The eight American states that are members of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiate will vote today on a request from the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin to divert over 30 million litres of water a day from Lake Michigan.
The city of about 70 thousand people has a problem with unacceptably high radium levels in its water, and although it's not within the Great Lakes Basin it is located in a county that is within the basin and it's using that to justify its request.
Huron County's Warden was at last week's meeting of the Initiative in Niagara Falls. He explains while Ontario and Quebec are also members of the Initiative, they don't get to vote on the request.
But Paul Gowing says opposition to the proposal is very strong among the eight American states that do vote, and the feeling is that granting this request would open the door to several more.
Gowing adds it was also pointed out at the meeting that it would be far less expensive to treat the Waukesha water than it would be to divert water from Lake Michigan.
He adds the water would be returned to the lake as grey water, and the communities that would be receiving that grey water want no part of it.
