National Wildlife Federation questions Waukesha water request

http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/national-wildlife-federation-questions-waukesha-water-request-1p8uuvl-193647961.html

The City of Waukesha has not fully justified its need for Lake Michigan water beginning in 2018, according to a National Wildlife Federation analysis of the city's precedent-setting request to divert Great Lakes water inland.

The city's projected demand for up to 10.9 million gallons a day by 2050 appears to be based, in part, on higher per-person water use in the future than today, even though Waukesha's conservation measures already have reduced residential demand, says a report released Wednesday.

Waukesha's application also does not provide sufficient evidence to support its rejection of local sources of water to meet future needs, according to the analysis by Jim Nicholas, retired director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Michigan Water Science Center. Nicholas provided the report for the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes regional office in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The report was forwarded to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to assist its review of Waukesha's application, said Marc Smith, senior policy manager with the federation. To read the report, go to the federation's website: www.nwf.org/Great-Lakes.aspx.

Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said the group did not review the most up-to-date application information in its analysis. The city and its consultants are working to complete responses to DNR requests for more detail on many of the same issues identified in the National Wildlife Federation's report, he said.

"The questions asked by the group about the application have all been raised by the DNR," Duchniak said. This back-and-forth exchange between the DNR and the city has been going on since the original application was submitted in 2010.

Among the pieces of the application being revised are evaluations of the city's possible use of groundwater from saturated sandstone deep beneath western Waukesha County or groundwater from shallow sand and gravel deposits closer to the city, he said....