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For Sale - Condos/Townhouses
Bayview Condo
Condo living without downtown prices. 1 bedroom + den, 1 1/2 baths, modern architecture, hardwood floors, | | |
For Sale - Condos/Townhouses
New Luxury Condos
2 BR, lam FLR,oak WW w/3 panel oak doors,CT, elec FP,1 car & 1 space.Lower | | |
For Rent - Rooms
Eastside Guy 4 roomate
400./ month. Upperflat,utilities,internet, included.Can | |
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New Berlin's Water Woes May Not Be Over
Talks, yes. Sale, not yet.
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| | by Dennis A. Shook |
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July 19, 2007
Despite
the headlines, New Berlin residents shouldn't believe that officials
have found a short-term solution to their long-term water problem.
While
a letter from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) allows
New Berlin to begin "technical" discussions on purchasing Lake Michigan
water from the city of Milwaukee, it doesn't mean New Berlin will be
able to access the water in the near future.
Contrary to some
interpretations, the letter from DNR Secretary Scott Hassett does not
allow the communities to conclude any water deal without state
approval. And that could depend on the ratification of the regional
Great Lakes Water Resources Compact by the state Legislature.
"The
final review and how it will be conducted will be heavily influenced by
the status of the state legislation here in Wisconsin to ratify the
Great Lakes [Water Resources] Compact," Hassett wrote. "In short, we
need to pass the compact in Wisconsin. If the compact is law in
Wisconsin by the time New Berlin reaches an agreement with a water
provider, the path to the completion of the final review will be much
easier to walk."
But Hassett did not state that a deal was absolutely dependent on compact passage.
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A Straddling Community
New
Berlin is considered a "straddling community" under the new compact
proposal. That means the subcontinental divide that marks the border of
the Great Lakes basin passes through New Berlin, roughly along the same
route as Sunnyslope Road. The parts of the city to the east of the
divide can—and already have—purchased Lake Michigan water.
New
Berlin has been ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean
up its water supply, which has radium. So the suburb has turned to
Milwaukee for more water.
Milwaukee has placed the request on
hold until the pending compact is approved. That pact would allow for
the diversion of Lake Michigan water west of the basin as long as an
equal amount of wastewater is returned to the basin.
While
negotiations for the compact continue, the DNR letter last week said
the cities could start working out the details on how such a water deal
might be implemented.
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Todd
Ambs, DNR's water division administrator, said Hassett's letter to New
Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero was sent to avoid any delays in a
potential water agreement, providing the compact has been passed in
Wisconsin. But that passage is hardly assured and there is no firm
timetable.
Ambs said the DNR believes it can allow the diversion
for New Berlin once the state passes the compact, rather than wait for
all eight states involved to pass legislation.
"We would not even have a requirement to notify the other states" for straddling communities, he said.
Ambs
said the New Berlin situation differs from the city of Waukesha, which
is also seeking Lake Michigan water. Waukesha is not a straddling
community like New Berlin, but would be considered part of a straddling
county under terms of the proposed compact.
"So New Berlin and
Waukesha are in very different places" on accessing water, he said,
adding that the Waukesha application would require approval by all
eight states bordering the Great Lakes.
Ambs said along with
solving the radium problem, New Berlin will send back more water than
it uses, so the deal will actually improve Lake Michigan water levels.
Ambs said he was optimistic the state would pass the compact within two years.
Holdup in the Legislature
A
special Legislative Council Committee on the Great Lakes Water
Resources Compact, which met Tuesday, has until mid-September to reach
a compromise on the compact. One legislator who serves on that
committee and has opposed the compact is state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New
Berlin). She has said the compact would allow other states to block a
diversion of water to New Berlin.
Chiovatero, who has meetings
this week with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to discuss water access
details, said he sees Lazich as the major obstacle to solving the
city's water woes.
"These are her people ... she lives here,"
Chiovatero said of Lazich, who could not be reached for comment. "She
has Lake Michigan water herself and she's enjoying it. So let everybody
else [enjoy] it. This is just a political thing going on that has me
upset," he said of her opposition to the compact.
The mayor
added that, in a month, he is supposed to decide on whether the city
should spend $4 million to clean up the water supply. However, it would
not have to spend that money if the compact is passed. "That
[remediation cost] would raise the water rates here 21%," he said.
Barrett
has indicated some willingness to consider such a sale. But his
spokeswoman Eileen Force confirmed Barrett wanted to have the compact
ratified before agreeing to sell Lake Michigan water.
Jodi
Habush Sinykin, counsel for Midwest Environmental Advocates and a
member of the compact committee, agreed with Ambs that New Berlin would
directly benefit by supporting the compact.
"It's been difficult
to understand why the New Berlin politicians have opposed the compact
when it offers the best mechanism for them to move forward toward a
diversion," she said.
Sinykin added that if New Berlin were to
try to sue for a diversion under the current rules, it could take up to
a decade to work its way through the courts.
She said she did not oppose the two cities holding talks.
But
state Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), who has opposed the idea of
Milwaukee selling water to New Berlin, maintains the suburb should not
be able to discuss a diversion until the compact is approved. He called
the talks "a step backward" for compact approval.
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Bob Marley’s second-oldest son Stephen Marley
plays an 8 p.m. show at The Rave tonight. He’s the Marley offspring
most likely to satisfy traditional Bob fans. Unlike, say, Damian
Marley, who toasts over grittier dancehall beats, Stephen Marley sticks
to the uplifting roots rock that his father perfected. Stephen also
seems to have inherited his father’s vocal chords, which at times can
make for an errie listen (especially when he covers his father’s songs).
Novelist Laura Moriarty details the push-pull relationships between mothers and daughters in her newest book, The Rest of Her Life.
When a popular, successful 18-year-old girl accidentally hits and kills
a schoolmate while driving the family car, her mother begins to realize
exactly how strained her relationship with her daughter has been.
Moriarty reads from this emotionally intense book tonight at 7, at the
Schwartz Bookshop in Brookfield.
Isolation and alienation have seldom been captured on film as bluntly as they are in La-bas,
a 2006 documentary shot from the perspective of a woman locked away in
a Tel Aviv apartment. There’s not much in the way of story beyond that,
and viewers never definitely learn why she’s confined herself to the
apartment (is she sick? Depressed? Afraid?) Many of the shots, however,
are gorgeous, especiall the ones that gaze out the window and spy on
others far less alone than the filmmaker. The movie screens tonight at
the UWM Union Theatre for free as part of the Experimental Tuesday
series.
Of course, if you like your movies to be less, uh, harrowing, you could always just catch a 7 p.m. screening of The Wizard of Oz at the Times Cinema. The classic 1939 musical doesn’t contain much rumination on solitude, but it does feature a singing lion.
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| | “We know how to organize warfare, but do we know how to act when confronted with peace?” —Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau |
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| 1827: John Towsend Trowbridge, poet and author of books for boys, wrote the Jack Hazzard and Toby Trafford series. |
| 1839: John Aitken, physician and meterologist. |
| 1895: John G. Diefenbaker, prime minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963. |
| 1905: Greta Garbo, actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in Anna Christie and Ninotcha. |
| 1951: Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon. |
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