text: Barrett says Waukesha would face opposition to extending water service area
  The City of Waukesha will run into "a buzz saw" of opposition from other Great Lakes states if it persists in its bid to distribute Lake Michigan water to a future service area extending beyond its boundaries, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Thursday.
  He made his comments to representatives of environmental and conservation groups from Wisconsin and the other states.
  One reason to oppose Waukesha's request to distribute lake water to a larger future area is the uncertainty of where Waukesha would stop the expansion of its water service, Barrett said.
  "Where do you draw the line?" Barrett said. Milwaukee's mayor suggested that Waukesha could extend its service to all of Waukesha County not receiving lake water.
  Though Waukesha's request to divert lake water out of the Great Lakes basin is pegged to a maximum volume to serve designated growth at the middle of this century - and not all the county - that did not stop Barrett from suggesting such a specter was out there.
  Waukesha is asking the eight Great Lakes states to approve diverting up to an average of 10.9 million gallons a day from the lake by 2050.
  To pump more than the maximum volume stated in this request to an even larger chunk of the county, Waukesha would need to submit a second, separate request to the Great Lakes states, according to Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak.
  A lake water supplier also would have to approve any expansion of the service area and an increase in the volume of water pumped to Waukesha, Duchniak said.
  On Friday, Barrett insisted Waukesha's diversion request was vulnerable on the issue of a future water service area designated by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The larger area encompasses portions of the City of Pewaukee and towns of Delafield, Genesee and Waukesha.
  Barrett and the Milwaukee Common Council have offered to negotiate selling water to the city for distribution within its current service area only. The area ends at the city limits with the exception of 112 or so residences and businesses in the Town of Waukesha that have been added over the years after experiencing problems with their wells.
  Waukesha can make a case for its need of lake water because the deep wells it depends on draw radium-contaminated ground water from a sandstone aquifer, Barrett said. The communities added by regional planners have not said they have no other supply of potable water, he said.
  Approval of the diversion would allow Waukesha to stop using the deep sandstone wells.
  Barrett spoke at the Comfort Inn and Suites on the Lake in Milwaukee to out-of-state environmentalists on their second day of touring Milwaukee, Waukesha and Racine counties to better understand Waukesha's diversion request.
  Local groups represented included Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Clean Wisconsin and Root-Pike Watershed Initiative.
  If another state does not veto the diversion request on the issue of the larger future service area, a state could ask Waukesha to revise its request so it provides lake water only to its current service area, Barrett said.
  In August, Natural Resources Secretary Cathy Stepp rejected Barrett's approach when she told him the Department of Natural Resources will require any municipality selling Lake Michigan water to Waukesha to supply its entire future water service area and not just the city.
  One reason is the future need for safe drinking water supplies in those neighboring communities.
  Barrett has not indicated a willingness to compromise.
  Waukesha offered Milwaukee an opportunity to negotiate terms of extending water beyond its borders to the neighboring communities included by regional planners in a future service area, according to Duchniak. Milwaukee chose not to negotiate, he said.
  Barrett sees Waukesha's water need as an opportunity for Milwaukee's water utility, which is operating at less than 35% of its capacity.
  "If anyone sells water to Waukesha, I want it to be Milwaukee," he said. The Milwaukee Water Works estimated Milwaukee would receive annual revenue of $3 million if it became Waukesha's supplier.
  Waukesha is the first community located entirely outside the Great Lakes basin to request a diversion of water under terms of a 2008 Great Lakes protection compact.