In the 21st century, fresh water could prove a more valuable resource than oil. “There are alternatives to oil,” says University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Professor Melissa Scanlan. “We don’t have alternatives for water. “
This week, Waukesha became the first community fully outside the Great Lakes Basin to tap into water from the resource. It cost more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Decades in the making, the water from Lake Michigan began to flow to homes and businesses Monday. It has now reached all but the furthest points system.
Professor Scanlan is the Director of the Center for Water Policy at UWM. She points out that the Great Lakes Compact largely prevents water from being removed from its natural watershed. “The Waukesha diversion fits into the exception for Great Lakes communities in counties that straddle the Great Lakes Basin boundary line,” Scanlan explained. “So water approved for diversion in this really nearby communities has to be treated and returned to the basin of origin in the Great Lakes.”
Those and other provisions in the GLC should prevent cities, in the desert southwest for example, from being able to access Great Lakes water. “The Compact and the agreement with the governors and the two Canadian provinces, prevents the southwest from being able to tap into the Great Lakes.” However, professor Scanlan predicts the Compact could be tested at some point, if a Great Lakes state has a community outside the basin finds itself in a water crisis. “That would raise the question, would the governor of that state stick to the compact and deny water to its own citizens.”
