Water diversion project in Waukesha faces scrutiny

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WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Waukesha officials are facing opposition for their plan to pipe in drinking water from Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative, a group of U.S. and Canadian mayors, has asked the Great Lakes Compact Council representing surrounding states for a rehearing on the council's decision to approve the diversion last June, the Wisconsin Public Radio (http://bit.ly/2i6PwRy) reported. The city would be the first community outside the Great Lakes Basin to get lake water under terms of an agreement approved in 2008 called the Great Lakes Compact, which allows cities in counties that straddle the basin to apply for Great Lakes water. The initiative's executive director, David Ullrich, said the coalition's concerns center around the substance of the Council's decision, the procedures used and the standards applied in making the decision. "We believe that a mistake was made by approving the diversion and that, as the first formal action by the Compact Council, to allow that to stand would be harmful to the compact in the long term," Ullrich said. Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly was not concerned about a possible reversal, saying an approved decision that took a significant amount of time is unlikely to be reversed. Racine Mayor John Dickert said that a federal lawsuit is possible if the council doesn't take a second look. Dickert, a member of the initiative, doesn't like that Waukesha's plan to return wastewater to the lake is via a river that flows through his city. "It's kind of disturbing when you're the fifth-largest city in Wisconsin, and people are saying, 'Well, I'm going to dump this down here, and hey, good luck,'" Dickert said. ___ Information from: Wisconsin Public Radio, http://www.wpr.org