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The state has signed off on New Berlin’s request to receive more Lake Michigan water from the Milwaukee Water Works. The eastern portion of New Berlin already gets its water from Lake Michigan because it falls within the Great Lakes basin. The community applied to receive more water for its western areas, which have unacceptably high levels of radium.
From the DNR’s announcement:
New Berlin is authorized to withdraw a maximum of an average of 2.142 million gallons per day to areas of the city outside the Great Lakes Basin. This volume essentially replaces the amount the city currently gets from groundwater wells that produce water with radium levels exceeding state and federal health standards. The city will continue to return water to the Lake Michigan Basin via Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, resulting in no net loss of water from the Great Lakes Basin.
The approval requires that New Berlin enhance its existing water conservation efforts to pursue its goal of reducing residential water use. In addition, the city must meet monitoring and reporting requirements specified by the DNR to ensure that the water withdrawal is closely tracked.
“The city’s application meets the terms of the Great Lakes Compact,” said Todd Ambs, DNR Water Division Administrator. “New Berlin will return every drop of water that it uses back to Lake Michigan. The water returned will have higher water quality than is currently discharged to Lake Michigan by New Berlin and the city has committed to develop a plan to reduce its overall water use in the future."
As I reported last July, the sale of Lake Michigan water could be a boon for New Berlin’s development, it could turn into the opportunity to develop about 175 acres of property in New Berlin.
