Waukesha and Walworth Counties
A proposal to map an emerging and important source of underground water for growing communities in Wisconsin. Southern Waukesha and northeast Walworth counties are meeting resistance due to the $44,000 cost that some municipal leaders believe they should not pay.
The communities of Waukesha, Mukwonago, Muskego and East Troy are being asked to each contribute $11,000 toward the production of a detailed map of an ancient river valley that is becoming a leading source of radium-free water. The project is being pushed by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, but it received a halting response in East Troy when the Village Board tabled the agency's request for money.
Their moves into the Troy aquifer have created conflicts on emotional, political and legal levels. Lake property owners have fought in court East Troy's efforts to sink a well near the shores of Lake Beulah. In Waukesha, environmentalists and homeowners have fought back an effort to sink wells that could affect the Fox River and the Vernon Marsh Wildlife area.
Use of the shallow aquifer that lies 50 to 300 feet below the surface was traditionally confined to rural private wells because large water utilities took water from deep aquifers 1,000 or more feet below the surface. As large communities begin to draw from the shallow water source, rural homeowners, lake property owners and environmentalist are questioning the ramifications.
October 31, 2006 7:21 AM | Category: Water, Watershed