Cities say they won't meet water deadline

Waukesha, New Berlin — and others — still struggling with radium

By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
denriquez@journalsentinel.com

Posted: June 19, 2006

Waukesha and New Berlin disclosed Monday that they would not meet the federal deadline to rid their drinking water of potentially dangerous levels of radium, prompting a state official to say he believes that other Wisconsin communities also will fail the same clean water mandate.

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The concentration of radium in Waukesha water is at times more than twice the limit allowed under federal standards that became enforceable in late 2003 and allowed non-compliant communities three years to clean up.

That city of 67,000, New Berlin and now possibly other communities face two problems. The first is the immediate need to reduce radium levels. The second is a need for new drinking water sources that could take a decade or longer to realize. Monday's news increases the pressure to seek alternative water sources - including water from Lake Michigan, a prospect fraught with economic and political difficulties.

The communities face up to $5,000 in daily fines imposed by the state Department of Justice.

Also among the 53 water utilities with too much radium are Fond du Lac, Beloit, Brookfield and the City of Pewaukee.

Lee Boushon, chief of the state's public water section, would not disclose what other utilities he suspects will fail to meet the Dec. 8 deadline because so much of the work is being rushed to completion.

Brookfield is an example of that. An official there said his city's radium reduction projects were behind schedule and he was hesitant to guarantee that they would be complete by the deadline.

"As we get closer to that date, we should have a good idea of what's working," Boushon said of projects statewide. "And with the other communities, it will become obvious who will not make it. Some communities will not meet the deadline."

The troubled utilities depend on groundwater from deep wells that contain unsafe levels of radium, according to Environmental Protection Agency standards. The naturally occurring radioactive substance is linked to bone cancer, although a Waukesha-financed study by the Medical College of Wisconsin contends that city's water is safe.

The EPA standard is based on the likelihood of someone getting cancer by drinking an average of two liters of water from the same source for 70 years, according to a DNR report.

Utility won't make deadline

Waukesha Water Utility Manager Dan Duchniak confirmed Monday that his utility would not make the deadline after a new report from a Madison-based environmental group that quotes him as saying the deadline cannot be met. The group, Midwest Environmental Advocates, has closely watched Waukesha's worsening water situation because of the city's controversial interest in tapping into Lake Michigan as a new source of drinking water.

The state Department of Natural Resources, which is acting as the enforcement arm of the federal EPA and its radium mandate, entered into consent decrees in 2003 with the 53 utilities that generally outlined what steps each utility would take to bring radium levels into compliance by Dec. 8. A number of utilities have since complied with the standards, but most have not, Boushon said.

The EPA has established a limit of 5 picocuries of radium per liter of water as the standard. Waukesha's water ranges from 8 to 11 picocuries.

The DNR will refer utilities that fail to meet the compliance deadline to the state Department of Justice for legal action that includes fines, Boushon said.

Retirement blamed

New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero said his city would not meet the federal deadline, partly because the city's utility director retired last month.

"It's in the middle of it," Chiovatero said of utility director Ray Gryzs' retirement with the December deadline approaching.

The mayor said he has taken over handling of the radium issue himself, but city officials were undecided for a while about a method for complying with the new EPA standards. Now settled on a water filtration system, the city hopes to have part of its water system upgraded by April of next year.

"We're on the fast track again," Chiovatero said.

In Brookfield, Thomas M. Grisa, public works director, said the city's two projects to reduce radium were a "little behind" schedule.

Grisa was hesitant to guarantee that the projects would be complete, but barring a "major disaster" radium levels will be compliant by the deadline, he said.

"We're making every effort to make that happen," Grisa said.

Duchniak said Waukesha ran into a problem with reducing radium in a well on its northeast side.

The utility will ask the Waukesha Common Council tonight for direction on whether to filter contaminated water as New Berlin is doing or follow the tactic it used to correct another contaminated well - blend its water with non-contaminated water obtained from nearby shallow wells to dilute radium levels.

Scott Williams and Sarah Larimer of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.