Based On Waukesha Data, Fresh Questions For Waukesha Water Pitch

Official reviews of Waukesha's request for a diversion of Lake Michigan water have been stalled for more than four years as the city's self-proclaimed deadlines have drained away, and now a new set of questions based on data and records in the city's possession about the its core water need claim is likely to raise more barriers to that request bring granted.

Circle of Blue, a Traverse City, Michigan-based journalism and science collaborative focused on water issues, has published evidence today obtained through Open Records that groundwater levels available to Waukesha are rising, thus undercutting a basic argument for Lake Michigan water in Waukesha's stalled diversion application:

In what appears to be a direct contradiction to the case that Waukesha, Wisconsin is making to end its reliance on a shrinking supply of groundwater and receive millions of gallons drawn from Lake Michigan, the city’s own data shows that water levels in its main aquifer are rising, not falling. The data, never before publicized, are likely to cloud Waukesha’s proposal to divert water from the Great Lakes and test the provisions of a six-year-old international water treaty.

According to Dr. Doug Cherkauer, a hydrogeologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the data “is clearly showing that the water levels in the deep aquifer beneath Waukesha are rising and have been for some time.”

The piece includes a lengthy rebuttal from Waukesha's water utility. 

This is the second time that the Waukesha Water Utility's work on possible diversions of water from Lake Michigan has been thrown into doubt by information found in water utility documents unearthed through the state Open Records law.

Here was an earlier episode.