Wis. Stat. § 281.344 — WI Code / Chapter 281 / Section 281.344
Water conservation, reporting, and supply regulation; when compact is not in effect.
Status: in_force

(1) Definitions. In this section:

(d) “Community within a straddling county” means any city, village, or town that is not a straddling community and that is located outside the Great Lakes basin but wholly within a county that lies partly within the Great Lakes basin.

(dm) “Compact” means the Great Lakes — St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact under s. 281.343 .

(dr) “Compact’s effective date” means the effective date of the compact under s. 281.343 (9) (d) .

(e) “Consumptive use” means a use of water that results in the loss of or failure to return some or all of the water to the basin from which the water is withdrawn due to evaporation, incorporation into products, or other processes.

(g) “Cumulative impacts” means the impacts on the Great Lakes basin ecosystem that result from incremental effects of all aspects of a withdrawal, interbasin transfer, or consumptive use in addition to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future withdrawals, interbasin transfers, and consumptive uses regardless of who undertakes the other withdrawals, interbasin transfers, and consumptive uses, including individually minor but collectively significant withdrawals, interbasin transfers, and consumptive uses taking place over a period of time.

(i) “Environmentally sound and economically feasible water conservation measures” means those measures, methods, or technologies for efficient water use and for reducing water loss and waste or for reducing the amount of a withdrawal, consumptive use, or interbasin transfer that are, taking into account environmental impact, the age and nature of equipment and facilities involved, the processes employed, the energy impacts, and other appropriate factors, all of the following:

1. Environmentally sound.

2. Reflective of best practices applicable to the water use sector.

3. Technically feasible and available.

4. Economically feasible and cost-effective based on an analysis that considers direct and avoided economic and environmental costs.

(j) “Facility” means an operating plant or establishment providing electricity to the public or carrying on any manufacturing activity, trade, or business on one site, including similar plants or establishments under common ownership or control located on contiguous properties.

(je) “Great Lakes basin” means the watershed of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River upstream from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

(ji) “Great Lakes basin ecosystem” means the interacting components of air, land, water, and living organisms, including humans, within the Great Lakes basin.

(k) “Interbasin transfer” means a transfer of water from the Great Lakes basin into a watershed outside of the Great Lakes basin or from the watershed of one of the Great Lakes into that of another, except that “interbasin transfer” does not include any of the following:

1. The transfer of a product produced in the Great Lakes basin or in the watershed of one of the Great Lakes, using waters of the Great Lakes basin, out of the Great Lakes basin or out of that watershed.

2. The transmission of water within a line that extends outside the Great Lakes basin as it conveys water from one point to another within the Great Lakes basin if no water is used outside the Great Lakes basin.

3. The transfer of bottled water from the Great Lakes basin in containers of 5.7 gallons or less.

(km) “Intrabasin transfer” means the transfer of water from the watershed of one of the Great Lakes into the watershed of another of the Great Lakes.

(o) “Product” means something produced by human or mechanical effort or through agricultural processes and used in manufacturing, commercial, or other processes or intended for intermediate or ultimate consumers, subject to all of the following:

1. Water used as part of the packaging of a product is part of the product.

2. Other than water used as part of the packaging of a product, water that is used primarily to transport materials in or out of the Great Lakes basin is not a product or part of a product.

3. Except as provided in subd. 1. , water that is transferred as part of a public or private supply is not a product or part of a product.

4. Water in its natural state, such as in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, aquifers, or water basins, is not a product.

(pm) “Public water supply” means water distributed to the public through a physically connected system of treatment, storage, and distribution facilities that serve a group of largely residential customers and that may also serve industrial, commercial, and other institutional customers.

(ps) “Reasonable water supply alternative” means a water supply alternative that is similar in cost to, and as environmentally sustainable and protective of public health as, the proposed new or increased interbasin transfer and that does not have greater adverse environmental impacts than the proposed new or increased interbasin transfer.

(q) “Regional body” means the body consisting of the governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec, Canada, or their designees, as established by the Great Lakes — St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement.

(r) “Source watershed” means the watershed from which a withdrawal originates. If water is withdrawn directly from a Great Lake or from the St. Lawrence River, then the source watershed is the watershed of that Great Lake or the watershed of the St. Lawrence River, respectively. If water is withdrawn from the watershed of a stream that is a direct tributary to a Great Lake or a direct tributary to the St. Lawrence River, then the source watershed is the watershed of that Great Lake or the watershed of the St. Lawrence River, respectively.

