Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Wisconsin Legislature passes Great Lakes compact
MADISON — Wisconsin lawmakers finally ratified an interstate treaty Wednesday that is designed to block arid states from getting access to Great Lakes water.
The Great Lakes Compact now goes to Gov. Jim Doyle, who is expected to sign it, making Wisconsin the fifth Great Lakes state to approve the treaty.
Legislators called the compact historic, saying it would preserve the Great Lakes and protect Wisconsin businesses and cities that depend on Great Lakes water for years to come.
“We see the envy of this resource coming from other parts of the country,” said Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn. “This needs to be done. This is a day history is made.”
Doyle thanked the Legislature “for bringing us a step closer towards enacting this compact that will help ensure a strong Wisconsin future.”
The Senate passed the compact 32-1. Senators gave themselves a round of applause after the vote.
“When our grandchildren look back, they’ll say we did our part,” said Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee.
The Assembly passed the treaty 96-1 hours later.
The eight Great Lakes governors signed the compact in 2005 after four years of negotiations. They fear booming southwestern states will soon look to withdraw massive amounts of fresh water from the Great Lakes.
Under the compact, diverting water from the lakes’ basin generally would be banned.
Cities that straddle the basin’s border, such as New Berlin, or lie within counties that straddle the basin’s border, such as Waukesha, could apply for an exemption.
State officials could approve or deny exceptions for straddling cities. Any Great Lakes governor could block a diversion outside the basin as well as block an exemption for a city in a straddling county.
The compact also creates new guidelines for basin municipalities to withdraw water and encourages water conservation. Federal law already allows any Great Lakes governor to veto any withdrawal but doesn’t set out decision-making standards or criteria like the compact does.
All eight Great Lakes states must approve the compact and Congress must ratify it before it can take effect. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and New York have signed the treaty into law. Quebec and Ontario also have approved it. Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania have yet to sign off on the deal.
Michigan’s Legislature adopted the compact Wednesday, but lawmakers in that state were still considering contested legislation to regulate large-scale water withdrawals.
Wisconsin lawmakers began working on their version of the compact last year. The state Senate, led by Democrats, passed it in March just days before the legislative session ended, but Assembly Republicans wouldn’t vote on it before time ran out.
Assembly members complained they didn’t get a chance to examine the complex, 150-page plus treaty. They also worried the single-governor veto could allow another governor to block southeastern Wisconsin cities from drawing needed water from Lake Michigan and feared the compact would expand state control to groundwater in the basin, stripping property owners of their rights.
Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise deal last month. Doyle called a special legislative session to ratify it.
The meat of the compact remains unchanged. A single governor could still block withdrawals outside the basin and in straddling counties. Most of the changes amounted to cleaning up legal language that would implement the compact specifically in Wisconsin.
The revisions include a clarification that the compact doesn’t extend state powers to groundwater, and basin conservation plans won’t be mandatory statewide, said Todd Ambs, water division administrator for the state Department of Natural Resources.
Rep. Scott Gunderson, R-Waterford, chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, refused to allow his committee to vote on the compact before the end of the regular session. On Wednesday he said the new version is far better than the old one.
“We’ve got something that will protect the Great Lakes for generations to come,” Gunderson said.
Wisconsin’s version of the compact sets high conservation standards for the remaining Great Lake states to match, said George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.
The real battle to ratify the compact, though, will come in Washington as southwestern states gain more population and political clout, Meyer said.
“Some really heavy lifting is going to have to take place in Congress,” Meyer said.
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