State hands Town of Waukesha a water decision deadline

The clock is ticking and the Town of Waukesha is running out of time to decide whether it wants to join the City of Waukesha's precedent-setting request for Lake Michigan water.

Dec. 18, 2012
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By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 18, 2012 0

The clock is ticking and the Town of Waukesha is running out of time to decide whether it wants to join the City of Waukesha's precedent-setting request for Lake Michigan water.

State Department of Natural Resources Water Division Administrator Ken Johnson has given the Town Board until the end of January to signal its intent or be cut out of the process.

If the board has not announced a decision by Feb. 1, the DNR will ask the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to exclude the town from a future water service area plan that would be submitted to the other Great Lakes states as part of the city's application, Johnson says in a letter to Town Chairman Angie Van Scyoc. The letter was mailed to the town Monday.

The Town Board was to meet behind closed doors Wednesday morning during a special meeting to discuss the city's future water service area. Van Scyoc said Tuesday she would not comment on the letter before Wednesday's meeting.

Under state law, each municipality included in the designated water service area must approve the plan, according to Johnson.

The commission drew the map a few years ago to encompass portions of the City of Pewaukee and Towns of Delafield, Genesee and Waukesha. Pewaukee and the Towns of Delafield and Genesee have approved the plan.

The DNR requested a portion of the Town of Genesee be included in the future area because bacterial contamination from failing septic systems already poses a health risk for families relying on private wells there.

The City of Waukesha's water service area ends at the city limits with the exception of 112 or so residences and businesses in the Town of Waukesha that have been added over the years after experiencing problems with their wells.

The six weeks remaining before the Feb. 1 deadline should be ample time for the town and city to conclude negotiations on conditions for the town to enter into the future service area, Van Scyoc said Tuesday.

In September, the Town Board asked the city to consider several conditions. Among them: pay the town 20 years' worth of property taxes as compensation for any properties annexed by the city after it switches to a lake supply; and allow the town to participate in a joint review of future annexations.

A state law requires a city or village to pay five years of property taxes to a town as compensation when there is unanimous support of property owners for the annexation.

Waukesha City Administrator Ed Henschel said Tuesday the city made a counteroffer to the town and is waiting for a response.

The City of Waukesha is asking the eight Great Lakes states to approve diverting up to an average of 10.9 million gallons a day from the lake by 2050.

Should the town withdraw from the future service area, the projected midcentury diversion volume would be reduced 0.55 million gallons a day, Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said Tuesday.

If the request is approved, Waukesha would become the first community wholly outside the lakes' drainage basin to receive water under terms of a Great Lakes protection compact. The new supply would enable Waukesha to stop using deep wells drawing radium-contaminated water from sandstone.

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About Don Behm

Don Behm reports on Milwaukee County government, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the environment and communities in southeastern Wisconsin. He has won reporting awards for investigations of Great Lakes water pollution, Milwaukee's cryptosporidiosis outbreak, and the deaths of three sewer construction workers in a Menomonee Valley methane explosion.

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