The city of Waukesha, Wisconsin proposes taking water from Lake Michigan to deal with contamination in their local aquifer. The city is just outside the drainage basin from the lake and thus the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 comes into play, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/26/us/waukesha-plan-for-lake-michigan-water-raises-worries.html?_r=0
This might be a landmark case to test the Compact which requires approval of all eight governors of the surrounding states before large quantities of water can be taken outside the lake drainage area. Here is one article on the 2008 law: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/world/americas/24iht-24lakes.16429199.html.
From the bottom of the first article:
So far, the compact has proved ironclad. New Berlin, a suburb of Milwaukee, received a small diversion in 2009, but that was seen as fairly routine because part of the suburb sits within the lake’s basin, a circumstance contemplated in the compact as a relatively simple exception.
The strength of the compact is offering hope to some officials in the Midwest who see Great Lakes water not just as something to cling on to, but also as a powerful draw for a region that has had much of its population head to the Sun Belt.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday August 28 2015, @06:25AM
I assume that whichever side of the decision is more reasonable, our Governor Walker will be against it, too. He seems to delight in pissing people off.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @02:01PM
He'll do everything to help Waukesha because it is the Neocon enclave that first gave him the county executive election win on his way to the governership and keeps Paul Ryan in the House. It's the cornerstone of GOP southern Wisconsin gerrymandering policy and needs to be kept solidly republican or the GOP will become as irrelevant in WI as they are in any election isn't true popular vote.