Waukesha Costs, Other Water Deal Details Could Come Tonight

The parties may disclose tonight in separate, coordinated City Hall presentations the estimated cost of piping Lake Michigan water from the City of Oak Creek to the City of Waukesha.

It does not appear that either City intends to hold a public hearing before discussing and voting on the plan, so it looks like a done deal.

Waukesha had previously estimated the cost at $261 million - - far in excess of $164 million to do a similar deal with closer-by Milwaukee.

Waukesha opted not to negotiate with Milwaukee after touting Milwaukee as its preferred water seller in a pending Lake Michigan diversion application and plan.

The sticking point with Milwaukee was Waukesha's insistence that it be allowed to send diverted water outside of its municipal border to portions of four neighboring communities - - a controversial portion of an already-slow-moving water diversion application that needs all eight Great Lakes states' Governors to give their unanimous approval before construction can start.

Other significant details that could be disclosed tonight include the water delivery piping route and a plan to return the water to the lake.

The multi-state agreement governing such diversions says the return be made as close as possible to the source; Waukesha's application designates the return route down Wauwatosa's Underwood Creek and into the Menomonee River in Milwaukee, but that plan was based on the City of Milwaukee as the water's source and may not meet the agreement's return criteria.

The application is still being reviewed by Wisconsin's DNR; the agency has yet to release a proposed Environmental Impact Statement or schedule it for hearings as part of its review. It is up to the DNR to decide if and when to send the application to the other Great Lakes states for approvals that must be unanimous.

No one knows what the final cost will be by mid-2018, when Waukesha must provide its customers a new water supply.

Some big projects come in at or under budget, like the Marquette Interchange, around $800 million.

And some big construction plans don't: What became known as Miller Park to replace County Stadium was talked about as a $120 million project, then a $250 million project per Tommy Thompson, before it escalated to $414 million. 

And just this weekend we learned that We Energies' Oak Creek power plant has come in $178 million over budget, and it's not clear who will absorb those costs.