The Milwaukee Post

Manager confident plan upholds compact standards By MATT MASTERSON Conleyn News Service WAUKESHA — Legislators from each of the eight Great Lakes states sent letters to the Department of Natural Resources recently stressing the importance of Waukesha's Lake Michigan water diver- sion application living up to the standards of the Great Lakes Compact. Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said he complete- ly agrees with that message and believes the city's application does just that. Now that the public comment period of the application process has ended, the DNR will spend months examining the hundreds of oral and written statements turned in to the department before issu- ing final copies of its technical review and environmental impact statement. Those documents are expected to be published by the end of 2015. If the DNR approves the application after the public comment period, those documents will be sent to the Great Lakes regional body — comprising the eight states bordering the lakes, as well as the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. That body will complete a declaration of findings similar to the DNR's technical review before the matter is referred to the Compact Council, made up of the eight states without the provinces, where it would be voted on by each of the state's governors. State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, was one of the 73 legislators who turned in a letter to the DNR opposing the plan because of "a shared sense of needing to get this right." "To ignore or diminish those standards in the first application would be a terrible precedent," Mason said in a statement, "that could threaten the strength of the Compact and the law's ability to protect the Great Lakes in the future." But Duchniak said approval of Waukesha's application would in fact strengthen the compact, rather than make it easier for municipalities outside the Great Lakes basin to receive their water. "We believe," Duchniak said, "a careful review of the law and the science will show that the Great Lakes is our only rea- sonable water supply alternative — and it will be based off of science, not off of pol- itics." Recently, the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer also published an editorial saying the plan should "sink without a ripple," which drew heavily on the findings of the Compact Implementation Coalition. But those findings are refuted by the those of the DNR, according to Duchniak. The application cannot survive a single veto by any Compact Council member. However, unlike under the Great Lakes Charter — which gover ned diversion applications before 2008 — the compact requires any dissenting governor to out- line his or her basis for any veto. Duchniak said the now defunct Great Lakes Charter was vulnerable to legal challenges because it allowed arbitrary and political reasonings to color any deci- sion. Under the compact, that is no longer the case. "The drafters of the compact complete- ly understood that and they created objec- tive standards for decisions that would be based off of science and not off of poli- tics," Duchniak said. "In reading (the leg- islators') letter, we completely agree with them that it is important to live up to the compact's requirements. We are confident that our application does just that." But what happens if one or more gov- er nors veto the application based on faulty reasoning? Duchniak said an appeals process is in place, and the city would likely take that up if it came down to it. But he believes the DNR's science-based findings provide enough evidence to show the Waukesha application does, in fact, meet the com- pact's standards. "We are confident in the science that is behind our application and that is behind this process," he said. "We are confident that it does meet the objective standards that were set forth by the drafters." Email: mmasterson@conleynet.com 2 • Milwaukee County Post • September 11, 2015 Water utility stands behind science in application Volume 21, issue number 37 The Milwaukee Post (ISSN 1544-1776) is published weekly by Conley Media, Milwaukee County 3397 South Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207 For all departments call: 414-744-6370 News display and advertising FAX: 414-375-7070 Classifieds: 800-762-6219 ext. 5005 Classified Fax: 262-334-6252 For display advertising inquires: 414-744-6370 Barry Richards: Advertising Representative — ext. 13 brichards@conleynet.com Julia LeGath: Advertising Representative — ext. 17 jlegath@conleynet.com Jim Baumgart Advertising Sales Director — 262-513-2621 jbaumgart@conleyent.com For editorial questions: Dan Muckelbauer Editor 262-513-2626 dmuck@conleynet.com POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Milwaukee Post 3397 S. Howell Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207 Periodicals Postage Paid at Milwaukee, WI. 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