Frederica Freyberg:
Waukesha city officials are in the middle of a campaign to pipe Lake Michigan water into their city. An estimated 18 million gallons a day. They say shifting their supply from area ground wells to Great Lakes water will save homeowners and businesses more than $2 million a year that customers pay on their own to soften and remove minerals from groundwater. Closing its existing standstone wells would also save the city from investing in federally-required radium treating of that groundwater. On Monday the city held its first public meeting. Officials announced start-up costs of $56 million for a system of pipes carrying water into Waukesha and pipes that would return treated discharge water back to Lake Michigan. Larry Nelson is the mayor. He joins us now, and thanks very much for doing so.  

Larry Nelson:
My pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, basically I understand Waukesha has a deadline of less than 10 years off to get rid of radium in its drinking water and you're trying to come up with the best solution. But why is pumping Lake Michigan water into your city better than building new wells for Waukesha?

Larry Nelson:
Well, we had a study done by a panel of experts about seven years ago that identified Great Lakes water or shallow wells in western Waukesha County as our best long-term solutions to our water needs. But we feel that Lake Michigan water is the best environmental solution, as well as the best sustainable solution for both our city and southeastern Wisconsin and the Great Lakes.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why is it the best environmental solution?

Larry Nelson:
Because if we are successful with a possible application, we would be returning the water so that the lakes would not lose any water, and there's very strict requirements in the Great Lakes compact that we think that we fit the requirement. We're the leader in the Midwest in water conservation. We were the first community in Wisconsin to charge our heaviest residential users more instead of less. And we feel the return flow that we're going to do is going to improve Underwood Creek and the Menominee River, where it would go.

Frederica Freyberg:
So under terms of this Great Lakes Compact you would need to get the approval from governors of seven Great Lakes states to go ahead and divert this water in this way. Are you suggesting that you don't think that will be an uphill battle because of your conservation record and because of the fact that you wouldn't necessarily deplete the water levels?

Larry Nelson:
We're committed to having a role model application as well as a role model process. We're going to spend the next number of months having public meetings where both our council, water utility and the public can ask questions. The first step, though, to move forward will be having our council approve this. Before the other Great Lakes states weigh in, our Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will spend 90 days reviewing it, and we've been talking to them to make sure that we're going to meet all of the standards and requirements in the application process. It's hard to say about the other states, but we think our application will prove that the compact works the way it was intended.    

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, $56 million for start-up on this project, it's obviously an engineering feat and a costly one. Who pays for this?

Larry Nelson:
Well, the water utility would be in charge of figuring out what would be the appropriate way to pay. We've been successful so far in working with Sen. Kohl and Congressman Sensenbrenner to get about $3.5 million in federal funds to help with radium compliance and we're continuing to meet with legislators to look into the possibilities of some federal funds to help with that. But you have to realize this is going to be for the city for the next 50 years or more, so the costs will be spread over a long period of time.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do your constituents want? Do they want this big pipe from Lake Michigan or would they rather have wells west of Waukesha?

Larry Nelson:
Well, we've just really started the process of educating our citizens about what this means. The Great Lakes option is actually the more economical option, as well as we think the best environmental option. We really have no choice because of this radium standard that we've entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to be in compliance in eight and two-thirds years. Even if we had approval today, it would take five years to design, build the pipeline. The application process will take a year. And that only leaves us about two and two-thirds years to deal with if any state does say no, we can appeal it, or to have time to go to western Waukesha County if the Great Lakes option doesn't work out.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We'll be watching it. Mayor Nelson, thanks very much.

Larry Nelson:
Thank you for talking with me.