Could another state actually drop a pipeline into Lake Michigan and pump water to the desert southwest?
Ann Sayers, the Program Director at the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, says yes. It's a real possibility. In fact she says, democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson has already raised the idea during campaign stops in the dry southwest.
That's why the League and others are urging the legislature to catch up with other states in approving the Great Lakes Compact which would ban states and even countries from pumping the lakes.
And while the other Great Lakes States have either approved the compact or have legislation pending, Sayers says Wisconsin is far behind. There's not even a piece of legislation in the hopper.
She says the state budget debate delayed action but it's also a complicated issue involving state, federal and international agencies. And she says, there is well funded opposition.
But Sayers hopes Wisconsin lawmakers take action before the federal government decides to step in and do it for them.