State to Help Waukesha Study Impact of Water Diversion

Waukesha is moving to approve a Lake Michigan diversion application BEFORE their EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) is done.  Generally, an EIS serves as a way to compare the economic, environmental, and social impacts of alternatives side by side in order to make an informed decision.

Not having the EIS ready for the public and DNR until the application is in the process of approval, does not give the community enough to time to assess the potential harm a diversion could have on our local waterways.

You can read a summary of the issue at the Daily Reporter.

More information is also below where Milwaukee Riverkeeper's Cheryl Nenn is quoted in a recent Journal-Sentinel article.

[excerpted from the Journal-Sentinel)

Promising careful scrutiny of Waukesha's pending bid to pump Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes drainage basin, state officials said Friday they will help, but not order, the city to complete a comprehensive environmental impact study for the project.

Now that Waukesha has released a draft application, the state Department of Natural Resources next week will ask the public to comment on a list of issues that must be included in such a study, and recommend others to be added, said Eric Ebersberger, the DNR's water use section chief in Madison.

Waukesha could become the first community to request a diversion of water out of the basin under terms of a 2008 Great Lakes protection compact. Ebersberger said the DNR will conduct a "robust analysis" of the history-making project.

On Thursday, city officials released a preliminary application to buy up to 18.5 million gallons a day to meet maximum demand when Waukesha is fully developed in several decades. Average daily demand after 2035 will be about 10.9 million gallons a day.

Though Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson said he will ask the City Council no later than April to approve submitting an application to the DNR, the department has not completed drafting regulations to implement the protection compact in Wisconsin.

The DNR does not believe it has the authority to order the city to do an impact study in the absence of the regulations, hence the softer approach of an offer to help get it done.

"We told Waukesha that we were going to follow the EIS process for the application," Ebersberger said. "This allows for the greatest opportunity for public comment, and information sharing with the public."

Critical of decision
A Milwaukee-based environmental advocacy group on Friday criticized the DNR's decision to put together "the equivalent" of an impact study after the application is made.

"An impact study should be part of an application to the DNR," said Cheryl Nenn of the Milwaukee Riverkeeper organization. "The study should be done to educate the public and help the city's decision-makers with this precedent-setting decision."

Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said the DNR has agreed to work with the city's proposed timetable to move the application through the approval process by the end of the year.

"They understand we're under a court order to provide radium-safe water," Duchniak said. The city's deep sandstone wells are contaminated with radium and salt, and the deadline to deliver safe water is June 2018.

If the city completes the impact study by June, Duchniak and Nelson said they are optimistic of gaining Wisconsin's permission for a diversion by July.

"Then we can send it on to the other states," Duchniak said.

Waukesha must persuade the governors of each of the other seven Great Lakes states to approve the diversion, under requirements of the compact. Nelson does not foresee long legal or political delays in his quest for Lake Michigan water.

At a public meeting Thursday, he told the City Council and water utility commission that the approvals of the other states could be done by the end of this year.

It would take Waukesha 5 1/2 years after that - to June 2016 - to design and build the pipelines needed to bring lake water west to the city and return it east to the lake, Duchniak said.

This optimistic timetable provides only two years worth of cushion before the court's deadline of providing radium-safe water, city officials said.

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Environmental groups, such as Milwaukee Riverkeeper, have recently been questioning the details of the Waukesha diversion.  To read their recent press release click here.