Waukesha Mayor Scrima Asks DNR To Clarify Objections To Lake Michigan Water Plan

You will recall that earlier this week, Waukesha Water Utility Dan Duchniak prepared a letter for Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima intended to get Scrima's support for the city's Lake Michigan diversion application, in writing, to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Though Waukesha's Common Council has approved the application, the DNR returned it to Waukesha, citing deficiencies in the application and also Scrima's stated doubts that Lake Michigan was the city's only water supply alternative.

Waukesha needs a new water supply in place, meeting federal standards, by June 30, 2018.

The Lake Michigan alternative needs the approval of all eight Great Lakes states under a new regional Compact.

Waukesha's plan calls for preferably purchasing from the City of Milwaukee up to 18.5 million gallons of Lake Michigan water daily and returning it as wastewater down Underwood Creek.

My interpretation of the water utility letter to be signed by Scrima - - and we'll see in a minute that he has balked through a letter of his own - - was that it continues the post-election power play against Scrima involving pro-diversion forces in the Waukesha County business community, and within Waukesha city government.

So Scrima has sent his own letter (following below) to the DNR, seeking clarification about the DNR's reasons for holding up the application's review.

Scrima sent me the letter based on my email request for the letter that Duchniak had prepared for Scrima's review.

(That letter I still do not have; Duchniak said by email to me yesterday he would ask the Waukesha City Attorney next Tuesday about releasing it. He does have more to say to the Journal Sentinel, here, so Scrima's battle with Waukesha's power brokers and insiders continues.)

Here is Scrima's letter to the DNR, in full:

July 2, 2010

Matthew J. Frank, Secretary

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

101 S. Webster Street

Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7921

Dear Secretary Frank:

In your letter addressed to me on June 8^th 2010, you identified several deficiencies in Waukesha ’s application for a diversion of Great Lakes water. Included in those identified deficiencies was the fact that our City had not provided appropriate information on three potential water supply alternatives and that there was no corresponding return flow

option for each withdrawal source.

In addition you noted:

“…the application lacks sufficient detail, as required by the Compact, regarding the costs for the diversion. We would expect the cost analysis for each of the requested options to be based upon information received from the potential withdrawal sources indicating what they would be charging for providing Great Lakes water. The City must provide to the Department (of Natural Resources) detailed cost estimates for each of the withdrawal and corresponding return flow options.”

Your letter closed by also saying that this information is needed at a “minimum” before you can accept an application for review and, I would assume, before you can begin the formal environmental impact statement process that the Department will be undertaking.

If my read of what your letter as stated is incorrect,

I would appreciate your clarification of my understanding of this matter.

While much has been made of my push to have our City consider all viable water supply options before settling on just one—a Lake Michigan diversion of water—the deficiencies outlined in your letter are significant and confirm that our City’s water utility needs to objectively and openly consider all reasonable options.

It is my understanding that the Department expects to be provided with a detailed analysis of all reasonable water supply alternatives, including a combination of shallow and deep aquifer water appropriately treated, along with more meaningful water conservation measures.

The combination of these measures, along with the further exploration of the capturing and recycling of rain water, could reduce our overall water supply needs thereby making Waukesha less dependent on costly outside sources of water.

Secretary Matthew J. Frank

dated July 2, 2010

Page 2 of 2

The citizens of our great City need to know upfront what the true cost of all reasonable water supply alternatives are—including the detailed cost estimates for Oak Creek and Racine—before we can make a informed decision on what is in our City’s best long term interest.

In addition, because our expanded water service territory as outlined in the Application includes parts of Pewaukee, Genesee and the Town of Waukesha, we would also be wise to gather public input on that before we proceed.

I believe it is my responsibility as Mayor, in keeping with my obligation of transparency to the City’s residents to be sure that every reasonable alternative has been thoroughly examined before moving ahead with an application.

Sincerely,

Jeff Scrima

Mayor

cc: Bruce Baker, Department of Natural Resources

Dan Duchniak, Waukesha Water Utility Manager