Ed Osann, Senior Policy Analyst, Santa Monica

In about 10 days, I’m going to be relaxing on a sandy Lake Michigan beach in Northwest Indiana, with the dunes to my back and the lake stretching in front of me to the horizon.  And looking out at the lake, I’ll have Waukesha, Wisconsin on my mind, because Waukesha is looking at Lake Michigan, too.

As my colleague Karen Hobbs has noted here recently, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources has just begun to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the City of Waukesha’s application to divert water out of the Great Lakes Basin.  As the first-ever water diversion to be considered under the new Great Lakes Water Resources Compact, Waukesha’s plan for taking water from Lake Michigan is subject to review by all eight of the Great Lakes states, and any one of them may disapprove it under the terms of the Compact.

Waukesha is a city of 71,000 located in the western suburbs of Milwaukee, but outside the boundary of the Great Lakes Basin.  The Fox River flows right through town, on its way – eventually – to the Mississippi River.  Ignoring the Fox, Waukesha and other nearby towns ...

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