Waukesha's water woes: Taking a closer look

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Oct 18, 2005 by Sean Ryan

People on both sides of the line separating Milwaukee County from Waukesha County have screwed up southeastern Wisconsin's water resources.

Similarly, people on both sides of the line ignored the problems surrounding what is a primary necessity of life - until now. Because the federal government changed one set of drinking water standards, Waukesha County has to change its ways, and the region can no longer disregard the damage done to its water.

The challenge for the entire area is finding a solution for Waukesha County that will improve the situation instead of making man's effect on nature even worse. Make no mistake - it's too late to think about preserving the natural order of things.

Waukesha County wants to stop pulling water out of a deep underground reservoir, referred to as the deep aquifer, because its water doesn't meet the revised federal standards for radium content. The aquifer runs underneath Waukesha County, past Lake Michigan and into Michigan.

Well drilling in both Milwaukee County and Waukesha County has reduced the deep aquifer's local depth by 500 feet. Although Milwaukee had more wells up until the 1970s, Waukesha County is now the biggest drain. In the year 2000, the seven counties in southeastern Wisconsin pumped 33.3 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer, compared to 16.9 million gallons a day in the 1960s, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2000, Waukesha County accounted for roughly 25 million gallons a day, with Walworth County clocking in a distant second with between 4 million and 5 million.

The drained deep aquifer is pulling water out of other bodies and disrupting the natural flow. In predevelopment days, 2.8 million gallons of water passed from the deep aquifer into the Great Lakes system each day. In 2000, 3.7 million gallons a day flowed from the Great Lakes into the deep aquifer, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

What this means

This means underground water in Milwaukee County is flowing west instead of east like it did before people developed the region. The draining of the deep aquifer has created a void underneath Elm Grove, called the cone of depression, that is pulling water out of the Great Lakes like a black hole.

That's not the extent of the damage. There is also a shallower underground reservoir in the area that is separated from the deep aquifer by a waterproof layer of rock. The layer separates the deep aquifer from Lake Michigan and runs west to end near the western border of the city of Waukesha. About 9 million gallons of water leak from the shallow reservoir into the drained deep aquifer each day, compared to 1 million gallons in predevelopment times.

The shallow reservoir helps feed the lakes and streams. Luckily, the 8-million-gallon shift has had only a small effect on the water levels of surface lakes and streams in the area, said Daniel Feinstein, a hydrogeologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Within this already broken system, the city of Waukesha is arguing that the county should stop tapping the deep aquifer and instead pull water out of Lake Michigan without returning it. The Council of Great Lakes Governors has drafted a set of rules that would force any community located outside of the Great Lakes surface-water system to return any water it takes out of the lakes. Communities in eastern Waukesha County say that, although they are on the wrong side of the surface-water divide, they are within the lakes' groundwater system because the deep aquifer runs below the county and the lakes.

Restore balance?

The communities are arguing that the council of governors should regulate water they've historically pulled from the aquifer the same as water they would take from Lake Michigan, and that the connection between the two bodies means Waukesha County should not have to return water it takes out.

Daniel Duchniak, general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility, said the switch from the deep aquifer to Lake Michigan would restore the local balance between the Great Lakes, local waterways and two underground resources.

The fact of the matter is that water is coming out of the Great Lakes now and recharging the aquifer, Duchniak said. You have to look at the whole system and how the whole system is affected.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey created a model that shows where water in the deep aquifer would go if the region's seven counties didn't take it. Only 1.3 million gallons, or 4 percent, is groundwater that would end up directly in Lake Michigan, but this situation is more complicated than that, Duchniak said.

You can't look at just 4 percent, he said. A lot of people do that because it makes a great argument against us.

Another factor is considering the long-term impact of the deep aquifer taking 3.7 million gallons a day out of the Great Lakes basin while it's supposed to contribute 2.8 million, Duchniak said. Stretched over the long-term, this is not sustainable.

Insignificant amount

By leaving the deep aquifer alone, over time, it should refill and stop taking water from the Great Lakes and from the surface water supply, he said. The system will not be healthy as long as the deep aquifer is draining the other bodies of water, Duchniak said, so Waukesha must get its water from someplace else.