Part I. Hope and hopelessness -- To have and have not -- The Aral experiment -- Climate change and water levels : going to extremes? -- Aversion to diversion -- Part II. Battle lines and skirmishes -- Reversing a river -- Carp in the CAWS -- Long Lac and Ogoki -- Pleasing Pleasant Prairie -- Sacrificing Lowell -- Tapping Mud Creek -- Akron gets the nod -- Part III. New rules of engagement -- The Nova group and Annex 2001 -- Marching toward a compact -- Waukesha worries -- New Berlin : the compact's forgotten test case -- Waukesha takes its shot -- Who will win the war?

The Great Lakes are the largest system of freshwater lakes in the world and America's greatest freshwater resource. For over a century they have been the target of controversial diversion schemes designed to sell, send, or ship water to thirsty communities, sometimes far from the source. In part to protect the Great Lakes from overzealous entrepreneurship, the Great Lakes Compact was signed in 2008. Although the Compact fulfills that promise and ensures that Great Lakes water stays within the Basin, some would say it has only shifted the controversy closer to home. Now water diversion controversies of a different kind are some of the most fought-over environmental issues in the region. Will the water wars ever be settled? --