June 2008
U.S. Water News Online
MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Jim Doyle will sign an interstate treaty that would prevent arid states from drawing water from the Great Lakes.
Wisconsin will become the fifth state to ratify the Great Lakes Compact when Doyle approves it during ceremonies on Milwaukee and Green Bay's Lake Michigan shorelines.
The eight Great Lakes governors signed the compact in 2005 after four years of negotiations. They fear booming southwestern states will soon look to take massive amounts of water from the lakes.
Under the compact, diverting water from the lakes' basin generally would be banned. Cities that straddle the basin's border or lie within counties that straddle the border could apply for an exemption.
Any Great Lakes governor could block a withdrawal outside the basin or block an exemption for a city in a straddling county.
All eight Great Lakes states must approve the compact and Congress must ratify it before it can become law. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and New York have signed the treaty into law, while Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania have yet to sign off. In Canada, Quebec and Ontario have approved it as well.
Wisconsin lawmakers have been working on the state's version of the compact since September 2006. The Legislature adopted a final version in a special session earlier this month. Only two lawmakers voted against it.
The state approvals set up a clash in Congress between the Great Lakes states and southwestern states like Arizona and Nevada with booming populations and growing political clout.
"Congress will be very interesting," said Anne Sayers, program director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. "Eight states are depending on this resource to carry their economy and their way of life. (The Great Lakes) is sort of the heart of our country. It has to remain strong and healthy. That argument is going to be easy to make.''
U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond Du Lac, represents Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties, which lie on Lake Michigan. He said he doesn't anticipate a war between regions in Washington. He said it makes more sense for southwestern states to look to the Mississippi River basin for fresh water.
The Great Lakes don't replenish themselves well, he said, noting declined water levels over the last few years. That makes them an unattractive long-term water source, he said.
"Everyone wants it," Petri said, "but if they take it it's going to be gone forever.''
State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, one of Wisconsin's two dissenting legislators, called the compact a bad idea.
A governor from another state shouldn't be allowed to block water for Wisconsin cities, she said. The compact's language is so broad it will be up to judges to figure out what it really means, she added.
"Here we literally give a document to state courts and federal courts to legislate from the bench," Lazich said. "I don't think it protects the environment. I don't think it protects the quantity or the quality of the lakes. This doesn't do it.''