Since 2010, the City of Waukesha's pursuit of Great Lakes water has picked up steam and many major decisions have been made over the last three years.
The major events have included:
■ The city submitting its application to the state's Department of Natural Resources, outlining how Lake Michigan water is the most reliable, sustainable and cost-effective alternative.
■ A stalemate with the City of Milwaukee as negotiations never materialized between the two municipalities.
■ The city reaching an agreement with the City of Oak Creek for Lake Michigan water for an estimated $183 million.
■ The Town of Waukesha taking itself out of the city's future water service area but later, with a new board, asking to be back in, which the city just approved.
Below is a more detailed look at these events as well as other key dates in Waukesha's quest for Lake Michigan water.
Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series detailing the City of Waukesha's historic quest to get Lake Michigan water.
May 2010
The City of Waukesha submitted its application for Great Lakes water. The study showed the highest-ranked alternatives were Lake Michigan and the shallow aquifer sources. It noted the Lake Michigan alternative provided the most reliable and highest quality source of water for Waukesha.
"We equated this to buying a house," City of Waukesha's Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said.
Duchniak said at last week's Common Council meeting that despite Waukesha leading the state in water conservation, "conservation alone will not solve our problem."
And despite the city being located less than 20 miles west of Lake Michigan, it is located 1.5 miles west of the Great Lakes watershed surface water divide and is outside of the Great Lakes Basin.
However, Waukesha County lies partly within the Great Lakes Basin and is a straddling county. As a city within a straddling county, Waukesha is eligible to submit an application for Lake Michigan water.
Sept. 7, 2010
Duchniak sent out a letter from the DNR's attorney, Donald Gallo, with estimates of water supplies from Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Racine in connecting with Lake Michigan.
"Our intention is to negotiate in good faith to get the best price possible for our customers," Duchniak said at the time. "Doing nothing is not an option for our community."
Milwaukee's estimated capital cost was the cheapest at $164 million compared with $261 in Oak Creek and $312 million in Racine.
April 2011
The City of Waukesha provided the DNR with additional information on its water application that indicated there are no reasonable alternatives to Lake Michigan water.
It included a more-detailed evaluation of two water supply alternatives: the unconfined deep aquifer about 12 miles west of Waukesha, and a combination of water supply sources including shallow and deep aquifers, Fox River riverbank inducement wells and rock quarries.
Waukesha concluded these alternatives are not reasonable water supply alternatives because they are less protective of the environment, less protective of public health and cost more than the Lake Michigan supply.
Duchniak, at last week's Common Council meeting, described an issue where a couple years ago a failure with a deep aquifer well resulted in the pumping of sand from the well.
July 2011
The DNR issued a formal Environmental Impact Statement on the City of Waukesha's Lake Michigan water supply from Feb. 5, 2010. This request was issued to interested parties and agencies and has also been made available to the general public on the DNR website. The DNR obtained input from the public through a series of public meetings held between July 26 to 28 in Pewaukee, Wauwatosa and Sturtevant.
August 2011
In a letter to City of Waukesha officials that didn't help the cause of the two cities working together, City of Milwaukee officials reminded them that before an agreement for water service can be executed the community that has applied for water service must enter an intergovernmental agreement that contains a "non-compete" clause and an economic compensation provision.
Besides the cost of water, the letter said the agreement must include a provision for paying Milwaukee economic compensation for water service. This came more than a year and a half after Milwaukee passed a resolution in which it would sell communities such as Waukesha water.
After Scrima got into office in April 2010 and received a letter from Milwaukee outlining the conditions, he told them "that ultimately I will recommend a decision for the citizens of Waukesha that is in their best interests."
Crandell responded to Milwaukee saying that any deal regarding economic compensation will be a matter of serious negotiations. But with negotiations with Milwaukee at a crossroads, the City of Waukesha's negotiating team began negotiating with Oak Creek and Racine officials for the purchase of Lake Michigan water at the end of the month.
"The process governing the consideration of our request by those communities is more streamlined than Milwaukee's," Crandell said.
February 2012
The City of Waukesha's Water Utility issued an environmental report on the city's water supply. It noted how the city has been working to address the radium contamination for more than 20 years and listed the cumulative impacts saying the project will have no significant adverse individual or cumulative impacts on the quantity or quality of the waters and water-dependent natural resources of the Great Lakes Basin.
In fact, it notes the proposed project is anticipated to have a net positive impact on the waters and water-dependent natural resources, to the groundwater and to inland waterways.
Since a return flow to Underwood Creek will have less adverse impacts than to the Root River, the Underwood Creek is the preferred return flow alternative, the report said.
But after analysis by the DNR, it recommended a return flow through the Root River, Duchniak said.
March to April 2012
Aldermanic presentations took place as a way to educate the public on Waukesha's water supply. It informed residents how there are eight deep wells in the city and three shallow wells, 12 storage tanks, 10 pump stations and 337 miles of pipe.
