Waukesha/Oak Creek Water Deal Reached, Put in Jeopardy by Commission
October 4, 2012
This week, the City of Waukesha and Oak Creek signed a letter of intent whereby for a period of at least 40 years Oak Creek would supply Waukesha an average of 7 million gallons a day of Lake Michigan water starting within the next several years, rising to an average of 10.9 million gallons per day by mid-century. This letter of intent now becomes part of Waukesha’s application for a diversion of Great Lakes water, which is pending before the DNR, and must be approved by all the Great Lakes governors.
However, the state-wide Public Service Commission quickly ruled that Oak Creek would be precluded from taking on additional wholesale customers if it cannnot fully recover the costs of serving them, thus jeopardizing the water deal with Waukesha. The Oak Creek Common Council authorized the initial letter of intent, but Oak Creek's Water & Sewer Utility General Manager Steve Yttri does not plan on signing it after this development.
With all the recent turns in Waukesha's quest to attain Great Lakes water, Milwaukee Riverkeeper still thinks there are a number of deficiencies in Waukesha’s application, including the fact that the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project is still being worked on. So far, Waukesha has failed to demonstrate there are no other alternative water supplies to Lake Michigan water! If the Lake is deemed to be their only reasonable alternative, then Waukesha needs to demonstrate that there will be no negative physical, chemical, or biological impact on any receiving water stream (such as Underwood Creek or the Root River), as part of their return flow requirement.
