File Under 'Waukesha, Water, Where Have I Seen That Before'
August 3, 2013
[Waukesha Water Utility manager Daniel] Duchniak expects to complete work on the application this month.
Working backwards through the record, we find:
July 26, 2013:
Waukesha water plan almost complete
June 10, 2013:
Waukesha's water utility chief confidently predicts the city's
request to switch to a Lake Michigan water supply will be approved by
the Great Lakes states in less than 14 months....
One year ago, Duchniak announced an urgent, fatal forecast: The request would "drop dead" if the eight Great Lakes states had not approved it by June 2013....
Delays to the schedule in the last year came from utility staff and
consultants responding to information requests from the state Department
of Natural Resources....
He presented his optimistic schedule — Duchniak calls it "realistic"
as well as "aggressive" — to the Waukesha Common Council last week. It
requires the utility to wrap up several loose ends and finish work on
the application by July 8.
October 4, 2012:
DNR to Take Different Look at Waukesha Water Plan
Waukesha's
new agreement with Oak Creek to purchase water from Lake Michigan will
affect the DNR's review of Waukesha's Great Lakes diversion request.
April 28, 2011:
The Waukesha Water Utility submitted Wednesday about 1,000 additional
pages of supplemental information to the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources to be included in the city’s application to divert Lake
Michigan water under the terms of the Great Lakes Compact.
June 9, 2010:
State officials on Tuesday returned Waukesha’s application to buy Lake Michigan water, saying the city has not exhausted its studies of alternative water sources.
April 8, 2010:
The Waukesha Common Council placed the city's search for a radium-free
water supply into the hands of Wisconsin and the other seven Great
Lakes states on Thursday when it agreed to ask those states for
permission to buy Lake Michigan water.
J
anuary 29, 2010:
Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said the DNR has
agreed to work with the city's proposed timetable to move the
application through the approval process by the end of the year....
If the city completes the impact study by June, Duchniak and Nelson
said they are optimistic of gaining Wisconsin's permission for a
diversion by July.
December 2, 2009:
Bill McClenahan, the public relations contractor for the Waukesha Water Utility, sent me the following email this morning:
"Waukesha has decided to postpone our release of a draft application for
Great Lakes water, which was tentatively scheduled for December 8. It
is still compiling information and drafting the document."
May 21, 2009:
...Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson confirmed that Waukesha will
forward a diversion application by the end of this year...
April 26, 2008:
...in its two confidential applications for Lake Michigan made to Gov. Jim Doyle in 2006, Waukesha sought 24 million gallons daily, suggesting that it expects its population to increase along with its total water needs.
Snicker.
ReplyDeleteThis is Waukesha's most embarrassing folly - ever.
3 years and 4 months.
Do you realize Mayor Scrima has nearly completed his 4 year term in office? And it was prior Larry Nelson who pushed through the "model application" to the DNR.
Waukesha could have completed construction of Plan B years ago. Or began filtering the deep aquifer water for radium removal like the surrounding communities.
I hope the other states are seeing just how flawed the application is and responds with another 3 years worth of questions.
Waukesha's residents are being ripped off. Overpaying on your water bill not for water, but for political and financial gain of developers, attorneys, and County Board members.
ReplyDeleteAny Governor whom votes yes for this boondoggle is equally corrupt and waiting for applicants in their own state to fill the coffers.