Waukesha Residents Call For Authentic Citizen Involvement In Water Issue

Noting previous inadequacies in Waukesha's water planning processes, the Waukesha Environmental Action League (WEAL) calls on the city's water utility and the DNR to guarantee a water planning process that truly incorporates citizen participation.

"Only this spring," said WEAL on Friday, "the Waukesha Water Utility Commission voted to recommend a diversion application to the Common Council on March 18, seven days BEFORE the close of the public comment period.  WEAL and the Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) each submitted 7 pages of comments on March 26, the deadline for doing so.  On April 8, the Common Council voted to approve the diversion application without discussion of issues raised by the organizations or citizen individuals with similar concerns.  Many deficiencies noted in WEAL’s and CIC’s letters of comment were the same as those noted in the DNR’s June and September 2010 letters."

Here is the group's statement:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2010

Contact:  Laurie Longtine

    Water Team Co-Chair

    262-542-7929

    262-894-8443 (cell)                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

WEAL Urges City of Waukesha to Maximize Public Participation in Great Lakes Diversion Application Process

Waukesha, WI.  The Waukesha County Environmental Action League (WEAL) commends Wisconsin DNR for its firm adherence to the standards as well as the spirit of the Great Lakes Compact, expressed in a strongly-worded letter to Common Council President Paul Ybarra.

In the letter of September 20^th, Wisconsin DNR Secretary Matthew Frank said, “In addition to our technical review, the process will include an Environmental Impact Statement and opportunity for public comments and meetings as well as time to carefully consider the comments.  The importance of a thorough review with the opportunity for public comments cannot be overstated.” 

 “We’re veterans of many public participation battles and have come to believe that the highest form of participation is one in which the public can hear each others’ comments and questions,” said Steven Schmuki, WEAL President.

Recent public meetings have not allowed for open public dialogue, instead using a model of getting the citizen into a private corner with a stenographer, consultant, or staffer, thereby preventing members of the public from hearing each other.  Public participation is greater than simply allowing questions to be answered by a panel of experts seated in front of the room. 

“WEAL calls on the City of Waukesha , the Water Utility, and Wisconsin DNR to adopt an open dialogue format in all public meetings and hearings going forward,” said Laurie Longtine, Water Team Co-Chair for WEAL. “We further request that these meetings be recorded and reproduced in both electronic and paper formats to allow a statewide and regional airing of this critical, precedent-setting proceeding.”

The diversion of Great Lakes waters over the subcontinental divide will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars of public money and will forever alter the environment in two watersheds.  Its impact will be enormous on the legal tenets of the Compact.  For those reasons alone, details must be publicly vetted and all public opinion carefully considered before final decisions are made.

Furthermore, the constantly-changing application makes a moving target on which to line up credible comments.  The application is over one hundred pages, plus thousands of pages of appendices.

“As one can imagine, it takes a great deal of time to read, as well as to analyze, verify, and write comments.  At some point soon, the City must submit a fully complete application in order for the DNR to conduct its review, and for organizations such as WEAL to direct comments specifically to that application,” said Fay Amerson, Co-Chair of WEAL’s Water Team. 

Amerson continued, “The City Council limited public comments to only City residents and taxpayers during important meetings when key decisions or actions were made regarding the application.  However, the City has now established a water service area that spans well beyond its current boundaries and those non-city residents have had no voice.  In addition, the diversion plans to pipe and discharge wastewater through other communities. When will the voices in those communities be heard?”

Only this spring, the Waukesha Water Utility Commission voted to recommend a diversion application to the Common Council on March 18, seven days BEFORE the close of the public comment period.  WEAL and the Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) each submitted 7 pages of comments on March 26, the deadline for doing so.  On April 8, the Common Council voted to approve the diversion application without discussion of issues raised by the organizations or citizen individuals with similar concerns.  Many deficiencies noted in WEAL’s and CIC’s letters of comment were the same as those noted in the DNR’s June and September 2010 letters.

“The ongoing lack of transparency about crucial details and the costs of all options is utterly unsatisfactory," said Longtine.  "The DNR, the Water Utility and the City are all public entities.  Federal, state, county and city tax dollars are involved.  The public has a right to see the information that has been obtained in its name, and which it has paid for.”

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A 30 year-old grassroots organization, WEAL has focused its work on the protection of Waukesha County ’s resources and stood up for public health, neighborhoods, and citizens’ rights in issues ranging from waste incineration and land use to resource protection and open government.