The Great Lakes literally define our state and play a critical role in our economy and our way of life. It is our constitutional duty to protect them.

That is why the Michigan Senate recently approved my resolution opposing the request of a Wisconsin city to divert water from the Great Lakes.

Waukesha, Wisconsin is located in the Mississippi River basin and is the first community to seek approval to divert water from Lake Michigan to outside the Great Lakes basin. Such diversions are banned under the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.

The Great Lakes states and provinces agreed to strict standards in the compact, which I supported when Michigan approved it in 2008. It explicitly outlines considerations for determining if communities should be allowed to divert water outside the basin and specifies that every state must agree that those standards have been met.

We must protect the greatest collection of fresh water in the world and the groundbreaking compact designed to defend it. If the Waukesha request is granted, the unprecedented move would severely erode the ability of the Great Lakes compact to protect our water.

The city has requested approval to divert enough water to meet its current and future needs as well as supply water to surrounding areas that are not currently served by the city.

The Great Lakes Regional Body recently recommended that the application be approved with a number of conditions on use of the water.

However, even the revised proposal is a bridge too far. Waukesha’s request to divert more than 8 million gallons per day from Lake Michigan is unreasonable, and it should be rejected.

Senate Resolution 173 says that Waukesha has failed to meet the standards agreed upon by the Great Lakes states and provinces and that the Senate officially opposes the city’s requested diversion of water from Lake Michigan.

The Michigan Senate is sending a unified message to the eight Great Lakes governors as they make the final decision on Waukesha’s proposal next month: Protect our water.

 

Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph, represents Southwest Michigan.