Milwaukee Riverkeeper Monitoring Waukesha’s Plans for a Proposed Water Diversion under the Great Lakes Compact

The City of Waukesha shared their water diversion proposal with members of the environmental and conservation community in November. Waukesha is proposing to ask for 24 million gallons per day of Great Lakes water, and it appears that their preferred route to return this water to the Great Lakes will be Underwood Creek. Milwaukee Riverkeeper has concerns about effects that such a diversion might have on water quality, flooding, aquatic life, and stream stability. Waukeshsa City officials requested that we provide them with critical feedback and questions in order to improve their future, formal diversion application. We appreciate the wisdom of this approach and, accordingly, have compiled the attached list of preliminary questions, grouped by subject matter, for Waukesha’s consideration and follow-up on behalf of a group of organizations working to implement the Compact. We have also set up a blog that will contain updated information going forward about this proposed diversion.
 

We hope that Waukesha responds to these questions in a timely manner, and that we can initiate a dialog going forward about how to best protect our natural resources on both sides of the Continental Divide.
 

We hope that these questions will help citizens, decisionmakers and public officials to start to think and evaluate some of the complex issues presented by the City of Waukesha’s preliminary proposal for a diversion of Lake Michigan water. It is a project that needs to be carefully and intelligently considered given its long-term consequences for Southeastern Wisconsin and precedent-setting impact under the Great Lakes Compact.
 

Complete list of questions and issues submitted to Waukesha

Abbreviated list of questions