Waukesha Gets Nine More Years To Comply With Radium Standard

2018 is now the final final final final deadline for the City of Waukesha to get into full compliance with a federal drinking water standard for radium that the US Environmental Protection Agency settled on, after years of study, in 2000.

Which Waukesha fought for years, at the cost of millions in legal fees.

Waukesha wants to divert Lake Michigan water as the solution, but has not a) completed all its preliminary studies, b) settled on a methof of returning diverted water to the Great Lakes basin that meets the requirements of the Great Lakes Compact, and c) filed a formal appliation with the state Department of Natural Resources.

With a 2018 deadline, there is no reason why Waukesha cannot carefully construct its application as the DNR works on writing the administrative rules that would govern all Wisconsin diversions under the terms of the Compact.

Waukesha may be the first Wisconsisn and US community that is completely outside of the Great Lakes basin to apply for a diversion under the Compact.

New Berlin, which straddles the basin, is awaiting the results of a DNR review of its diversion application.

Because a portion of New Berlin lies within the basin borders, its application needs only Wisconsin's approval, but there is considerable controversy about the procedures the DNR may follow in that review.

Details here.