LANSING—Sierra Club has
formally urged Gov. Rick Snyder to veto a proposed diversion of Great Lakes
water when Great Lakes basin governors meet next week to decide whether to
grant the suburban Milwaukee community
of Waukesha what would be a precedent-setting withdrawal
of Lake Michigan water.
“As
the only state virtually entirely within the Great Lakes Basin, Michigan has
more at stake in this decision than any other party to the Great Lakes
Compact,” the letter stated. “Not only do
the Great Lakes literally define our borders, we depend on these waters to make
our state an attractive place to live and work and to protect our irreplaceable
natural resources. Michigan cannot afford to allow this badly flawed, first
ever proposed Great Lakes water diversion under the Great Lakes Compact to go
forward.”
The
letter was signed by Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Chair David Holtz, State
Director Gail Philbin and Conservation Chair Anne Woiwode. The
full text of the letter follows this release.
While
Waukesha has serious problems with radium contamination of their drinking water
source, for the past eight years the city has refused to use other options to
diverting water for Lake Michigan even as neighboring communities do so.
“There’s
no debate that the people of Waukesha need safe, clean drinking water,” said David Holtz, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Chair.
“But Waukesha and Wisconsin officials have failed their residents by
refusing to do what other communities faced with similar problems have done,
believing they can muscle their way to diverting Great Lakes water. “
The Great Lakes Governors Council is scheduled
to decide Wisconsin’s request on Tuesday.
“It’s
up to Gov. Snyder to protect the Great Lakes from an unnecessary, precedent-setting
diversion that would open the floodgates from other communities outside the
Great Lakes basin who want to dip their straws into the Great Lakes,” said Anne Woiwode, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Conservation Chair. “Wisconsin’s insistence on rejecting a less
expensive treatment for their drinking water shouldn’t be rewarded.”
In
its letter to Gov. Snyder, Sierra Club also pointed out a recent legal decision
by the Wisconsin Attorney General that could allow communities like Waukesha to
renege on agreements for managing groundwater resources.
“What
this means is if Waukesha is allowed to use water diverted from Lake Michigan
they may still try to continue using groundwater resources without any
limits being placed on them by the State of Wisconsin,” said Holtz. “This essentially means the terms for
granting any diversion of Great Lakes water to Wisconsin may be unenforceable.
Waukesha could simply use the additional water resources it would have available
to support more growth and eventually even greater demand for Great Lakes
water.”
##
June 16, 2016
The
Honorable Rick Snyder
Executive
Office
Michigan
State Capitol
Lansing,
MI 48933
Dear
Governor Snyder:
One of the most important decisions
of your tenure as the Governor of Michigan will occur next week at the Great
Lakes Governors meeting in Chicago. We
urge you to exercise your authority under the Great Lakes Compact to VETO the
proposal to divert water from Lake Michigan to the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin.
While modifications suggested by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water
Regional Body made some important improvements to the badly flawed original
proposal from Waukesha, that plan continues to fail the most fundamental
criteria at the heart of Great Lakes Compact. Simply put, Waukesha cannot
demonstrate a need for this diversion, and, failing that, this precedent
setting diversion could permanently harm Michigan and the Great Lakes.
For the past eight years, Waukesha
has pursued approval under the Compact for diversion of water to their
city. They do face a serious problem
with radium contaminating their source of water, and we do not make light of
their need for safe, clean drinking water. However, the city has repeatedly
rejected a less expensive course for addressing this issue that involves
employing treatment options currently in use by two of their neighboring
communities. From the start, Waukesha’s resistance to this feasible alternative
has been the overwhelming argument for vetoing their proposed diversion, and
that situation has not changed.
A recent
decision by the Wisconsin Attorney General has added even greater urgency to
denying this proposed diversion. Under a May 10, 2016 opinion that has now been
adopted by the Department of Natural Resources, WI Attorney General Brad D.
Schimel has concluded that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR)
has no authority to manage “high capacity groundwater well withdrawal permits”
to protect or manage groundwater resources or impacts on surface waters because
the Wisconsin Legislature has not explicitly delegated public trust over
non-navigable waters of the state to the WDNR. One consequence of this is that
the WDNR will not be able to require the City of Waukesha to discontinue the
withdrawal of water from their groundwater wells even if the diversion from
Lake Michigan is approved. Moreover, they will not be able to restrict
neighboring communities or industries from pumping water from the same
aquifer. More importantly, despite efforts throughout the history of the Great
Lakes Compact to assure that each state was also carefully stewarding its
groundwater resources, in Wisconsin any prior commitments to that effect are
currently incapable of being enforced by the agency vested with that
duty.
As the only state virtually entirely
within the Great Lakes Basin, Michigan has more at stake in this decision than
any other party to the Great Lakes Compact. Not only do the Great Lakes
literally define our borders, we depend on these waters to make our state an
attractive place to live and work and to protect our irreplaceable natural
resources. Michigan cannot afford to allow this badly flawed, first ever
proposed Great Lakes water diversion under the Great Lakes Compact to go
forward. Your veto of this proposal is
critical for Michigan’s future.
Sincerely,
David
Holtz, Chair
Gail
Philbin, Director
Anne
Woiwode, Conservation Chair
