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Michigan Department Head Says Waukesha Already Getting Water From Lake Michigan

iStock/Elizabeth Quillian

(MPRN-Lansing) Michigan’s top water officials say there’s at least one compelling reason to approve Waukesha-Wisconsin’s request to divert water from Lake Michigan. And that is the city’s already doing it. 

Waukesha’s water shortage is due to radium-contamination. The city is tapping deep water wells to meet its drinking water needs.

Those wells are refreshed by water from the Great Lakes basin. Jon Allan is the director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes. He says that amounts to an indirect diversion of water. Waukesha sends that treated water to the Mississippi River.

“It continues the ongoing withdrawal of water from the Great Lakes. It’s rather ironic, but that’s what the evidence is showing.”

Allan says that’s a powerful argument for approving Waukesha’s request. The deal would include a promise to return almost all the water withdrawn back to Lake Michigan.

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