Sierra Club statement on Great Lakes Office Director Jon Allen’s
Support for the Waukesha, WI, Great Lakes Water Diversion
Anne Woiwode, Michigan
Chapter Conservation Chair
Bill Davis, John Muir
(Wisconsin) Chapter Director
May 31, 2016
Anyone who cares about protecting the Great Lakes will be
extremely disappointed in the decision by Jon Allen, the Director of Michigan
Office of the Great Lakes, to support the first diversion of Great Lakes water
outside of the Great Lakes basin under the Great Lakes Compact[1]. It is nothing more than an attempt to put a
public relations spin on a bad decision to recommend that Waukesha be granted a
precedent-setting Great Lakes diversion, the first under the historic 2008
Compact agreement.
The Great Lakes define both Wisconsin and Michigan, and are
one of our region’s most important natural resources. That is why the Great
Lakes Compact has enjoyed such widespread support from Michigan elected leaders
from both parties and from so many Michiganders. The Great Lakes Compact was
created to make sure water stays in the Great Lakes to continue to provide
economic and recreational opportunities for our region for future
generations. First and foremost, to meet
the requirements of the Great Lakes Compact a community must show there is no
other feasible alternative to Great Lakes water to meet their needs. The city of Waukesha’s application fails on
that point.
To argue, as Mr. Allen does, that the diversion should be
permitted because some of the groundwater Waukesha is currently pumping may be
connected to the Great Lakes is absurd.
It violates the basic premise of the Compact that a community must show
they need to pump water out of the Great Lakes.
This was intended to be a “high bar” but under Mr. Allen’s logic any community
that could make a claim that their groundwater is somehow connected to the
lakes would be granted a permit. This is
not what was intended.
Mr. Allen’s comments are particularly ironic in light of the
Michigan Senate action last week; the Senate got it right when it passed
Resolution 173 on a bipartisan basis which calls on Governor Snyder to veto the
proposed Waukesha Diversion. The
resolution acknowledges that other alternatives exist for Waukesha and the
precedent of approving this first diversion would be potentially devastating to
the Great Lakes and to Michigan, the Great Lakes State.
We urge Governor Snyder to heed the calls from increasing
numbers of organizations and officials urging that he veto this proposed
diversion of our Great Lakes waters.
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Contact information:
[1]
“Allan: Stop diversion of water from Lake Michigan into Wisconsin,”
Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/contributors/viewpoints/2016/05/29/allan-stop-diversion-water-lake-michigan-wisconsin/84987268/
Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/contributors/viewpoints/2016/05/29/allan-stop-diversion-water-lake-michigan-wisconsin/84987268/