2 Radium-Compliant Wells Shut Down Because of Electrical Shortages

The city’s two largest-capacity wells failed due to electrical shortages in the past month, forcing the city to turn on wells that do not meet the EPA’s standards for radium levels.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Waukesha Water Commission have been informed about the well failures. The city can turn on the non-compliant wells under the terms of its agreement with the DNR to meet EPA standards by June 2018. If the well failures happened after June 2018, which means the city would be facing stiff penalties for not meeting the mandate.

“This failure is outside our control and was unforeseen,” said General Manager Dan Duchniak in a letter to the DNR.

An e-mail to the water commissioners indicates the well failure will be discussed at the next commission meeting, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Thursday at Waukesha Water Utility, 115 Delafield St.

“The water is still safe to drink,” Duchniak said. “While it does not meet the radium standard, there will be limited exposure because we will repair it in a timely manner.”

In order to meet the mandated radium level limits for its average day, the city needs an additional five million gallons per day with the current wells being out of service. However, to meet the EPA mandate by June 2018, the city needs to be able to provide the entire city with the compliant water for its maximum day and not its average day.

Duchniak said he hopes to bring the radium complaint wells back into service within eight to 12 weeks.

“Hopefully before the peak summer season, we will be able to turn them back on,” Duchniak said. “… We are working in a matter that hopefully we will be able to supply our residents with the water and meet the requirements.”

The city is by applying to divert water past the Subcontinental Divide. That means piping the water from Milwaukee, Oak Creek or Racine, and returning the water to Lake Michigan.

In order to pipe the water to Waukesha, the city needs approval from all Great Lakes States. Establishing a pipeline to Milwaukee has been identified as less costly than drilling additional wells in a declining ground water supply.

The city is currently providing information to the DNR in an attempt to move the approval process forward.

“This is one of the reasons why the final compliance does not mean just adding treatment to another well,” said Duchniak about the well failures. “You need to be able to provide water to your customers on the peak days in the event that there is a failure to one of the wells.”