Phosphorus Rules Could Become Part Of Waukesha Water Plan Cost

It has taken a decade - - so don't you go blaming Barack Obama or Jim Doyle or the Man in the Moon - - but federal rules originating in 2000 designed to reduce the amount of algae-enhancing phosphorus discharged by municipal wastewater treatment systems are working their way towards approval in Wisconsin.

And some treatment plant operators in Waukesha County say the rules will increase their costs.

The final Department of Natural Resources rules have not been written, and the state legislature will have to approve them, so nothing is set in stone.

But assuming they pass, you've got to ask this question:

What's the impact on the City of Waukesha, which is looking towards discharging wastewater into Underwood Creek, in Wauwatosa, from a Lake Michigan diversion?

Again - - that diversion plan, and its permissions and approvals and permits, has a long way to go.

But what kind of phosphorus loading can Underwood Creek accept?

And what would the DNR indicate is appropriate for the Menomonee River and Lake Michigan to absorb from the discharge, too, since Underwood Creek is but the first piece of Waukesha's discharge return flow scheme?

The discharge regime is probably the trickiest part of the Waukesha application, since it does not involve returning treated wastewater through a pipe to the lake, or directly to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

If Waukesha has to boost its treatment plant processes to remove more phosphorus, the price of the $164 million diversion plan could go up.

Or course, a GOP-controlled legislature, or Governor, could simply put the regulations on the back burner, and river edge residents and lakefront communities could kill or harvest more algae, I suppose.