All shook up about Waukesha water

Gee, someone woke up Dennis Shook at the Waukesha Freeman and told him the real scoop about Waukesha's chances of getting the Lake Michigan water it wants so desperately.

And Shook got all shook up. (Sorry,that was too easy and obvious, but I will never do it again, I promise.)

Apparently he hadn't been paying attention, and had the impression that the new Great Lakes water compact would allow Waukesha to take 20 millions of gallons of water out of Lake Michigan every day without the requirement that it return it to the lake.

The issue isn't all that complicated. Waukesha is on the western side of the subcontinental divide. On the east side of that divide, water flows into Lake Michigan. On the other side, it flows to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Journal Sentinel said in an editorial back in August:

No Great Lakes water should leave the basin unless it can be replenished. This has been a mainstay of lake policy for a while now. Since Waukesha is outside the surface-water basin, it shouldn't get any surface water unless it can return it, instead of letting it flow eventually into the Mississippi River via the Fox River.

That has been the policy, is the policy, and in all likelihood will continue to be the policy, new compact or not. That seems to have escaped Shook's attention. Now he's acting like someone is trying to put something over on him.

In a column filled with rampant paranoia, he blames the usual suspects:

They are powerful forces. They include environmentalists, social engineers and even some people left over from the regimes of Milwaukee mayors Henry Maier and John Norquist, noted for their disdain of the suburbs.

The environmentalists have actively opposed the sale because they do not want to see a growth in the "sprawl," their charming term for almost any development where a field might be paved over, a road built or a lake used for recreation.

The social engineers did not want to see the sale because they do not want to see suburban success, as it is simply too far from urban dwellers. Milwaukee residents - particularly the poor - have no easy access to the nearly 7,000 jobs that are estimated to be open in the suburban area. Bus routes are few and few city dwellers are able to make the commute.

The Maier/Norquist remnants - and they are definitely hanging just behind the curtain of the Milwaukee political stage - did not want to see the sale because it would bring cooperation and tranquility, something that will not help them regain control. If that detente came while also helping the hated suburbs with which they fought the sewer wars and have seen as the enemy, it would be even worse.

Actually, the best reason for all of those people and groups to want Lake Michigan water returned to the lake is to preserve the Great Lakes, one of the nation's greatest natural assets. You don't need to be anti-suburb to understand the need to preserve those lakes.

Despite Shook's paranoid rant, the new Great Lakes agreement is likely to make it easier for Waukesha County to have access to Great Lakes water. Personally, as one of the "Norquist remnants," I think it's a bad idea.

But it would be a far worse idea to send 20 millions of water every day to the Gulf of Mexico, via the city Waukesha, no strings attached.

The most surprising thing is that anyone in Waukesha ever thought that would happen.