Waukesha Water Utility Taking Great Lakes Project to National Politicians
Waukesha will seek $50 million in grants for Lake Michigan water project.
Could Waukesha get federal funding to help build its pipeline to Oak Creek to purchase Lake Michigan water?
Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak will soon travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with top Wisconsin political figures as the city will seek $50 million in grants, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Waukesha Water Utility staff have frequently said they will seek grants as they work on a massive project addressing Waukesha’s water quality.
Waukesha is planning a $183 million pipeline to Oak Creek to address problems with its declining water quality and water supply.
The Waukesha Water Utility spent a year-and-a-half in negotiations with Oak Creek and Racine over getting Lake Michigan water. Waukesha still faces a long climb to get Lake Michigan water, including gaining approval from all Great Lakes states. The application remains pending with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources after nearly three years.
Waukesha is outside of the Great Lakes Basin but is in a community within a county that straddles the Great Lakes Basin, which requires Waukesha to return Lake Michigan water to the Great Lakes. It also requires approval by all Great Lakes states under the terms of the Great Lakes Compact.
Waukesha is forced to either treat or replace its water supply by 2018 because radium levels have put the city's water supply out of legal compliance. The city's wells also face problems with declining water quality due to arsenic and saltwater and with a limited groundwater supply.
Erik Helgestad
2:41 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I can't seem to find it now, but what is Waukesha's deadline to start building this run to Oak Creek to meet the 2018 deadline? I thought I remember it being this coming spring, and that's coming pretty darn quick.
I think late last year the city also bought land south of town as a backup in case the plan falls through, and I hope they have some plans roughed in for that plan.
Erik Helgestad
2:42 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Not exactly trying to put down the Great Lakes water source entirely, just seeing we have a deadline approaching, and a significant hill to climb, and it would be a good idea to have a handle on the whole timeline.
Steve Edlund
5:11 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Q: Which of the following items leads local municipal governments to believe the federal government is flush with cash for the asking?
a. The U.S. National Debt
b. The U.S Unfunded Liabilities
c. The U.S. Total Debt
d. What's another 50 Million?
Hint : http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The application (that was submitted with expected "tweeking") has been in the hands of the Wisconsin DNR for 3 years. 7 other DNR's will have their say.
This process is not sustainable. To have approval from the other states and the capital project completed by 2018 is unrealistic. Reasoning needs a major paradigm shift.
Planning for water sustainability without Lake Michigan water, the Waukesha Plan Commission needs to quit approving apartment projects and start thinking about long term water sustainability for the sake of this and the next generation.
Donna L Cosimano
6:58 am on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Has anyone researched the costs/ and or feasibility of Radon reduction? The Great Lakes Water Compact was created to keep other states from stealing or buying the Great Lake's water - like what happened out west. Isn't it ironic that people would come to "Take the Waters" here in Waukesha?
James Rowen
9:38 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Not radon. Radium.