CHICAGO — Ohio has a lot at stake in Tuesday’s expected vote here on whether a southeastern Wisconsin city should be allowed to draw water from Lake Michigan to serve its 71,000 people.

Located 20 miles west of Milwaukee, Waukesha is the first city to test the 2008 Great Lakes compact, a hard-fought, regional water-use agreement signed into law by former President George W. Bush after being ratified by Congress and earlier approved by Ohio, Michigan, and other Great Lakes states.

Rules for implementing it resulted in another round of contentious negotiations, especially in Ohio, where conservatives such as former state Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterfield) led a long fight to block passage of rules to implement the compact by raising concerns about how property rights might be affected.

Developed in response to a 1998 attempt to ship Great Lakes water to Asia, the compact forbids large-scale bulk exports and withdrawals but allows limited exceptions for diversions to counties that straddle the natural basin.

Waukesha is the seat of Wisconsin’s Waukesha County, a straddling county.

Hardliners fear what the cumulative effect of multiple exceptions could mean for lake levels.

Ohio and Wisconsin have the most communities straddling the natural Great Lakes basin.

The outcome of the Waukesha decision, experts say, could affect how many other exceptions are made — and who gets access to the water. 

They see Waukesha as an important precedent because they believe water is on its way toward becoming this century’s biggest environmental issue, with the world’s population growing, the need for agriculture increasing, shoreline property becoming more valuable, and effects of climate change becoming more acute.

The decision rests in the hands of a compact council that comprises members appointed by each of the states.

Waukesha has worked for years on its plan but faces stiff opposition from Great Lakes mayors, cities, environmentalists, fishermen, and others.

In a statement released Thursday during its annual meeting in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the Chicago-based Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents mayors and other officials from 121 U.S. and Canadian units of government, said it wants the council to reject Waukesha’s request.

Mayor John Dickert of Racine, Wis., who sits on the group’s board of directors, said there is “clear evidence that Waukesha has reasonable alternatives to provide safe drinking water to its citizens.

“Local government across this region and in both the United States and Canada are calling on the governors of the eight Great Lakes states to reject Waukesha’s application and protect these vital waters we cherish,” Mayor Dickert said.

Several environmental groups have called Waukesha’s application “flawed.”

On Wednesday, U.S. and Canadian advisers to the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Fishery Commission called for the application to be rejected.

“The advisers are concerned that if the city of Waukesha’s request is approved, a precedent would be set for future requests,” said Capt. Denny Grinold, U.S. Committee of Advisors chairman and Michigan Charter Boat Association president. “If we do not protect our water, the cascading effects to the fishery will be disastrous.”

In May, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body recommended approval with certain conditions, such as prohibiting Waukesha from distributing water beyond its city limits and getting no more than 8.2 million gallons a day, down from 10.1 million gallons.

Dan Duchniak, Waukesha water utility general manager, said the utility is done making presentations now that fact-finding has concluded. He said the city is “hopeful that they will agree with the Regional Body’s finding that Waukesha meets the Compact requirements.

“The only thing that has changed is the service area and the volume,” he said.

In an op-ed submitted for publication, Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said the city would use less than one-millionth of 1 percent of Great Lakes water and return the same volume to Lake Michigan.

“We are applying for Lake Michigan water because our current water supply is unsustainable, due to a geological feature that restricts recharge from rain and snow,” Mr. Reilly wrote. “It is also contaminated by radium, a naturally occurring carcinogen.”

Many of the compact’s themes came together under former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft’s administration, when Mr. Taft was chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors.

Canada’s largest environmental group, the Council of Canadians, took issue with the inclusion of straddling counties as the compact was being negotiated years ago.

The group said it feared the compact was written ostensibly to fend off threats from the Southwest, yet accommodate sprawl in near-basin U.S. communities.

Mr. Duchniak has said the city’s problems go far beyond radium that occurs naturally in deep-water wells throughout southeast Wisconsin and northwest Illinois.

The area’s aquifer hasn’t been recharging for years, largely because of a 150-foot layer of shale, he said. The groundwater has become more brackish over time from total dissolved solids and naturally occurring salt in deep water, as well as other contaminants.

Waukesha is under a court order to begin delivering a cleaner source of water by June, 2018.

After more than five years of review, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources agreed Waukesha has no reasonable alternative to Lake Michigan.

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published June 20, 2016, 4:00 a.m.