Water diversion project in Waukesha faces scrutiny

WAUKESHA — Waukesha officials are facing opposition for their plan to pipe in drinking water from Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin Public Radio reports the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative, a group of U.S. and Canadian mayors, has asked the Great Lakes Compact Council, which represents surrounding states, for a rehearing on the council's decision to approve the diversion last June.

The city would be the first community outside the Great Lakes Basin to get lake water under terms of an agreement approved in 2008 called the Great Lakes Compact, which allows cities in counties that straddle the basin to apply for Great Lakes water.

The initiative's executive director, David Ullrich, says the coalition's concerns center around the substance of the Council's decision, the procedures used and the standards applied in making the decision.