Water War

Interesting Journal-Sentinel article on the latest volley in the water war between the cities of Waukesha and Milwaukee. Comments are always fun to read.

But despite the hot air, the anger, it really won't make that big a difference according to the socio-economic study being conducted by UWM's Center for Economic Development. Development will continue to happen, it'll just be more expensive.

Generally, planners and utility managers did not view the source of supply acting as a potential constraint on development. Rather than the source of supply, it is the costs associated with providing water infrastructure that generally have an impact on the development process. Planners and utility managers need to weigh the costs of providing new infrastructure against the gains of development, to ensure that the existing population is not negatively impacted by the costs.

Why the fuss, then? Partially because there's the perception that allowing Waukesha access to much more water than it needs will allow it to siphon more industry & businesses away from Milwaukee. Then there's also anger at Waukesha's chutzpah at asking for regional cooperation in access to water when it has consistently worked against regional cooperation on other issues. Because of exclusionary policies enacted by many communities,

A review of past trends indicates that a significant increase in the number and percent of low-income or families living at or below the poverty level has occurred over the past 40 years in the cities of Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Racine while it has declined in many of the selected suburban communities. It is unlikely that a change in water source, from groundwater to Lake Michigan water, would have any impact on these trends within existing service areas.

This is why the City of Milwaukee is insisting on more than just money for water. Milwaukee understands that they are having an increasing number of very low-income people in the population base because the people cannot move to or travel to the suburbs closer to the growth of many jobs.

Update: Typos corrected.