A flag in the city of Waukesha is displayed downtown. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

WAUKESHA, Wisc. – The city of Waukesha has a radium problem, and it’s looking to Lake Michigan for a solution.

Although talks of drawing water from nearby Lake Michigan began in 2002, Waukesha has struggled with radium contamination since the late 1970s when the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the acceptable limit for radium in public drinking water systems.

In 2010, Waukesha submitted an application to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for an alternative water supply from Lake Michigan, citing its radium contamination, depleting aquifer and unsustainable water supply.

The more than $200 million proposal, known as the Great Water Alliance, will return 100 percent of the used water back into the lake. The city plans to draw 10-million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan.

The Great Lakes Compact, the legally binding agreement crafted by the eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces, details how the states and provinces regulate the Great Lake Basin’s water supply. Any community applying for a diversion must demonstrate it has exhausted all other options for getting water, according to the compact’s website.

Waukesha met the compact’s requirements, and the governments involved supported the agreement.

However, individuals have mixed feelings about the alliance. While residents mainly argue the project will hurt the city economically because water rates will increase, water advocacy groups cite the effect the diversion will have on the Root River carrying water back to Lake Michigan and on the lake itself.

Sandy Hamm, Waukesha resident, said he thinks the diversion of water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha is unreasonable. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

Waukesha resident Sandy Hamm said the diversion is unreasonable.

“It’s just foolhardy to be pumping water from Lake Michigan 20-some miles out here and then pumping it back,” Hamm said.

Cheryl Nenn, riverkeeper at the nonprofit group Milwaukee Riverkeeper, said her organization also opposes the diversion.

Cheryl Nenn, riverkeeper at the Milwaukee Riverkeeper group, said her organization opposes the diversion of water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

“We’ve never thought the diversion was the best option for Waukesha. We always thought they were asking for a lot more water than they were currently using,” Nenn said, referencing the city’s average daily water use of 6 million gallons in contrast to the proposal’s 10 million gallons. Nenn said the city must be prepared to extinguish a fire with its largest facility out of service.

Nenn said the Root River, which will carry water back to Lake Michigan, could have increased algae blooms due to higher amounts of nutrients entering the river.

“When there’s lower flow (during the summer), the pollution is more concentrated in the river so that’s something we would be concerned about,” Nenn said.

However, Waukesha resident Chris Curren said he supports the project.

“Other than figuring out how to pay for it, I’m for it,” Curren said. “Those against it seem to be because they think it will open up a floodgate, allowing other cities to do the same.”

One of those residents, Laurie Longtine, said she thinks the city is setting a negative legal precedent.

“I can just see a scenario where another community within the Great Lakes basin decides to apply for water … to grow and keep expanding,” said Longtine, a board member of the Waukesha County Environmental Action League. “All of these other communities could all stick a straw in it at any time and withdraw.”

While officials said they believe the city’s aquifer is declining and cited that as one of the reasons for the diversion, residents say otherwise.

Like Longtine, Waukesha resident Steve Edlund agrees the aquifer is rising. He began researching the United States Geological Survey’s data on the city’s aquifer in 2013 and found it was no longer declining 5 to 9 feet per year, but rather increasing.

However, Dan Duchniak, Waukesha Water Utility general manager, said the aquifer levels frequently fluctuate, causing the aquifer to appear to be rising.

Dan Duchniak, Waukesha Water Utility general manager, said the Great Water Alliance will likely be completed by 2023. The alliance will divert water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

Edlund said the radium problem is practically a nonissue, citing the city’s reluctance to install radium filters on four of the system’s wells that he said would effectively eliminate the contamination.

Duchniak said the diversion is not just about radium. He also identified total dissolved solids, or saltwater, as an additional contaminant.

“If this was just about radium, it would have been an easy solution,” Duchniak said. “It’s not just about radium – it’s about a sustainable water supply because we have other contaminants that we’ll have to deal with, and there’s other emerging contaminants that are coming down the pipeline.”

Edlund said he is also concerned with the socioeconomic impact the diversion will have on the community.

“There is no public assistance for your water bill and that’s scary,” Edlund said. “This is going to have a huge impact, especially on people that are lower income or fixed income. They are not going to be able to afford to live in the city of Waukesha. They’ll be forced out of their homes.”

The diversion does not have a definitive route for the pipeline yet. However, the project is expected to be completed by 2023, Duchniak said.

To see the full News21 report on “Troubled Water,” go troubledwater.news21.com on Aug. 14.

