On June 21, the eight U.S. states touching the Great Lakes approved an application by Waukesha, Wisconsin to divert water from Lake Michigan.
Daniel Macfarlane provides some history in his article, Waukesha and Great Lakes Water: Some Historical Background:
This is an interstate compact among the eight Great Lakes states. Since Canadian provinces can’t be a party to this type of American compact, it was accompanied by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement, a non-binding convention which includes Ontario and Quebec. The titles of these new agreements are a mouthful, but together they ban new or increased water diversions out of the watershed, and allow no net loss of water to the basin. The involved states and provinces pledged to use a consistent standard to review proposed uses of Great Lakes water and a decision-support system to manage withdrawals. In addition, each state and province is to develop and implement a water conservation and efficiency program.
