Barrett Offers To Sell Water To Waukesha

Milwaukee’s mayor is promising to negotiate supplying Lake Michigan drinking water to the city of Waukesha if officials there drop a plan to also include some neighboring communities.

The offer comes as members of an eight-state committee were in Waukesha getting a firsthand look at the plans and hearing testimony about Waukesha’s application. Waukesha’s Great Lakes Diversion application involves buying lake water from the city of Oak Creek.

But Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said he would be willing to try to make a better deal if the water doesn’t also go to Genessee, the Town of Waukesha and a few other communities.

“I believe that makes the most sense for ratepayers, the environment, for our utility, for everyone involved,” said Barrett.

But Waukesha city officials said they have no plans to exclude its neighbors from lake water.

Grant Trigger, a Michigan member of a Midwest committee reviewing Waukesha’s proposal, said what to do about the city’s proposed expanded service area remains a key issue.

“It’s based on very fundamental planning principles but we have to determine if it’s consistent with the way the compact was drafted,” said Trigger.

That decision may be made by April.

Meanwhile, much of a public hearing on Thursday on Waukesha’s plan included debate over those other towns and cities that would also get lake water.

Town of Waukesha Chairman John Marek said that would not lead to rapid sprawl.

“Inclusion in the Great Lakes Diversion would not spell an immediate explosion of high-density development for the town of Waukesha,” Marek said.

But town resident Laurie Longtine, of the Waukesha County Environmental Action League, said she doesn’t want Lake Michigan water.

“Please fail this application,” Longtine said. “Please do not trust Waukesha to set this most critical precedent for the Great Lakes Compact.”

More than 60 people testified before members of the committee reviewing Waukesha’s application to become the first city just outside the Great Lakes Basin to get lake water under the 2008 diversion agreement.