First Release Of Water/Socio-Economic Findings Is Tuesday Night

Consultants from the UWM Center For Economic Development will disclose Tuesday night whether they believe there are socio-economic implications to regional water planning that includes diverting Lake Michigan water to Waukesha.

The Tuesday meeting - - at Heartlove Place, 3229 N. King Drive, Milwaukee, at 7 p.m., is the first of four such public sessions this month to be held in both Waukesha and Milwaukee.

The UWM consultants have been studying water supply issues for three months at the request of the Environmental Justice Task Force, a citizen arm of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

The Commission had a separate water supply advisory committee working for five years on a so-called comprehensive regional water supply plan, but suspended that work late last year after the EJTF argued that a comprehensive regional water supply plan needed a socio-economic analysis.

SEWRPC reluctantly agreed to add the analysis; it said last week said it would send the consultants' findings to the water supply advisory committee for its review.

There are deep racial and economic gaps between Milwaukee and Waukesha: the UWM study will determine if those disparities will be affected by water transfers as originally recommended by SEWRPC's water advisory committee.