The City of Waukesha will begin negotiating Aug. 25 with Oak Creek and Racine for purchase of Lake Michigan water, officials said Thursday.
Negotiations with Milwaukee might get under way in the fall, but Waukesha will have to make a few promises first.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Common Council President Willie Hines Jr. on Thursday asked Waukesha officials to commit to negotiating a separate intergovernmental agreement before Milwaukee begins costly and time-consuming preparations for negotiating a water sale.
The agreement must include a provision for paying Milwaukee for water service that would be in addition to the cost of water, according to a letter from Barrett and Hines to Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima, Common Council President Paul Ybarra and Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak.
The intergovernmental agreement also must include an industry noncompete clause, which is a commitment from each city not to lure existing businesses away from the other.
New Berlin agreed to a noncompete clause and paid a one-time economic compensation fee of $1.5 million as part of that city's 2008 negotiation to purchase Milwaukee water.
Scrima publicly released Barrett's letter Thursday but said he would not comment on the proposed intergovernmental agreement before discussing it with the Common Council.
"My personal opinion is that we need to disclose all of these details to our citizens as we move this process forward," Scrima said.
In a written response Thursday to Barrett and Hines, Waukesha Interim City Administrator Steve Crandell reminded Milwaukee officials that Waukesha already had agreed to a similar noncompete clause through the Milwaukee 7, a cooperative economic development involving seven counties in southeastern Wisconsin.
"Any deal regarding economic compensation will be a matter of serious negotiations," Crandell said.
Waukesha officials expect that a payment, like the one paid by New Berlin, will be part of any agreement with Milwaukee, he said.
On Sept. 8, the Milwaukee Common Council's Public Works Committee is scheduled to discuss a resolution authorizing several city departments to analyze Waukesha's request for lake water before the start of negotiations.
The state Department of Natural Resources has started its review of Waukesha's application for Great Lakes water.
The department expects to release its preliminary decision in November when it completes a draft environmental study and draft technical review of the application.
If the state DNR approves the request, Waukesha must have a purchase agreement with one of the three potential suppliers in hand before the application can be forwarded to the other seven Great Lakes states for approval.
Waukesha's negotiating team will meet Oak Creek officials the morning of Aug. 25 at the Oak Creek Water & Sewer Utility, 170 W. Drexel Ave.
An afternoon meeting that day is scheduled at the office of Racine Mayor John Dickert in City Hall, 730 Washington Ave.
Waukesha wants to begin buying lake water later in this decade so that it can abandon several deep wells pumping radium-contaminated water from saturated sandstone at depths of 2,000 feet.
Water needs discussed
The city's application forecasts a need for an average of up to 10.9 million gallons of water a day from the lake by midcentury, compared with the city's average daily demand of 7.9 million gallons a day in 2010.
Waukesha's negotiating team includes Duchniak and Crandell. Scrima and Ybarra will participate in the first meetings with Oak Creek and Racine, Duchniak said.
Oak Creek's negotiating team includes Water & Sewer Utility General Manager Steve Yttri, Utility Engineer Michael Sullivan and City Administrator Gerald Peterson.
Oak Creek's water utility serves about 60,000 customers in an 83-square-mile service area encompassing Oak Creek, Franklin and a portion of the Village of Caledonia generally north of 5 Mile Road.
Racine's negotiating team includes Dickert, Water Utility General Manager Keith Haas, City Administrator Tom Friedel and City Attorney Robert Weber.
Racine's water utility serves about 42,000 customers in Racine and all or portions of six other municipalities east of I-94 in Racine County.
***
Want more information?
For information on the Oak Creek water utility, go to www.water.oak-creek.wi.us/.
For information on the Racine Water Utility, go to www.cityofracine.org/Water.aspx.