The eight Great Lakes states will vote Tuesday on a request by the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, to divert water from Lake Michigan.
All eight states have to agree to the request, and there are still a lot of questions remaining about the plan to withdraw millions of gallons from the Great Lakes to replace Waukesha’s radium-contaminated water supply.
If approved, this would be the first time a community outside the Great Lakes basin is allowed to divert water under the terms of a 2008 agreement.
There are plenty of critics who say there are alternatives to pulling water from the Great Lakes.
Michigan’s top water officials say, however, Waukesha’s already tapping deep water wells that pull water from Lake Michigan, and that’s effecting Great Lakes water levels.
