Submitted by M. E. Maciejowski, Oct 17, 2007 17:11

Sprawl is not growth. True growth happens when the population of a region grows and there is a corresponding increase in revenue from taxes and a corresponding investment in the economy. When that happens, it makes sense for the region to bear the expense of new infrastructure, to do things like supply water outside the drainage basin and also return it to the basin for re-use.

But the Great Lakes region is experiencing sprawl. This means that the same number of people (the population has remained the same or dropped in recent decades) has to pay for infrastructure for a developed area that has doubled and in some cases tripled in size during the same length of time. Trying to stop that is not "inhospitable"; it's necessary. Are commuities like Waukesha willing to foot the entire bill for supplying water to them and returning it to the basin of origin?

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