Authority asks PSC to take part in water talks Green Bay's mayor is 'disappointed' by the move By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The Central Brown County Water Authority has filed a request with the state Public Service Commission to force it into the authority's negotiations with Green Bay on a water pipeline to Lake Michigan. The move came as part of Green Bay's filing to build a new pipe to the lake. The CBCWA asked the PSC to: - Include it as a full party for any hearings pertaining to the new pipeline. - Hold public hearings on Green Bay's application. - Approve the pipeline only if it's large enough to serve both the city and CBCWA's eight suburban members. - If Green Bay and the authority can't agree on joint use in reasonable time, mandate joint use and establish "compensatory rates." The request stunned Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt. "We're very disappointed to learn they have taken a different avenue without discussing it with us," said Schmitt from Nevada, where he is visiting friends this weekend. "I don't understand what they hope gain by that when we're so close on putting a deal together. "I don't know if they understand exactly what they did." The authority is scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the negotiations. Authority president Len Teresinski was not available for comment Saturday. Schmitt said the city was negotiating in good faith for an agreement. The two sides had been working on various aspects of a deal that would have the communities share a 66-inch pipeline as a backup if aquifer storage and recovery - the storing of water underground - Êfailed to work. It has not worked in one test and a second is about to begin. Since late last year, the two sides have negotiated the deal, mostly focusing on how to pay for the added pipeline capacity needed to serve the suburbs. Green Bay Water Commission member John Brogan earlier this year spoke out forcefully against building a 66-inch pipeline that might not be needed if ASR is successful. Brogan said at that time a larger pipeline under the suggested plan of suburbs merely paying wholesale rates for water would double industrial user rates and hike homeowner rates 80 percent. The commission eventually conceded to then-mayor Paul Jadin and decided to hold off on a final pipeline size decision until Sept. 15. The CBCWA has been working since then on a possible deal under one of three options: the use of ASR, a backup with supply from Green Bay using a larger pipeline, or a separate suburbs-only pipeline. The split in the negotiations has been on who would pay for a shared pipeline. Green Bay's options would have the CBCWA pay for all additions plus a yearly fee. The authority prefers an option in which it would build facilities, donate them to Green Bay so Green Bay could keep ownership, but build its own treatment plant, taking raw water instead of treated water from the pipeline. Green Bay had raised technical objections over the plan.