This sprawling suburb west of Milwaukee is spending gobs of public funds to lobby every decisionmaker in sight to get access to -- meaning to divert -- Great Lakes water. How much of that money is being spent on Michigan-based consultants?
One more week before the deadline for public comment on the proposed Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact. It's being billed as a strong anti-diversion agreement, but all of that strength could be drained (literally) if the states start redrawing the boundaries of the Great Lakes Basin to accommodate in-state political needs. That, in turn, could make the Lakes boundaries vulnerable to being expanded to include the Farm Belt, the Sunbelt, or other continents.
Aug. 22--Gov. Jim Doyle says that Waukesha officials are making credible scientific claims that the city is entitled to tap Great Lakes water because the groundwater beneath them flows into Lake Michigan.
In an interview, Doyle stopped short of endorsing Waukesha's bid to one day tap the lake as a source of drinking water.
But Doyle said he wants Great Lakes governors and premiers who are reviewing a revised water management agreement to consider the scientific merits of water requests from communities such as Waukesha, which are outside the surface water basin of the lakes.
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=215259&source=r_science
Posted by Dave at August 23, 2005 09:34 AM