin state agency has ‘a positive draft review of the city’s plan,’ Traverse City-based GOP activist and columnist Dennis Lennox said approval by Walker ‘won’t help’ his presidential ambitions.”

Mackinac conference could be key
When Walker speaks at the Michigan GOP’s Mackinac Island conference in September – he was added to the list of speakers earlier today -- he better be ready to address this issue.
While some estimates indicate that Waukesha only plans to circumvent the Great Lakes Compact by diverting one-millionth of 1 percent of all Great Lakes water per day, the city reportedly is in this predicament due to a subpar job of managing its drinking water resources over many decades.
The municipality needs freshwater from Lake Michigan for municipal drinking water because the underground aquifers that it tapped in the past are now partially contaminated with deadly radium. And the southeast Wisconsin cities, combined with nearby Chicago, have recklessly drained deep water wells for so long that they are nearly tapped dry.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reporting on last month’s approval by the Wisconsin DNR of the water diversion plan after five years of debate, pointed out that Waukesha is under a court order to provide radium-free drinking water for its residents by 2018.

The Great Lakes Compact, designed to protect the ecosystem of the largest freshwater body in the world, requires that any water removed from the lakes must be returned in equal amounts. Wisconsin’s answer is to allow Waukesha to return treated water from its sewage treatment plant to Lake Michigan via a tributary known as the Foot River.

Waukesha is not located on the Great Lakes’ shore and, in fact, borders the Mississippi River watershed to the west.

The obvious concern among environmentalists, conservationists, fishing groups and duck hunters is that a Waukesha exception could open the flood gates for the drought-stricken Southwest, which could cite the precedent that allows the shipment of Great Lakes Water outside of the Great Lakes Basin.    

Shoddy environmental track record

Circle of Blue, a Traverse City-based nonprofit, pro-environment group comprised of journalists and scientists, recently wrote this about the Waukesha water diversion plan:

“There was a time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this southeast Wisconsin town was known throughout the Great Lakes Basin for its ample supplies of pure water. The aquifers underlying the forests and meadows served up water of such taste and compelling clarity that local spas marketed the health restoring qualities to city dwellers in nearby Milwaukee and Chicago.

“A century later Waukesha is a much bigger city and its water supplies are again attracting considerable attention from its Great Lakes neighbors.

“After decades of suburban and industrial growth, Waukesha’s deep groundwater aquifers are contaminated and becoming exhausted. Almost a year ago, in October 2013, the city of nearly 71,000 residents formally proposed to fix its groundwater water supply problem by tapping surface water from Lake Michigan provided by the water treatment plant in Oak Creek, another Milwaukee suburb, 31 miles to the east.

“The amount of water that Waukesha is ready to buy and have transported in a pipeline is 10.1 million gallons a day, or 1 millionth of 1 percent of the total supply of water in the Great Lakes, according to city figures. But that seemingly trivial withdrawal has stirred a legal, environmental, and potential diplomatic tempest in the Great Lakes Basin. The reason: In seeking water from Lake Michigan, Waukesha’s proposal has become the first formal test of the water diversion rules under the 2008 Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.”