Waukesha council approves 40-year deal for lake water

Connection will cost $286.2M

The City of Waukesha’s 15year quest for Lake Michigan water passed its final political milestone with the Common Council’s unanimous approval of a 40-year agreement to buy water from Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee connection will cost an estimated $286.2 million, or nearly $40 million less than the option of tapping into Oak Creek’s distribution system, Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said.

Those savings will be passed on to utility ratepayers, who will pay around $200 a year less per year with Milwaukee as the supplier than with Oak Creek, he said.

Even so, residential water rates will rise from an average of $400 a year to an estimated $1,200 a year by 2027, as Waukesha pays for the project. The water utility’s goal is to hold residential water rates to $1,000 per year or less, Duchniak said.

The Waukesha council approved the water purchase agreement Tuesday14-0. The Milwaukee council approved the deal Nov. 28.

“A long-term sustainable water source is very valuable” for the city, Waukesha Ald. Aaron Perry said before Tuesday’s vote.

Waukesha will be a wholesale customer and pay Milwaukee $1.45 per 1,000 gallons of water when the service begins in early 2023, under terms of the agreement. That is one-third less than the price offered by Oak Creek, Duchniak said.

Waukesha will pay Milwaukee around $3 million in 2023 to deliver an average of 6 million gallons of lake water a day when service begins that year. Milwaukee will provide Waukesha with up to an average of 8.2 million gallons a day by midcentury.

The state Public Service Commission will set future wholesale prices in response to requests for increases by Milwaukee. Duchniak forecasts an average increase of 3% per year.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2019 or 2020 with completion in late 2022.

Here is a summary of the two-city water deal:

• Milwaukee will distribute water to Waukesha from a connection near South 60th Street and West Howard Avenue. • Milwaukee will build a two-mile section of pipe from that connection west to South 84th Street and West Cold Spring Road.

• Milwaukee will build and operate a pumping station needed to push the water over the subcontinental divide to Waukesha.

• Milwaukee will spend $15 million to $20 million to build the pipe and pumping station.

• Waukesha will contribute a one-time infrastructure fee of $2.5 million to Milwaukee.

• Waukesha will contribute an additional one-time infrastructure fee of $250,000 if the total volume of water delivered by Milwaukee exceeds an average of 8.2 million gallons a day during the 40-year term of the agreement.

Waukesha will pay costs of building the pipeline from South 84th Street and West Cold Spring Road to an existing water reservoir in Waukesha. The city will build another reservoir and pumping station at Minooka Park for the new water supply.

The project also includes construction of a pipeline to carry fully treated wastewater from Waukesha to the Root River at South 60th Street in Franklin, where it would flow downstream to the lake.