Water Talks Can Proceed: DNR Allows New Berlin to Negotiate Buying Lake Water From Milwaukee

By Darryl Enriquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jul. 14–In a significant decision for urban vs. suburban water usage, New Berlin in Waukesha County received state authorization Friday to launch negotiations with the Milwaukee Water Works for the purchase of Lake Michigan water for use outside the Great Lakes basin.

The state Department of Natural Resources action — designed to help reduce concentrations of potentially cancer-causing radium in the city’s drinking water — delighted New Berlin officials.

But it sparked concern from others who believe that the action could lead to unregulated freshwater sales to thirsty suburbs, damaging the Great Lakes.

New Berlin and dozens of other Wisconsin communities, including Waukesha, are under state orders to reduce radium in their drinking water to levels that comply with federal clean water standards. Those communities are largely looking to Lake Michigan as a solution to their problems.

New Berlin now buys Milwaukee water for use east of a subcontinental divide that separates the Great Lakes basin from the Mississippi River watershed. The new water purchases would be used west of the divide.

“We applaud the DNR’s decision today and look forward to working in the spirit of regional cooperation with Milwaukee,” said New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero.

“We strongly believe that together, we can develop a mutually beneficial approach to solving what is clearly a major health and safety issue for our residents.”

But state Rep. Jon Richards, a Milwaukee Democrat, said the state’s action violates the spirit of a pending federal compact aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from water withdrawals for use west of the divide and jeopardizes efforts to restrict future requests for water withdrawals.

“By any measure, this decision is a step backward,” Richards said. “I ask that the decision of the DNR be that we approve no diversions until the compact is ratified.”

“Please consider revising the action taken by your department,” Richards said. “To allow a diversion for New Berlin will only put pressure on your office to allow diversions for Waukesha and other communities outside of the Great Lakes basin.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Chiovatero are scheduled to meet Tuesday on the matter.

While giving its initial blessing to the ground-breaking water deal, the DNR made clear it would have to approve any New Berlin-Milwaukee agreement before the spigot is turned on.

“This authorization enables your community to move forward with technical discussions to determine if a Lake Michigan water source can be secured to address radium contamination, as you know, a serious public health concern with your water supply,” DNR Secretary Scott Hassett said Friday in a letter to Chiovatero.

Hassett’s letter continues: “The final review and how it will be conducted will be heavily influenced by the status of the state legislation here in Wisconsin to ratify the Great Lakes (Resources) Compact.

“In short, we need to pass the Compact in Wisconsin. If the Compact is law in Wisconsin by the time New Berlin reaches an agreement with a water provider, the path to the completion of the final review will be much easier to walk.”

The compact question

An initial compact was approved by a panel of the governors from the eight Great Lakes states. The legislatures from those states have since worked on adopting the compact as state law before it is advanced to Congress to become federal law.

Todd Ambs, chief of the DNR Division of Water, said that water negotiations between New Berlin and Milwaukee could take months, giving the Wisconsin Legislature time to pass the compact.

The DNR believes it has the right to approve the water withdrawal without a compact being in place, but it would prefer to abide by the compact, Ambs said.

New Berlin and the DNR have pursued the idea of using lake water for more than a year.

The New Berlin utility each year sells a bit more than 1 billion gallons of water pumped from both Lake Michigan and municipal wells to more than 9,000 customers, records show.

The eastern third of the city, with 4,847 customers, now receives Milwaukee water through the New Berlin utility. The city wants to expand that service to the 4,361 customers in the middle portion of the city west of the divide. The remaining 1,880 customers farther west are now on private wells and would not be affected.

Chiovatero said the new service area could provide up to $1.4 million in business a year to the Milwaukee utility.

“We look forward to ongoing dialogue with the City of Milwaukee,” he said. “We strongly believe that together, we can develop a mutually beneficial approach to solving what is clearly a major health and safety issue for our residents.”

But getting additional water to central New Berlin would be hampered by undersized Milwaukee water pipes and a lack of pumps that can handle the additional demand, said Carrie Lewis, Milwaukee Water Works superintendent.

A cost analysis for the work must be approved by the Milwaukee Common Council, she said.

A spokeswoman from Barrett’s office said the DNR letter was well-received because it stressed that compact approval would play a strong role in approving the water withdrawal.

Ann Beier, director of the mayor’s office of environmental sustainability, said Barrett’s position is that the state’s approval of the compact should be in place before the New Berlin withdrawal is approved.

New Berlin would benefit from the compact because it contains clear wording for communities that straddle the Great Lakes drainage basin to get approval for withdrawals, she said.

To approve it without a compact would confuse the issue of legal withdrawals and the action likely would land in court, said Melissa K. Scanlan, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates Inc. The Madison group, along with Richards, the state representative, has worked with the state on putting together compact legislation.

Wisconsin is having a difficult time putting together its legislation because of political and economic interests that are battling over how far water can be shipped outside the basin and voting rights on requested water diversions.

The most prevalent example is Waukesha, which, like New Berlin, wants lake water to replace its troubled wells. But Waukesha is entirely outside of the Great Lakes basin. Working in New Berlin’s favor is that all wastewater would be returned to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for treatment and returned to the lake.

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