Waukesha Water Manager Has Milwaukee Issue In His Hands

And it has nothing to do with Lake Michigan water.

Dan Duchniak, the Waukesha Water Utility manager (annoyingly called a water "czar" by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), is on the landmark lead paint civil suit filed by the City of Milwaukee against US paint manufacturers.

This is the story from the paper's Tuesday p.m. newswatch blog:

"TUESDAY, May 29, 2007, 6:18 p.m.

Water czar now into lead paint

Dan Duchniak, Waukesha’s top water guy, will be out of position for at least six weeks. He’s a juror in the city of Milwaukee’s $85 million lawsuit against the lead paint industry. Milwaukee is seeking the money to cover the cost of abating harmful lead paint in roughly 41,000 houses in Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Although he is general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility, he and his family live in Oak Creek. He was exempted from city residency rules, in part, so his kids could remain in Oak Creek schools.

Milwaukee County picked an inopportune time to pluck Duchniak from Waukesha because the city is moving ahead to seize privately owned land southwest of town for a new well field."

The item is written from the Waukesha perspective: Duchniak is out of position for Waukesha decision-making, etc.

I can't help but notice that there's just no stemming the influence Waukesha exerts over Milwaukee policies. Nothing personal regarding Dan: maybe this is just more regionalism?