BY DAN DUCHNIAK | Posted: Monday, February 11, 2008 12:00 am
The City of Waukesha needs a new water supply. Years of overpumping by communities inside and outside of the Great Lakes basin have depleted the deep aquifer under southeastern Wisconsin. Despite the most comprehensive water conservation program in the Midwest - including new conservation rates and a ban on daytime sprinkling - Waukesha cannot conserve its way out of the problem.
Our most sustainable option is to use Lake Michigan water and then to recycle it back to the lake via one of several possible tributary rivers, one of which is the Root River.
Waukesha takes pride in the quality of its wastewater, which is currently discharged to the Fox River, providing a base flow for the environmental corridor downstream and drinking water for at least two Illinois communities. Downstream communities on the Fox, who see the discharge as a resource, have already expressed concern that Waukesha would stop its discharge of water to the Fox. But the Fox River does not feed into Lake Michigan, so Waukesha is seeking a different option to allow recycling water back to the lake.
Our proposal to use a tributary, instead of a pipe, to return water to the lake can be a model for how wastewater discharges can be managed as a positive resource in ways that benefit the environment. For too long, planners have had the mindset of wastewater as something to pipe away and dispose of, instead of using it as a beneficial resource.
The flow of the Root River, for instance, is sometimes too low during fish spawning season. Additional water from Waukesha would raise the levels of the river just enough to help increase the population of fish in Lake Michigan during times of low flow. The result? A healthier river.
If Waukesha decides to file an application to discharge wastewater to the Root River, we would do so in a manner that protects human and aquatic health under strict regulations and after input from downstream communities.
Unfortunately, our attempts at creating a positive model and finding the best environmental solution led to a recent misleading and unfair statement by Rep. Cory Mason (D-Caledonia). The legislator told The Racine Journal Times that "the Root River might be turned into an open sewer for Waukesha. We're not Waukesha's toilet."
Wisconsin already has stringent controls on the discharge of wastewater that are more than adequate to protect the health of humans and the variety of aquatic species. In our meetings with state regulators, it has been made very clear that wastewater discharges will be closely reviewed for precisely the issues Rep. Mason raises: "chemical, physical or biological components of a river" and "a river's flow or temperature."
The legislator's "open sewer" statement needlessly alarms the public. However, it is interesting to note that his suggestion to amend the proposed Great Lakes Compact would only apply in the case of Waukesha. It would not apply to discharges by municipalities within the Lake Michigan basin, despite the fact that many of them typically have much dirtier discharges.
In fact, some with older, combined sewer systems have actually violated state and federal law by discharging untreated sewage into state waters. Is it acceptable to Rep. Mason for in-basin municipalities to turn state waters into "open sewers?"
By making his statement in the context of the Great Lakes Compact, the legislator has needlessly inflamed the legislative debate over whether to pass the Compact. The Mayor of Waukesha supports a recent Department of Natural Resources concept paper on how to implement the Compact because he believes it is important to help prevent diversions - without return flow - of Great Lakes water to other states. Proposals to burden the proposed Compact with unneeded regulations and in-state rivalries only hurt its chances for passage by the Legislature.
Duchniak is the General Manager of the Waukesha Water Utility.