The post Great diversion: City of Waukesha looks to receive Lake Michigan water appeared first on Troubled Water.

Brady is known as the “heart of Texas” because it sits at the geographic center of the state. This tiny, rural town is home to 5,400 residents. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

BRADY, Texas – Tony Groves cannot get clean drinking water for his city.

Brady, a historic city proudly known as the “heart of Texas,” has the second-most contamination violations in the country from the radium that has seeped into its drinking water for decades, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And this tiny, rural community is running out of options to fix the problem.

The radium is naturally occurring in the Hickory Aquifer, the city’s only drinking water source. Groves, Brady’s mayor, knows concerns of cancer, kidney damage and birth defects from the radium drive many residents to buy case after case of bottled water.

“There’s a lot of bottled water sold in Brady to different people, both for convenience of drinking the water and for concern,” Groves said. “I drink the (tap) water. It’s just a matter of personal integrity, I guess, that says ‘I can’t get you any better water than this, so I’m gonna drink the same water you’re drinking.’”

In fact, water bottles are just a way of life for many of Brady’s 5,400 residents. Children take water bottles to school every day so they do not have to drink from the fountains.

“The kids are aware,” said Angie Borrego, a first grade teacher at Brady Elementary School and lifelong Brady resident. “There will be times when the kids will leave (their water bottle) at home, and they’ll be like, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t have my water, and I’m not going to go to the water fountain,’ because they are drilled that this water is not safe.”

The “Clean Water For Texas” sign is displayed outside of Brady’s water treatment plant. Brady has the second-highest number of contaminant violations for the naturally occurring radium in its drinking water. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

The city made progress in correcting the problem by building a system to mix its groundwater with water from the nearby Brady Lake. However, the success was short lived as a multiyear drought nearly dried up the lake, forcing the city to shut down its $20 million investment in 2015.

The radium levels spiked once again, violations poured in and notices went out with the water bills month after month. The notices became so common, some residents said they just throw them out.

“We’ve gotten a lot of notices from the city saying that the amounts of radium or the amounts of whatever – honestly, I haven’t even read them. I just know it’s bad, “ said Melissa Regeon, a Brady resident and a teacher’s aide at Brady High School.

Since the drought, the city has been planning a $22 million water system overhaul to finally bring clean water to residents. However, the state considers Brady an “economically distressed area” because its median household income is far below average. The city’s economy relies heavily on hunting at local ranches and fracking sands sales from mines surrounding the area.

“That makes us eligible for grants, so funds are very significant in paying for that project,” Groves said. “Otherwise, we would be severely financially impacted by doing this process.”

Brady set its sights on Texas’s Economically Distressed Areas Program, a $250 million fund distributing $50 million every two years to help cities such as Brady afford major infrastructure projects.

City officials hoped the grant would cover, at best, 85 percent of the water system project. However, three things stand in the way of the funds: Brady is not the only applicant city. This $50 million is the program’s final allocation. And state senate committees have rejected a bill to renew the program’s budget.

Amy Greer, a local farmer at Winters Family Beef, walks on her ranch’s property line. Greer’s family is working with city officials to prepare easements for a new water system. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

“If we don’t get it this time, and the state doesn’t reauthorize that program, I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Amy Greer, a sixth-generation farmer at the locally operated Winters Family Beef.

Her family is collaborating with the city on easement agreements. Part of the plan includes upgrading the aging distribution pipes throughout the community if the funds for the project come through.

“I really want our state legislators to know how terrible it is that they are not renewing a program that will help small rural communities face and tackle these kind of massive health and safety problems,” Greer said. “I’m just ashamed of them.”

Texas legislators deferred the final allocation to the state’s 2019 budget, further complicating matters for the city – already under a strict timeline from the EPA to fix its radium problem. Greer worries the EPA will take over the system entirely or the city will end up with no water, but Groves stands by the city’s ability to take care of residents.

“Nobody understands their problems better than we do, so nobody can figure out a solution better than we can,” Groves said.

Groves said the city will find another way to get funding if the grant falls through, and he is confident residents will support their efforts to provide clean water, even if water rates have to go up.

“If it needs it, we’re all for it. Let’s go. Giddy up,” said Joe Evridge, a Brady resident and co-owner of D and J’s Good Ole Days Antiques and Oddities. “How are they going to pay for all that? They’ve got to go get some revenue somewhere. So there’ll be an adjustment, I’m sure. But that’s just life. Deal with it. What can you do?”

The post ‘Heart of Texas’ struggles to overcome radium contamination in water appeared first on Troubled Water.