If...If...Waukesha Is Running Out Of Water Diversion Application Time...

And this story suggests real deadline issue are looming, then look to these insular and co-dependent entities for an explanation of how so much time has been frittered away:

The Waukesha Water Utility and the Waukesha Common Council.

They have consistently, based on the advice of various contractors and their own beliefs, gone after Lake Michigan water even though it has been known for years it was the most legally, fiscally, politically and procedurally-difficult water supply alternative for Waukesha to attempt, while repeatedly refusing to seriously consider available, less complicating alternatives.

As has been pointed out, ad nauseam, ad infinitum - - such as 20 months ago - - Lake Michigan water or bust had a real downside:

So it's not a quick or simple undertaking - - and Waukesha has agreed in writing to meet a June, 2018 legal deadline for the provision of water to its customers that complies with Federal quality standards...

Among the many answered questions...

Does Waukesha have additional and viable alternatives to a Lake Michigan diversion that will meet the Federal water quality standards?

Can Waukesha clear the multitude of legal, political and environmental hurdles the application faces - - in Waukesha, in Southeastern Wisconsin, at the DNR and across the Great Lakes both in the US and Canada - - by the June, 2018 deadline?...

Complicated? You bet.

Was the Lake Michigan option the right choice by Waukesha? 

So is Waukesha hoping for some sort of penultimate Scott Walker executive order/end run around Wisconsin's regulatory review mandated by state law and the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 - -  the guiding agreement under which an application is made, vetted, approved and sent to the seven other Great Lakes states for their OK, too?

I think not. This isn't some issue the DNR can paper over with a news release or two and few tickets in the name of self-regulation.

Instead, I think we will be soon hearing from real-world voices in Waukesha about a Plan B: additional shallow wells, perhaps drilled in an inducement scheme near the Fox River, and added radium-scrubbing equipment to supply fully-radium compliant deep-well water 24/7 - - and Waukesha is already there virtually everyday.