Waukesha is a long ways from getting Lake Michigan water

Waukesha Freeman columnist Dennis Shook seems quite excited to report the news that a new Great Lakes water compact could allow Waukesha County to get water from Lake Michigan.

Shook sounds about ready to pop the bubbly and celebrate Waukesha's success.

But that would be more than a little premature. One of my Water Warrior buddies (in other words, someone, unlike me, who actually knows something about the issue) tells me that:

Waukesha, like dozens of communities near the Great Lakes basin boundaries, will be eligible to APPLY for a diversion, but it's premature to say they can or will be hooked up. There's an important difference between applying for a diversion, being approved, and turning on a spigot.

There are many unanswered questions about the whole process, assuming that the Governors agree on Dec. 13 to sign the document that is still being reviewed:

1. What is the format for an application? What does it have to include?

2. Are the legal and scientific mechanics in place to review it?

3. How much public input will there be?

4. Will a decision, either way, be appealable? If so, to whom?

5. Will a community be required to return diverted water to the source (in Waukesha's case, that community continues to balk, citing the expense)?

6. Will a community be allowed to blend diverted water with other water for the return if required (in Waukesha's case, that could include radium-tainted
water, which MMSD may not want or be able to handle, and which may harm Lake Michigan).

7. Will a community seeking a diversion be required to have, in place, a functioning water conservation plan - - achieving what results, and for how long?

And every diversion application for a city like Waukesha (in a so-called boundary straddling county, will be considered by all the states with its precedent-setting potential in mind. That means the decision is political, as well as legal and
scientific.

That is why all such applications will have to win unanimous approval from eight Governors. That means the bar continues to be very high, and why, since 1985,
applications have been few in number and even fewer have been approved.

And why conservation has to be the driving element, prior, during and after an application is forwarded, and also needs to be the driving element in all Great
Lakes communities, diversion application or not.

So, Waukeshans (Waukeshites?) (Waukeonians?), keep the cap on the champagne for now. "There's many a slip twixt cup and lip," as Ben Franklin would say.