Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorially supports the Lake Michigan diversion plan being rolled out by the City of Waukesha. The editorial is here.

But the carts are being lined before the horses, so to speak.

For one thing, the editorial says the diversion and preferred water return-flow plan are in line with recommendations in a study being done by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

Correct. The Waukesha plan appears to be in line with the study that is being done. It is not finished. The recommendations are preliminary. They have only been recommended by an advisory committee.

The recommendations are to be reviewed at a series of public meetings at which the agency staff and consultants are supposed to listen, then work that public feedback into a report to the full commission.

Can we at least go into that public meeting phase with the expectation that public input will be genuinely absorbed?

The editorial also says that Waukesha has a plan to return the water it borrows from Lake Michigan.

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The announcement last week by the City of Waukesha that it intends to use Underwood Creek as its new wastewater discharge point on the back end of a Lake Michigan diversion scheme guarantees that water-based environmental concerns will be front-and-center in Southeastern Wisconsin throughout 2009.

Why?

Waukesha has to sell the idea to its taxpayers and water utility ratepayers.

Approval by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources must be forthcoming.

The seven other Great Lakes states have to approve the plan.

The City of Wauwatosa will no doubt be heard from, given that the river (well, creek) runs through it.

Then there are all the interests in the Menomonee Valley that have worked for years on development, pollution abatement and stormwater management there: is a higher, faster, wastewater-laden Underwood Creek emptying into the Menomonee Valley what the doctor ordered?

And then there is the water supply plan moving simultaneously through the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission - - a set of recommendations, surprise, surprise...that endorses a Lake Michigan diversion to Waukesha. Expect there to be significant public discussion of that set of recommendations and the narrow framework in which it was developed,

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So the City of Waukesha has rolled out a key element of its Lake Michigan water diversion plan by announcing that it intends to return water to Lake Michigan via wastewater discharges into Underwood Creek.

The wastewater will be treated to such a high degree that the extra discharge will be good for the creek, Waukesha representatives say, and the entire arrangement is a boon to the regional ecosystem.

You can see the momentum building for Waukesha's diversion application: The Great Lakes Compact has been approved, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's water supply study endorses a diversion to Waukesha, and Waukesha follows through with an announcement about how to return the water to the lake.

After a few perfunctory hearings, the deal is done, right?

Well - - not so fast.

Though the Compact has been approved, an application has yet to be received, and since Waukesha's effort will be the first to go through the formal, eight-state review, expect close scrutiny across the region that could easily take a year or more.

Then there is the matter of the SEWRPC study, which gives cover to the Waukesha application. The SEWRPC plan needs hearings of its own. More about that in a minute.

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Six civic, civil rights and environmental organizations have submitted together formal comments to the federal reviewers who are required to assess the performance of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission every four years.

It's an excellent analysis - - linked here.

Similar analyses have been forwarded into the process by many individuals, and also by both the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County - - the latter being highly-significant because it pays the largest share of the SEWRPC operating budget annually (about half from city taxpayers), so any statement about equity in the agency's structure, management or work product has got to get the attention of the reviewers.

Four years ago, the federal reviewers, hearing similar public complaints, worked out with SEWRPC the creation of an Environmental Justice Task Force to serve as a bridge to low-income and minority communities excluded from SEWRPC activities.

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More pressure is on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to move from exurban Pewaukee to Milwaukee - - one step towards righting a half-century's worth of urban planning neglect - - but I'd be surprised if the 21-member commission that is dominated by six non-Milwaukee counties would agree to the relocation.

The agency bought a $3.4 million office building in Pewaukee a few years, further grounding the agency in its remote location.

Look to SEWRPC to suggest opening a satellite office in the region and state's biggest city - - a gesture that would only further aggravate those in the region who think SEWRPC will not give Milwaukee its due.

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