State Attorney General Bill Schuette has sent aletter to Great Lakes governors challenging a proposal to allow the Wisconsin city of Waukesha to withdraw water from Lake Michigan.
The state attorney general has no formal role in approving or disapproving the request for a pipeline to Lake Michigan that would withdraw millions of gallons of water to replace the city’s contaminated water supply. That decision belongs to the eight governors ofstates that border the lakes. But Schuette could file a lawsuit depending on the answer to that request. Waukesha lies near, but not within, the Great Lakes basin.
The attorney general’s questions include whether there’s an alternative to pulling water from Lake Michigan, what guarantees there are that the water will be recycled back, and whether there are protections against invasive species as part of the take-and-return.
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— Rick Pluta is the Managing Editor and Reporter for the Michigan Public Radio network. Contact WEMU News at734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
