Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Another Meeting Proposed On Waukesha Water Issue

Since Waukesha's Great Lakes diversion application is still on hold - - details here - - I'm not sure what another public meeting will offer, or resolve, but the Council President, Paul Ybarra, is proposing just that for October 18.

It is possible by then that Waukesha will have released the cost estimates for obtaining Racine and/or Oak Creek water, or that the DNR has begun to move the review process forward.

[Update: The cost estimates have been released:

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/dwg/greatlakes/Waukesha/Water_supply_alt_9_1_10.pdf]

Since the defeat of Mayor Larry Nelson in April by anti-diversion insurgent Jeff Scrima, Ybarra has become the leading elected policy-maker in Waukesha supporting the diversion.

Below is the text and links taken from the DNR webpage dedicated to the application that explains the review and environmental impact statement "scoping" delays.

City of Waukesha DRAFT Water Diversion Application

EIS Process

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Process

The DNR has determined that it will conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) process for the proposed Waukesha diversion. The Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act or WEPA, and administrative code NR 150, require the DNR to evaluate the environmental effects of the proposed project and reasonable alternatives.

The City of Waukesha submitted an application to the DNR on May 20, 2010 (available on the Proposal tab) that the DNR has subsequently determined is incomplete. On June 8, 2010, DNR Secretary Matt Frank sent a letter to Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima detailing a number of deficiencies in the City's application as submitted. In his letter, Secretary Frank informed Mayor Scrima that the identified deficiencies must be resolved before the DNR would accept and review the application. Accordingly, the DNR has also suspended its work on the scoping process for the EIS associated with the City’s potential diversion proposal. This page will be updated if and when the City of Waukesha cures the deficiencies in its application and the DNR accepts a revised application and begins its review.

The first step of the EIS process involves "scoping" of the evaluation and analysis. The DNR has prepared a Waukesha Project EIS List of Topics to be addressed in the EIS and sought public comments to determine the scope and the significant issues to be analyzed in depth by the EIS.

If and when the City of Waukesha moves forward with its application the DNR will seek further public comments on the scope of the EIS.

The scoping process is the first step in the EIS process. After an EIS is completed and published, there is a 45–day public comment period and a public hearing.

EIS Scoping Comments Received

Comments received [PDF 24MB]

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1 comment:

  1. Max BergerSeptember 8, 2010 at 9:43 PM

    So what's new?

    Waukesha's first diversion application was returned to the city by the DNR--along WITH the check--as unreviewed due to its incompleteness. (If the DNR has any stones, it will return the second application as unreviewable also.)

    Then city council met and voted that their application was complete but that the DNR must have misunderstood just how complete it was. So the council sent a letter to the DNR saying, "Hey! It's a complete application so do your job, guys, now review it!" and included some more fabricated costs showing that Racine and Oak Creek would be far more expensive source sites than Milwaukee. (No DUH!)

    When the DNR put these top secret costs on its website, Waukesha suddenly "released" the cost estimates.

    So what could possibly be on the docket for Oct 18? More of the same-old, same-old Dog and Pony Show material all tarted up, courtesy of the $13,000 PER MONTH that city taxpayers are shelling out just for PR and lobbying to Schreiber and Associates.

    What a gravy train for consultants and the incompetent employees at the water utility. What a travesty for Waukesha's taxpayers.

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