Let's Be Honest: The DNR Is Suggesting To Waukesha A Diversion Do-Over

The more I read the Department of Natural Resource's long, detailed, multi-leveled letter to Waukesha about its Lake Michigan water diversion application - - details and commentary, here - - the more I think that the DNR is basically telling Waukesha where and how to rewrite it.

So what have Waukesha water customers been paying for all these months and years as its water utility and consultants have been drafting and touting the document and its production and planning processes?

The DNR's concerns echo issues raised nearly two years ago by environmental organizations.

Raised publicly.

More than once.

Summarized and linked here.

Referenced again here.

And submitted in writing to the Waukesha Water Utility in 2009 - - eventually producing answers - - but apparently without enough incorporation into the diversion application to pass an initial review by the DNR.

That tells me that Waukesha is now paying a price for a severe case of "not-invented here" syndrome.

And now the DNR is burning up staff time to do what the city and water utility should have been doing more effectively a long time ago?

Remember when you were in college, and had a blue book to complete as a final exam - - but drew a blank? Then remembered some one's advice: "Fill in something!"

This time, the exam cam back with an "F", or at best, an incomplete.

Sounds to me as if the Waukesha diversion drafters and proponents did not reach out widely enough for opinion and critiques and substantive advice - - clearly available - - before rushing its application to a Common Council vote in April, and that 'get-something/anything-to-the-DNR' approach is now being proven insufficient and no-doubt costly.