City: Some suburbs can buy our water The city Water Commission backs a mixture of sales, wells for four suburbs By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Under a plan backed Monday by the Green Bay Water Commission, the city would sell excess capacity from its current pipeline and its boosted capacity to four suburbs, not enough to help them meet peak demand unless troubled wells are treated and used. Other suburbs, including De Pere, would have to rely on wells that may not meet federal radium standards without new treatment plants. But Mayor Jim Schmitt and commission member John Brogan say that's the best possible solution to the area's water supply needs from a financial and supply standpoint. The plan, presented at Monday's commission meeting, would: - Have Green Bay, as previously announced, drop its plan for a new pipeline to Lake Michigan for drinking water and instead boost capacity of its current line to the lake. - Offer the excess capacity over Green Bay's peak demand to the closest four suburbs - Allouez, Ashwaubenon, Bellevue and Howard - for their use. This would only meet average demand for the suburbs; they would have to use their own wells to make up the difference on peak demand days. - The suburbs buying water would have to pay for any connection to the city's line. They would be charged at the city's bulk rate plus 25 percent, or, by Green Bay's estimates, $1.80 per million gallons a day in 2005. If aquifer storage and recovery can be used, allowing storage of water underground, only the bulk rate would be charged. "This excess capacity would be available to begin to address and lay the framework for achieving regional water solutions in a more cost effective manner than under the prior Raw Water Pipeline Options," Schmitt wrote to Central Brown County Water Authority president Len Teresinski. The authority had been negotiating with Green Bay for a shared new pipeline to the lake as a backup if hopes for ASR did not pan out. The suburbs were facing a deadline of 2006 to make their water radium-free. Green Bay is still testing one well for possible ASR use. Schmitt said the city did not need any approval from any suburbs to go ahead with the plan for its own use. The only deadline the suburbs face is in October when they must file compliance plans with the Department of Natural Resources to show how they will eliminate radium in their supplies. The other members of the authority - De Pere, Hobart, Lawrence and Ledgeview - would have to use their old wells, which would require treatment. However, Brogan said, they would be winners as well. "The volume of water in the aquifer will recover," he told the commission. "What I have described is what happened when we (first) went to the lake. There were flowing wells all over Brown County." He said the city would be able to supply the water to the four suburbs at half the cost of an authority-run pipeline. "This $1.80 per MGD is at least $1.70 less than what wholesale water from an authority pipeline would cost," he said. He said the approach and success with ASR would provide enough capacity until 2025 before any addition would be needed, if Green Bay wants to spend $4 million on treating two of its own wells. "In my opinion we would certainly know whether ASR works before 2010. Not even the Luddites at the DNR could be that obtuse," he said. Brogan also said that if ASR did not work, the cost of a second raw water line could be paid out of the money Green Bay would make from the water sale. Brogan estimated that at $125 million over the 25-year contract period. As part of the agreement, the state Public Service Commission would have to stay out of rate setting during the contract. There is no deadline for the four suburbs to come to the city; Schmitt said the plan was likely to get City Council approval as it is. The authority learned of the proposal Friday, but many members of the authority's board are on vacation this week, and no decision is expected. Schmitt, however, said the initial reaction had been favorable "from some of the suburbs." The mayor plans to discuss the issue at a City Council meeting next week, and hopes to get an approval vote from the council two weeks later. The proposal does have some problems attached to it. The PSC and DNR must approve it, and there are questions about the ability to quickly fix a line break that would then affect five communities. In addition, the expanded filtration plant's sludge from the processing of lake water would contain hazardous materials and require disposal.