Waukesha, Water And Weddings

Wedding planning came to mind the other day when I was thinking about the City of Waukesha's application for a diversion of Lake Michigan water.

The application is immersed in controversy because Waukesha wants to use some of the proposed diversion to serve portions of four smaller municipalities that have neither directly applied for Great Lakes water or demonstrated the need for it under conditions spelled out in the multi-state Compact that governs such withdrawals.

As a potential supplier, Milwaukee said 'no' to the inclusion of the added municipalities, and Waukesha said, 'suit yourself',' and says it is closing in on an agreement with either Oak Creek or Racine which may sell Waukesha all the water it wants to use and supply elsewhere, though it is unclear if the other Great Lakes states will give that arrangement their required consents.

Anyway...

Wedding planning? Water? What's the connection? Are we headed for an extended metaphor about Waukesha and Milwaukee being joined together, for better or worse, 'till death do they part?

Nothing that elaborate.

I was remembering the complexities of wedding planning and the guest list, and in particular the list's relationship to the wedding dinner, and that cost dictates how many meals can be provided, and thus who eventually attends, etc.

So...

The reality of the diversion application process enabled by the 2008 Compact, according to people with direct knowledge of the years of negotiations that finally produced the draft, was that Wisconsin representatives pushed for the exemption to the document's diversion prohibitions so that Waukesha, which sits outside of the Great Lakes basin. could apply for water.

The exemption says that a community entirely outside the basin, but which is in a county whose borders at some point touch or straddle the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin could ask for a diversion based on that geographical coincidence.

In other words, being situated close to the basin was good enough for an application and gave Waukesha the legal wherewith all to apply - - and that's how Waukesha got its invitation to the party and place at the dinner table, if you will.

But what has created the current controversy is Waukesha's insistence that it also be allowed to bring four uninvited guests to the dinner - - bad form, for sure - - whether we're talking about getting into a wedding dinner or a water resource.

The invitation and the negotiation to see that it was extended should have been enough- - bringing along your friends is party-crashing.