A small Wisconsin city has taken one step closer to gulping more than 30 million litres of freshwater a day from Lake Michigan, a move Ontario cottagers fear could signal the beginning of the end of the Great Lakes.

“We appreciate the scaling back of this proposal in part thanks to pressure from Ontario,” said Bob Duncanson, executive director of Georgian Bay Association, a group representing 20 cottage associations. “But we still feel that it sets a bad precedent for protection of the finite water resources in the Great Lakes.

“Despite the fact they look like large bodies of water, they don’t replenish easily.”

Since 2005, Canada and the U.S. have created joint and independent bodies to protect Great Lakes freshwater.

Waukesha, Wisc., is the first city to test the Great Lakes compact, a multi-state agreement adopted in 2008 that restricts water withdrawals to communities located within the Great Lakes Basin. Their proposal has triggered concerns that there will be similar requests down the road, potentially putting a strain on the Great Lakes water supply water supply.

But despite expressing concerns with the town’s application to divert the natural resource just over a month earlier, Ontario, along with Quebec and seven U.S. states, pushed forward the town’s amended proposal this past May.

The vote to give preliminary approval to Waukesha to withdraw water from Lake Michigan passed 9-0 on May 18. Of the 10 members of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body, which includes eight U.S. states and Ontario and Quebec. Minnesota was the only party to abstain.

Neither Canadian province will participate in the final vote that will determine whether Waukesha’s diversion proposal is ultimately permitted because the final decision falls under American legislation.

Some experts are crossing their fingers that the case, the first of its kind, will work out just fine.

Gail Krantzberg, a McMaster University engineering and public policy professor, stressed Waukesha’s application is “for drinking water, not for golf courses.”

Addressing critics who fear granting Waukesha access could be a dangerous precedent for other thirsty communities, the Great Lakes scientist and policy analyst of 30 years said she was “cautiously optimistic” it won’t because the city’s situation is unique.

Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee, is home to 70,000 residents whose water woes stem from a depleting aquifer contaminated with cancer-causing radium.

“We are in a situation where 83 per cent of our water we get from (a) deeper aquifer (is) contaminated with radium; it’s brackish, it’s warm,” Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly told the Star. “Our aquifer itself is declining and isn’t sustainable.”

Reilly added city and state consultants considered 13 water supply alternatives. In the end, it was determined that diverting water from Lake Michigan was the most sustainable and environmentally friendly approach.

Although the city falls outside the basin, Waukesha representatives argued the community qualifies for an exemption because it’s situated within a county that straddles the basin’s boundary line.

While the compact is composed of American states, there is a parallel, good-faith agreement through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River regional body, which includes Ontario and Quebec.

Ontario’s minister of natural resources and forestry told the Star the province “shared the strong concerns expressed by the public with respect to Waukesha’s original diversion proposal.”

The city’s application was “amended significantly,” said MPP Bill Mauro, to address a number of concerns by Ontario and other governments.

New conditions placed on the proposal reduced the area of land where the water can be used and restricted pumping to no more than an average limit of 31 million litres per day. Waukesha also promised to return treated water to Lake Michigan and will adhere to strict water-conservation goals.

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Still, the province “remains apprehensive about any diversion by Waukesha and will continue to voice the concerns of Ontarians,” Mauro said.

Environmentalists south of the border are also voicing their opposition to the proposal.

In Wisconsin, a group of non-profits called the Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) is calling for Waukesha’s application to be refused. In lieu of siphoning water from the Great Lakes, the CIC is urging the city to consider treating its deep groundwater wells instead. This “non-diversion” solution, they claim, is a cheaper and more environmentally friendly approach to securing safe and clean water.

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