Possible Waukesha Waste Water Route Has Flooded Repeatedly

For the record:

The Root River is a strong candidate to serve as the City of Waukesha's waste water return flow route to Lake Michigan.

But can the Root and people living nearby accept about 11 million gallons a day of additional waste water bought from Oak Creek, used and processed for return by Waukesha through a controversial and precedent-setting Great Lakes diversion?

As climate change models for this part of the country predict more intense rain events, and once-in-a-hundred years' storms happen every few years instead.

And as Waukesha's water service area keeps growing one county away, should it make Racine the waste water receptacle?

From the Racine Journal Times a few weeks ago:

Five years ago in 2008, Kim Marcotte and her husband, who live on Spring Street, lost everything in their basement because of flooding. She estimated the damage totaled $50,000. In 2010 they again had more damage because of flooding.

Then Wednesday night as she started to see the Root River rising in her backyard she knew it was coming again.

No wonder Racine officials have a lot questions and concerns:

While the route that will be taken has yet to be chosen, Democratic state Rep. Cory Mason and Mayor John Dickert saw issues with any plan that would call for Waukesha to send treated wastewater through the Root....

Dickert said he had trouble with the notion of Racine having to deal with added discharge into the Root, while not seeing any benefit.

“I don’t think my residents are going to be at all happy if we are not going to be providing Waukesha with water and the water is going to routed back through the Root River,” he said

Mason’s concerns included the possibility that the adding discharge to the river could increase the possibility of flooding if the region suffers another big rain event.