June 2012
The DNR said it would not accept a restriction on Waukesha's future water service area that includes adjoining municipalities if it pursues a lake-only water supply. Waukesha is required to serve the entire future water service area, designated by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
July 2012
While the Milwaukee Common Council authorized a sale of Lake Michigan water to Waukesha, it did not include the future water service area. City of Milwaukee aldermen did not support a plan to negotiate Lake Michigan water with the City of Waukesha. Milwaukee, to this point, had not spoken with Waukesha about distributing water to the service area designated by SEWRPC.
August 2012
A month later, DNR secretary Cathy Stepp reinforced to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Common Council President Willie Hines in a letter that any municipality selling Lake Michigan water to the City of Waukesha must include the city's future water service area.
October 2012
Ten years in the making, a letter of intent for Waukesha to purchase Great Lakes water from Oak Creek's water treatment facility, and return it to Lake Michigan was approved by both Common Councils.
Once finalized, the Common Councils agreed the deal would be for 40 years with four additional 10-year terms that automatically renew.
A water supplier can't terminate service to an existing customer after an agreement expires, Duchniak said. Construction would include building pipelines and pumping stations to bring water inland and return water, in the form of treated wastewater, to the lake.
Dan Warren, president of the Waukesha Water Utility, said a unique aspect of the Oak Creek proposal was its offer to discuss shared governance of its water treatment facility where Oak Creek, Waukesha, Franklin and Caledonia could potentially develop a Regional Water Authority to purchase and oversee the operations of the water treatment plant.
"This is a great example of the benefits of regional cooperation," Waukesha Alderman Paul Ybarra said. "Waukesha will have a sustainable supply of healthy water and Oak Creek will benefit from increased revenues for both the water utility and the city."
November 2012
Once the initial hold up was resolved after the letter between Waukesha and Oak Creek got amended to include Oak Creek can recover the total costs of providing wholesale water to Waukesha, the City of Waukesha reached a historic deal with the City of Oak Creek. After being signed by Scrima and Treasurer Thomas Neill, the letter was forwarded to the DNR for review.
It chose Oak Creek over Racine as talks never started with Milwaukee.
Ybarra said the cost of building infrastructure over a great distance put Racine at a disadvantage.
According to earlier terms, Oak Creek will make sufficient treatment plant capacity available to meet Waukesha's drinking water supply needs.
Waukesha will be responsible for the transmission of the water from the border of Oak Creek to Waukesha and for the return of the water back to the Great Lakes basin. And under the Great Lakes Compact, Waukesha is required to recycle treated water back to Lake Michigan.
Wholesale water rates are estimated at $1.90 per 1,000 gallons of water for between seven and 11 million gallons per day. With an Oak Creek water supply, Duchniak said average monthly residential bills in 2022 are estimated to be $58.26, compared to $26 today.
January 2013
Despite being included in city's future water service area by the SEWRPC, the Town of Waukesha Board approved a map that would exclude a majority of its residents from the city's future water service area. The board said doing so allows them to protect its borders.
February 2013
A couple weeks later, Henschel said the Town of Waukesha was demanding too much water from the city in its request for the portion it did include. He said the decision to include a portion of the town in the city's service area was flawed and needed to be reconsidered. The Town Board demanded not less than 0.55 million gallons a day by midcentury for the portion included.
After the board didn't change its decision from January to include more of the town, Waukesha Superintendent Todd Gray said excluding most of the town will force annexations, because the school district needs city water and sewer services for a large public school and access to those services was part of the development plan.
The Waukesha School District followed up with this when it got its 127-acre property west of Merrill Hills Road annexed from the town into the city in March.
April 2013
New Town of Waukesha Chairman John Marek defeated chairwoman Angie E. Van Scyoc in the April election. Marek said he wanted to rescind the previous board's decision and include a majority of the town in the service area.
However, Marek, along with supervisor Brian Fischer were in the minority, despite Marek citing a letter from Bruce Baker, who has consulted with the town on the water service area and is a former state water administrator with the DNR, saying "the service area should include the entire township."
After numerous meetings and a follow-up with city officials, the Town of Waukesha decided it wanted to be included in the city's future water service area.
May 2013
With the city setting a May 20 deadline, Town of Waukesha property owners representing close to 350 acres of property annexed into the city, saying they wanted a back-up plan the city and the Great Lakes option could provide. The town voted again to be in the service area and approved the right to enter into negotiations with the Village of Big Bend for treatment services for town property.
June 2013
On June 4, the City of Waukesha's Common Council unanimously approved the inclusion of the Town of Waukesha in its water and sewer service planning area as outlined in the letter sent by the town in May, which is contingent upon the city obtaining Great Lakes water.
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. The town also retains the right to enter into negotiations with the Village of Big Bend for treatment services for town property.
July 2013
Waukesha will submit its final application to the DNR.
October 2013
Duchniak expects the DNR to finish its review on Waukesha's environmental impact statement.
January 2014
A final environmental impact statement will be issued and the DNR will submit an application to the regional body (the governors of the eight Great Lakes states — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin — need to approve the application for it to pass).
March 2015
Construction, which includes building a water main and a series of sewer pipes, will begin after the appropriate approvals.
2018
The project is expected to finish by June 2018 deadline to have radium-compliant water.