Waukesha still waiting on town's water decision

June 13, 2012
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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

June 13, 2012 0

Waukesha - More than a year after the Waukesha Town Board was asked whether it wants in or out of a proposed water supply area serviced by its neighboring city, the Waukesha Water Utility is still waiting for an answer.

The town's yearlong consulting contract with Bruce Baker, the former state water expert with the Department of Natural Resources hired to advise the town on its water issues, expired last week. The Town Board's Thursday agenda includes an extension of the contract.

Baker has been paid $14,925 so far, at the rate of $150 an hour.

Town Chairman Angie Van Scyoc did not respond to questions by phone or email about the water service area decision.

The City of Waukesha has included a long-range water service area, developed by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, in its application for Lake Michigan water under the Great Lakes Compact. The service area extends beyond the city's borders to parts of the towns of Waukesha and Genesee and smaller parts of the Town of Delafield and the City of Pewaukee.

The city's application, now pending before the Department of Natural Resources and which eventually needs approval of all states bordering the Great Lakes, is aimed at solving Waukesha's need to comply with a court-ordered reduction in the amount of radium in its public water supply.

The DNR has asked Waukesha to show proof of concurrence on the water service area from the neighboring affected municipalities. So far Genesee, the Town of Delafield and the City of Pewaukee have provided it.

According to the application, 85% of the area proposed for addition to the city's water service area is either already developed or in an environmental area that can't be developed.

Dan Duchniak, water utility manager, said that of the 15% available for development, almost all would be residential, adding a projected population of about 12,400 by 2050 or later.

Duchniak said he has met with Town of Waukesha representatives several times to "resolve differences."

"Right now there is no proposal to change the service area, but we have discussed it," he said. Duchniak spoke to Baker as recently as Tuesday, he said.

He hopes the Waukesha Town Board will make a decision within the next six weeks. Any longer, he said, and the town's inaction could threaten to delay the application further - something the city can't afford.

If the town does not make a timely decision, Duchniak said, the DNR would be asked to include the Town of Waukesha in the planned service area recommended by regional planners and already included in the application.

"I am optimistic that we will be able to come to some sort of agreement with the town on a service area so we would not have to ask the DNR," he said. "We also do not want this to cause a delay in our application."

About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
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