City of Waukesha Alderman Paul Ybarra said he's looking forward to moving forward in the city's application for Great Lakes water.
And the city will be doing this with the Town of Waukesha in its water and sewer service planning area as it voted unanimously to include the town Tuesday night.
The Common Council's approval comes a week-and-a-half after the Town of Waukesha voted to be included in the city's future water service area on May 23.
The approval is based on a letter the town board approved that says all high capacity shallow aquifer wells in the town operated by the city including the Lathers wells are to be abandoned upon a successful application for Great Lakes water and the town also retains the right to enter into negotiations with the Village of Big Bend for treatment services for town property.
The inclusion is also conditional based only if the city is successful in obtaining a Great Lakes Diversion.
The Town of Waukesha had been in the city’s future water service area by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission but the Town Board voted to exclude a majority of the town at a Jan. 24 meeting.
But once John Marek won the chairman position over Angie E. Van Scyoc on April 2, he looked to rescind the previous board's decision as he said it's in the best interest of the town to have a backup water source.
Initially, he faced a roadblock as three of the five board members voted against being in the city's water service area saying they needed to protect town borders. After this, more than 300 acres of town property annexed into the city.
Town Supervisor Joe Banske, however, switched his vote with the new conditions.
Waukesha entered into an agreement with the City of Oak Creek last fall to purchase Lake Michigan water.
The city will return 100 percent of the water through the treatment process.
The city is under a court-ordered deadline to have radium-compliant water by 2018 and Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak gave an update on its application for Great Lakes water at Tuesday's meeting.
The city is scheduled to submit its final application to the Department of Natural Resources July 8, followed by the DNR finalizing the environmental impact statement draft in October. On Jan. 10, 2014 a final EIS will be issued and three weeks later the DNR is scheduled to submit the application to the Great Lakes Regional Body.
Later that year, on Aug. 1, the Regional Body, which consists of the governors of the eight Great Lakes states, are scheduled to take action on the application. The city needs the approval of all eight states.
Duchniak said if everything stays on schedule construction is set to begin March 1, 2015.