The governor of Michigan is blocking a request by a town in
Wisconsin to pump water from Lake Michigan. The GLRC’s Sarah
Hulett reports:
Transcript
The governor of Michigan is blocking a request by a town in
Wisconsin to pump water from Lake Michigan. The GLRC’s Sarah
Hulett reports:
Under federal law right now, any one of the eight Great Lakes
governors can veto a proposed water withdrawal, but a
proposed agreement between the eight states would allow
communities that straddle the boundary that defines the Great
Lakes basin to draw water from the lakes.
The town of New Berlin, Wisconsin sits on the boundary. It’s
asking for permission to draw water from Lake Michigan for the
half of the city that sits outside the basin, but Governor Granholm
of Michigan says she won’t consider the request.
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Spokesman Bob
McCann says he realizes one town won’t drain the lake:
“But a thousand such proposals coming in may do that. So the question is,
where do you draw the line?”
Michigan’s governor says until that new multi-state agreement is
ratified, it’s important not to set a bad precedent.
For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.