Waukesha unanimously granted access to Great Lakes water

Updated: 2:40 p.m. | Posted: 1:15 p.m.

Representatives from Minnesota and the seven other states surrounding the Great Lakes gave their unanimous blessing today to a controversial proposal by a Milwaukee suburb to pump more than 8 million gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan to replace water from its contaminated wells.

The decision means Waukesha will become the first city located entirely outside of the Great Lakes watershed that's allowed to tap the lakes for drinking water, under the terms of a 2008 law called the Great Lakes Compact.

The compact largely forbids water to be exported outside of the Great Lakes basin, with two exceptions — for cities that straddle the watershed, or cities located in counties that straddle the line where water on one side flows into the Great Lakes, water on the other side into the Mississippi River.

But even then, cities must prove they've exhausted all other options for acquiring water. And states must approve the application unanimously.

After the 8-0 vote, Waukesha is now the first city located in a county straddling the watershed line to be granted an exemption. The suburb located 17 miles west of Lake Michigan is under court order to replace its groundwater supplies, which are contaminated with radium, by 2018.

The $207 million plan calls for the city to pipe 8.2 million gallons of water daily from the lake, and return an equal amount to the lake after purifying it in its wastewater treatment plant.

"Approving the diversion project will provide environmental benefits to the region, and have virtually no impact on our treasured Great Lakes," Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement. "Therefore, I have voted to approve the project."

A panel of representatives from the eight Great Lakes states (plus two Canadian provinces) gave the plan tentative approval in May. But it required Waukesha to reduce the amount of water it would withdraw daily from 10.1 million gallons to 8.2 million gallons, and to shrink the size of the area it would provide with water to 57 percent of the original proposal.

Minnesota abstained from that vote. At the time Julie Ekman with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Governor Dayton was "still consulting with stakeholders" on Waukesha's application.

Minnesota did push for several amendments to the plan, along with Michigan. One clarifies that the Great Lakes states can enforce Waukesha's compliance with the Lake Michigan diversion plan.

Another would subject Waukesha to audits of its operations with 30 days of notice, and would allow any of the states to inspect the city's records related to enforcement of its diversion plan.

The Great Lakes Compact was passed nearly a decade ago to protect the region from potential future water-grabs from thirsty parts of the U.S. like the southwest, and even possibly abroad.

The compact's creation was sparked by a 1998 proposal by a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario company to ship tankers full of Lake Superior water to Asia, to be turned into bottled water. Ontario officials initially granted permits allowing 38 tankers a year, before a public outcry scuttled the scheme.

Several environmental groups and state legislators around the Great Lakes worry the approval of Waukesha's application could lead to more proposals for water from the Great Lakes.

"I guess I'm concerned that it sets a precedent and makes it easier for other communities to request diversions," said Minnesota state Rep. Jennifer Schultz, DFL-Duluth. "I thought that Waukesha could have explored other options, even though they may have been expensive in the short term."

Other Wisconsin communities with radium contamination issues have successfully treated their water, or drilled deeper wells, she said.

Julie Ekman, who represented Minnesota in the discussions over Waukesha's diversion, said the concern that granting this application could lead to more water diversions is taken care of by the Great Lakes Compact language itself.

"There is a very narrow window where a diversion can be granted," she said. "Many of the concerns we heard, that other parts of the country that are parched are going to be [building] pipes to the Great Lakes basin, that's clearly prohibited by the compact."

Groups like the National Wildlife Federation and Alliance for the Great Lakes, originally critical of Waukesha's plan, said they were encouraged by the additional conditions placed on the application.

They also noted that the water diverted to Waukesha will be returned to Lake Michigan, resulting in no net loss of water to the Great Lakes.

But they called for greater opportunities for the public to participate in the process across the region.

"Today's vote is not the end of the story," the groups said in a statement. "Great Lakes advocates will need to be vigilant in making sure that the city of Waukesha and the state of Wisconsin honor the terms of the agreement."