Will Waukesha’s Diversion Application Address Crucial Questions?

Waukesha will hold a public meeting on Thursday, January 28th to present its draft application for a new Lake Michigan water supply.  For more information on that meeting click here.

Waukesha's request for Great Lakes water is the first request for a diversion outside of the Great Lakes Basin since the Great Lakes Compact was passed. 

Milwaukee Riverkeeper and other environmental organizations are unclear of the environmental impacts if this diversion was to take place and are questioning the Waukesha Water Utility for more information to ensure a successful implementation of the Great Lakes Compact and that natural resources are being protected on both sides of the Continental Divide.
 

The recent press release about the issue is below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2010

Contact: Jodi Habush Sinykin, Midwest Environmental Advocates (414) 507-0004
Peter McAvoy, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center (414) 385-3746
Cheryl Nenn, Milwaukee Riverkeeper (414) 378-3043

Will Waukesha’s Diversion Application Address Crucial Questions?

WAUKESHA—City of Waukesha officials will release their draft application for a Lake Michigan diversion at a public meeting on Thursday, January 28th, but they have yet to answer a number of key questions about the need for the application and its context, including:
 
• Why is Waukesha seeking more than twice the water it is using while also touting its conservation efforts?
• Why is Waukesha expanding its water service territory by such a substantial amount?
• Has Waukesha considered other alternatives to a diversion, and their estimated costs, as expected by the Great Lakes Compact and state and federal law?

These and other questions, sent to the Waukesha Water Utility by a consortium of state conservation organizations a year ago, have yet to be answered and whether Waukesha’s application finally does so is of major concern.

This will be the first diversion request by a community outside of the Great Lakes Basin anywhere in the Great Lakes region since the Great Lakes Compact was passed.  Residents from Waukesha, Milwaukee and communities around the region are unclear about what to expect from the Waukesha Water Utility. 

What also remains unclear is how the diverted water will be returned to Lake Michigan.  In previous statements, Waukesha has indicated that it will use Underwood Creek and the Menomonee River, which run through the Cities of Wauwatosa and Milwaukee, to discharge millions of gallons of wastewater that the Utility plans to release on a daily basis. 

“What are the impacts of this return flow on water quality, flooding, public health, and downstream restoration projects in the Menomonee River?” asked Cheryl Nenn, Riverkeeper for Milwaukee Riverkeeper. “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested downstream to clean our rivers and more projects are in the works. Any plans to discharge millions of gallons of wastewater into our waterways needs to be scrutinized to ensure our natural resources are being protected on both sides of the continental divide.”

“The environmental impacts of Waukesha’s proposed return flow scenario are still unknown at this point,” explained Jodi Habush Sinykin, Of Counsel to Midwest Environmental Advocates.  “This underscores the importance of our Wisconsin DNR’s recently announced commitment to completing a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement on Waukesha’s future application,” Habush Sinykin, added, “as it is only through a complete environmental analysis that potential harms such as flooding, erosion and public health concerns can be fully examined in an undertaking of this magnitude.” 

Waukesha has stated that it needs a new water supply due to water draw-downs and radium contamination in its current aquifer and it has agreed to a consent order with the state Department of Justice to reduce or eliminate the radium from its water supply. 

“Waukesha continues to assume their only option is to pump Lake Michigan water 20-some miles back and forth.  They still haven’t told their own citizens, let alone people watching this across the Great Lakes basin, why this is their best and only alternative,” said Denny Caneff, executive director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin.

The Great Lakes Compact allows very limited exceptions to its ban on diversions, and any granted are aimed at addressing specific ‘public water supply purposes’ and when ‘all other alternatives have been exhausted.’   
 
But it appears from statements of Waukesha officials that they intend to use Lake Michigan water to fuel the expansion of Waukesha far beyond its current boundaries or needs. 

“According to Water Utility and DNR records, City water meets the radium standards all but one month of the year,” says Steve Schmuki, president of Waukesha County Environmental Action League. “The drilling of shallow aquifer wells in areas adjacent to the Vernon Marsh and Fox River wetlands, radium treatment already operating at several existing wells, and moderate conservation has brought the City to a satisfactory place where it is meeting the needs of its current residents.  The tax and (utility) rate hikes necessary to fund a Lake Michigan diversion will burden current and future generations and put our community in hock for decades to come,” Schmuki added. “This would seem to go well beyond what is intended by the Compact or is even needed by our community.”

Great Lakes advocates interested in a successful Great Lakes Compact implementation are anticipating that an application for a diversion will receive a rigorous review by Wisconsin and the other Great Lakes states. It’s important that the review be thorough since this will be the first application after the Compact was approved by the eight Great Lakes states, Congress, and signed into law by President Bush in 2008.

“There is no question that Waukesha’s application will set a precedent for those who would like to tap into the Great Lakes.  It will be important that Wisconsin set out strong requirements to ensure that the goals and standards of the Great Lakes Compact are fully met so as to protect this world class resource, for generations to come”, said Melissa Malott, attorney and Water Program Director at Clean Wisconsin.  “With so much negative scrutiny directed at Illinois for failing us on the carp barrier, it would be helpful to have a positive story of protection coming from this corner of the Great Lakes.”

Once Waukesha finalizes its application, the DNR will have to analyze it against the standards of the Compact, and if approved, submit it to the Compact’s Regional Body for approval by the seven other Great Lakes states.

“In conducting its review and analyzing the impacts of this proposed diversion, the DNR needs to have an open and transparent process to allow the citizens and public officials the ability to consider and comment on whether Waukesha meets the letter and spirit of the Compact,” said Peter McAvoy, vice president of Sixteenth Street Community Health Center.  “Before agreeing to such an enormous exception, we need to know how this will impact public health, our economy, and our water resources.”