Waukesha Mayor Pushes Back On Proposed Reductions To Water Diversion Plan

A multi-state panel reviewing Waukesha’s application to divert drinking water from Lake Michigan may be getting closer to a final agreement. But a tentative plan to reduce the number of homes in neighboring communities that would also get lake water is raising concerns for Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly who says his city is under state orders to potentially serve those homes.

“Seventy percent of this area outside the city of Waukesha is already built up, so those are existing homes,” Reilly said. “If they have problems with their wells, their septic systems fail, contaminate their shallow wells, or they have other problems with their wells, then they’re going to have difficulties.”

But environmental groups and representatives from other Great Lakes states say limiting the scope of the proposed diversion would bring the plan more in line with the terms of the 2008 Great Lakes Compact, and ultimately make it more likely to gain approval.

Michigan representative Grant Trigger helped craft the tentative deal to cut the number of lake water recipients outside of Waukesha, and he said it’s now up to the city and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to provide specifics.

“And when we see the revisions back from Waukesha and Wisconsin, we’ll now be able to evaluate whether we believe, as revised, it would be consistent with compact requirements,” Trigger said.

The agreement requires communities in counties that straddle the Great Lakes Basin to apply for lake water and meet certain conditions.

The review committee may reach a decision during a meeting next month.