(t) “Straddling community” means any city, village, or town that is partly within the Great Lakes basin or partly within the watersheds of 2 of the Great Lakes and that is wholly within any county that lies partly or completely within the Great Lakes basin.

(tm) “Straddling county” means a county that lies partly within the Great Lakes basin.

(w) “Water dependent natural resources” means the interacting components of land, water, and living organisms affected by the waters of the Great Lakes basin.

(wm) “Water loss” means the amount of water that is withheld from or not returned to the basin from which it is withdrawn as a result of an interbasin transfer or consumptive use or both.

(wp) “Water supply system,” when not preceded by “public,” means one of the following:

1. Except as provided in subd. 2. , the equipment handling water from the point of intake of the water to the first point at which the water is used.

2. For a system for providing a public water supply, the equipment from the point of intake of the water to the first point at which the water is distributed.

(wr) “Water utility” means a public utility, as defined in s. 196.01 (5) , that furnishes water.

(x) “Waters of the Great Lakes basin” means the Great Lakes and all streams, rivers, lakes, connecting channels, and other bodies of water, including tributary groundwater, within the Great Lakes basin.

(y) “Withdraw” means to take water from surface water or groundwater.

(z) “Withdrawal” means the taking of water from surface water or groundwater, including the taking of surface water or groundwater for the purpose of bottling the water.

(zm) “Without adequate supplies of potable water” means without a water supply that is economically and environmentally sustainable in the long term to meet reasonable demands for a water supply in the quantity and quality that complies with applicable drinking water standards, is protective of public health, is available at a reasonable cost, and does not have adverse environmental impacts greater than those likely to result from the proposed new or increased interbasin transfer.

(2) Determinations concerning applicability of requirements.

(a) Use of surface water divide. For the purposes of this section, the surface water divide is used to determine whether a withdrawal or transfer of surface water or groundwater is from the Great Lakes basin.

(b) Transfers and withdrawals from more than one source. For the purposes of this section, the interbasin transfer or withdrawal of water from more than one source within the Great Lakes basin to supply a single facility or public water supply system is considered one interbasin transfer or withdrawal.

(c) Water loss. The department shall promulgate rules for determining the amount of water loss from consumptive uses.

(d) County boundaries. For the purposes of sub. (1) (d) , (t) , and (tm) , a county’s boundaries as of December 13, 2005, shall be used to determine whether a county lies partly within the Great Lakes basin.

(e) Public trust doctrine. Nothing in this section may be interpreted to change the application of the public trust doctrine under article IX, section 1 , of the Wisconsin Constitution or to create any new public trust rights.

(f) Water resources protection act.

1. In this paragraph, “historic” means made before June 11, 2008.

2. The department may not change its historic interpretation or application of 42 USC 1962d-20 (d) to a public water supply for a community in this state until that provision is amended. The department shall evaluate all applications under sub. (4) (b) using the requirements in sub. (4) and shall apply those requirements uniformly.

(3) Statewide registration and reporting.

(a)

1. Any person who, on June 1, 2011, has a water supply system with the capacity to make a withdrawal from the waters of the state averaging 100,000 gallons per day or more in any 30-day period or is making any interbasin transfer shall register the withdrawal or interbasin transfer with the department by the deadline specified by the department by rule. A person may register a withdrawal or interbasin transfer before June 1, 2011.

2. Any person who, after June 1, 2011, proposes to begin a withdrawal from the waters of the state using a water supply system that will have the capacity to withdraw an average of 100,000 gallons per day or more in any 30-day period, to increase the capacity of a water supply system that existed on June 1, 2011, so that it will have the capacity to withdraw an average of 100,000 gallons per day or more in any 30-day period, or to begin an interbasin transfer shall register the withdrawal or interbasin transfer with the department.

(b) A person to whom par. (a) applies shall register on a form prescribed by the department and provide all of the following information:

1. The name and address of the registrant and the date of registration.

2. The locations and sources of the withdrawal or interbasin transfer.

3. The daily capacity of the withdrawal or interbasin transfer and the daily capacity to withdraw or transfer from each source.

4. An estimate of the volume of the withdrawal or interbasin transfer in terms of gallons per day average in any 30-day period.

4m. For a withdrawal from the Great Lakes basin that averages 100,000 gallons per day or more in any 30 day period, an estimate of the maximum hydraulic capacity of the most restrictive component in each water supply system used for the withdrawal.