The Proposed New Berlin Diversion: Opportunities for the Compact

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The public comment period on the application by the City of New Berlin, Wisconsin, for a Lake Michigan water diversion closed on Friday, March 27. I'm a few days late, but thankfully, others did make the official cut and expressed their concerns over several key components of the City's proposal.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact has introduced some new phrases and concepts into the vernacular of Great Lakes policy. What is at the heart of these phrases and concepts is what leaders should be paying careful attention to in these early days of the Compact and its role in protecting the Great Lakes.

The Compact's First Test

The New Berlin application is the first test of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact that regulates, and ultimately bans, water withdrawals from the Great Lakes outside the basin. One exception to the total ban on diversions allows a "straddling community" to apply for a diversion of Great Lakes water if the water will be used solely for public water supply purposes. A "straddling community" is defined as one whose boundaries are partly within the Great Lakes Basin and partly without, but wholly within a county at least partly within the Great Lakes Basin. New Berlin is one such community. And that's not the problem!

Comments submitted last week by the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the National Wildlife Federation criticize the city's proposal to divert Lake Michigan water outside the drainage basin's natural boundary, calling the application "incomplete" and in need of "tougher water conservation measures" to meet the requirements of the Compact.

The City of New Berlin does have a draft water conservation plan, but it is slated to take effect only after the withdrawal project is completed. Furthermore, the Compact requires that applications for exceptions such as that under which New Berlin is applying, clearly indicate that the applicant's need for water "cannot be reasonably avoided." Without even a current water conservation plan in place, how can this need be accurately measured?

Opportunities: Now and in the Future

The New Berlin proposal presents several opportunities that Compact leaders (the governors of the eight Great Lakes states and neighboring two provinces), as well as regulatory agencies (such as the state DNR offices) should consider as the Compact begins to serve its intended role: to protect our Great Lakes from needless withdrawals.

The first is the clear and urgent need to review proposals under the exception clause with the strictest criteria. By allowing the first test of the Compact to slip through the cracks without due diligence to align the proposal with the Compact's requirements would set a troubling precedent. The Wisconsin DNR, which is slated to either approve or disapprove New Berlin's application, has some choices to make.

In the opinion of this writer, the WDNR should hold firm not to the "spirit" of the Compact's requirements on "water conservation" - which some might argue is present in New Berlin's draft water conservation plan - but to the "letter" of the Compact, which requires that applicants demonstrate a true need for the water and practice strong water conservation and thereby set responsible standards for water use and conservation within the basin. If "responsible standards" are an ultimate goal of the Great Lakes Compact, does the New Berlin application meet those standards? I think not and hope that the approving bodies agree with me and others who submitted similar comments.

A second opportunity takes a longer view. The Great Lakes states have until the end of 2010 to develop comprehensive water conservation plans for their states as required by the Compact agreement. It would behoove the eight states to spend the next 20 months clearly defining and coordinating the strict measures that will be required to protect the Great Lakes from one of its greatest offenders: you and me and all the current public consumers of our precious Great Lakes.

By establishing standardized "strong water conservation measures" basin-wide, the states would form a collective and grassroots approach to managing the Great Lakes resources, creating a shared sense of responsibility that may be even more historic and powerful than the Compact itself. Don't you agree?