After years of waiting, Waukesha will find out if it can use Lake Michigan for its drinking water. A unanimous vote is needed in Chicago Tuesday from all eight Great Lakes states, for Waukesha to become the first city outside the Great Lakes basin to tap in under the 2008 Great Lakes Compact.
The Michigan state Senate opposed the request in late May — but none of the other states have indicated how they’ll vote. The move is opposed by a number of environmental groups and Great Lakes mayors.
Waukesha applied for the diversion after the Wisconsin DNR determined that the city does not have an adequate supply of water fit to drink, because of radium contamination of deep groundwater supplies.