State says it will not approve Milwaukee conditions on Waukesha water deal
Waukesha's request to buy Lake Michigan water from Milwaukee - projected to bring the city more than $3 million a year - has ended before talks got started.
Milwaukee's offer to negotiate selling Lake Michigan water to Waukesha for the city's needs, but not for adjoining municipalities in a future water service area, is dead on arrival, a state Department of Natural Resources official said Wednesday.
The DNR will not accept such a restriction on Waukesha's future water service area if it pursues a lake-only water supply, Eric Ebersberger, the department's water use sec tion chief, said.
"They will have to have a supplier willing to serve the entire service area," he said.
Waukesha could turn to Oak Creek or Racine for a water deal. Waukesha officials also suggested they are willing to accept restrictions on distributing water to the larger service area as part of negotiations with Milwaukee.
Earlier Wednesday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council's Public Works Committee said Milwaukee would negotiate selling water to Waukesha for customers in its service area, but the city will not discuss providing water to portions of four other municipalities included in Waukesha's expanded future service area.
Barrett told reporters at a committee meeting Wednesday that he suspects Waukesha needs lake water to support its "annexation politics," referring to the city's growth as it incorporates land from adjacent towns.
It would be difficult for Milwaukee to monitor Waukesha's future growth into those towns without negotiating water sales and intergovernmental agreements with each of them, according to Barrett.
"We already have agreements from three of the four communities to be included in the water service area, so Milwaukee's proposal is a non-starter for us," Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said Wednesday.
"It makes no sense to me that Milwaukee would disqualify itself from a water agreement that would bring them more than $3 million in revenue at the start," he said.
Ebersberger said one problem with Milwaukee's push for limiting water distribution to Waukesha is the likelihood that property owners outside of that city will encounter well contamination problems and need to hook up to Waukesha's municipal supply.
Waukesha's current service area already extends beyond its city limits for that reason, according to Duchniak.
"There are 180 or so homes and several businesses, most in the Town of Waukesha, that are supplied with city water," he said.
Those property owners encountered well contamination problems in recent years. A handful of the hookups outside Waukesha are in the City of Pewaukee under terms of a boundary agreement.
Revenue projections
The Milwaukee Water Works said in a recent report to the Common Council that Milwaukee would receive revenue of more than $3 million a year at the outset of a water deal with Waukesha, with revenue increasing to an estimated $4.38 million by 2035.
Wisconsin and each of the other seven Great Lakes states must approve the application under terms of a 2008 Great Lakes protection compact. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is evaluating the application and has not determined whether it complies with all compact requirements.
Duchniak said earlier this week that state law requires Waukesha to supply the entire future water service area designated by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
"Negotiating for only part of the service area would not eliminate the need for Waukesha to provide service to those areas," Duchniak said.
Milwaukee's action would create the need for Waukesha to maintain a separate water and sewer system to serve the remaining area, according to Duchniak. Such a dual water system would be inefficient and too costly, he said.
Two other potential municipal water suppliers, Oak Creek and Racine, have not restricted negotiations to Waukesha's current service area, he said.
Barrett said he disagreed with Duchniak's interpretation of the law and that he believes Waukesha could negotiate only for its future water needs.
In remarks to the committee, Barrett said the other municipalities had not requested lake water from Milwaukee.
The commission's designated future water service area for Waukesha includes portions of the City of Pewaukee and towns of Delafield, Genesee and Waukesha.
As of this week, the Town of Waukesha has not approved or rejected the commission's service area. The three other municipalities have agreed to the plan.
The state DNR requested that a portion of Genesee be included due to groundwater contamination problems. Failing septic systems have contaminated a shallow aquifer used by private wells.
Ebersberger confirmed Duchniak's interpretation of the law.
"State law on water supply areas directs regional planning agencies to delineate the areas," Ebersberger said. A water service area must be consistent with the sewer service area drawn by the regional planning commission.
"The process is set up to encourage intergovernmental cooperation," he said.
For that reason, the compact and state law prohibit the DNR from limiting a water service area based on municipal boundaries "except as necessary to prevent waters of the Great Lakes basin" from being transferred to a county that lies entirely outside the Great Lakes basin, Ebersberger said.
Barrett did not respond to request for comment on Ebersberger's statement.
Duchniak said this week that Waukesha wants to complete a water deal by the end of summer.
