U.S. Water News Online
MILWAUKEE -- Former Wisconsin governor Anthony Earl says it would be absolutely wrong for Milwaukee to sell Lake Michigan water to Waukesha County.
"It would be the very worst, most shortsighted long-term worst thing we could do," he told a gathering of 200 politicians, business leaders and university researchers on the economics of Lake Michigan.
Most of Waukesha County relies on groundwater that has experienced a declining water table since Milwaukee's suburbs sprawled westward.
Milwaukee draws water from Lake Michigan because it lies on the eastern side of a subcontinental divide that allows used water to flow back into the lake.
But most of Waukesha lies on the western side of the watershed known as the Great Lakes basin and, under the terms of the Great Lakes Charter which was signed in 1984 when Earl was governor, communities outside the basin cannot siphon water off the Great Lakes unless they invest tens of millions of dollars for conduits to pipe used water back into the lake.
Earl said that, if Milwaukee agrees to sell water to Waukesha, it will have a nearly impossible time turning away other western communities or cities in places such as Arizona which are facing a more immediate water crisis than Waukesha.
"Once you begin this process, you cannot turn it around," he said. "You set the precedent. Others will say, 'sell it to us, too,' and we'll lose this enormous resource that we have."
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