Here & Now

WisContext: Reporter Gives Updates On Waukesha Water Deal

Frederica Freyberg:

It’s been less than a year since Waukesha gained approval to divert Lake Michigan water for its own use. A diversion granted as an exception to the Great Lakes Compact as the city argued it needed the water because its wells are contaminated by radium. But next week there’s a hearing on a challenge to the decision approving the water diversion. We sat down with Scott Gordon, journalist for WisContext, for more on the status of the Waukesha water deal and started by asking why a group representing cities surrounding the Great Lakes in the U.S. and Canada is bringing a challenge to it.

Scott Gordon:

So their big overarching concern is to make sure that the Great Lakes Compact is being enforced the way they think it should be. So that whole issue of precedent is a big one. But they’ve also are kind of looking at this from an environmental standpoint, you know, what kind of affects Waukesha will have in drawing the water and discharging wastewater back into the Great Lakes through the Root River. And they also are still contending that Waukesha still has alternative water sources.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’re reporting on what happens to the water that Waukesha pulls out of Lake Michigan, treats and returns to the lake via the Root River under the agreement and specifically the river itself. What have you found about the Root River?

Scott Gordon:

The Root River has some environmental problems, especially with the level of phosphorus in the water. The Department of Natural Resources considers it impaired for its level of phosphorus. Other issues include the fact that sometimes the flow of the river is very low and it’s struggled to maintain some of its fish population and stuff, which has effects on other things like recreation and tourism, which are important to Racine.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, Waukesha says that the water it treats will go back into the Root River cleaner than the Root River was originally.

Scott Gordon:

Right. It’s an interesting argument they are making because Waukesha is basically saying that its sewage plant that it’s going to be discharging this water from, they actually call their sewage plant the clean water plant. That’s the actual name of it so clearly they take pride in how they’re treating it. But they’re saying that they’re going to be able to discharge water that meets pretty high standards, that it will have lower concentrations of phosphorus than what’s already in the river. Kind of an interesting argument they’re making – well we’re actually improving the quality of the river by diluting it even if we’re adding more phosphorus into the overall picture.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what have you learned about what happens once that water that’s running through the Root River that has been, you know, discharged from the clean water plant in Waukesha, what happens when it reaches the lake?

Scott Gordon:

One city like Waukesha by itself is probably not going to have a huge environmental impact on the Great Lakes, just because it’s such a large body of water when you put it altogether. The Great Lakes overall are in fairly decent shape in a lot of senses when it comes to phosphorus. It’s gotten a lot better since the ’60s and ’70s, probably better than a lot of people would expect just given the amount of large cities around the Great Lakes and the amount of shipping and other activities that go on. Lake Erie obviously is an exception. It has had huge problems with phosphorus. But I think the concern is less about what Waukesha by itself could do to the system and more about what would be the cumulative effect of more communities coming and doing this.

Frederica Freyberg:

None of this is happening anytime soon, though, right? What’s the status of this project itself?

Scott Gordon:

So Waukesha still has to build some infrastructure to be able to actually do this. The water itself is coming in from Oak Creek, so they’ll be taking the water from Lake Michigan and then Waukesha has to build a pipeline that takes the water from Oak Creek to Waukesha. Then they have to build another pipeline that takes wastewater from their treatment plant to an outflow site on the Root River, which is going to be in Franklin, Wisconsin. And of course they still have to finalize plans and get permits to construct all of that. And they’re saying at this point that won’t start happening until 2019 and, you know, the whole drawing and wastewater issue won’t actually start happening until probably 2023. So it’s a while out, but right now Waukesha is really confident that the agreement will be upheld and they’re basically kind of already behaving as if it’s full speed ahead with this thing.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Scott Gordon, thanks very much.

Scott Gordon:

Thanks very much, Fred.