Also on this page: Water study consultant works for Waukesha Water Utility, too.

SEWRPC water study
consultant has a conflict,
critics say
Ruekert/Mielke helped New Berlin with diversion application

July 2, 2006 -- The firm New Berlin hired to help it prepare an application to divert water from Lake Michigan is the same firm assisting on a regional study to determine whether water should be diverted from Lake Michigan.

Critics charge that it is a conflict of interest for the firm, Ruekert/Mielke, to work both for New Berlin and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

storyhill.net attempted to contact the firm over the weekend, but it was closed.

"There is a huge problem caused for SEWRPC sharing the same consultant with New Berlin," said James Rowen, a consultant who has been involved in the debate over proposals to send water across the continental divide.

"SEWRPC says it's study is objective and neutral," Rowen said. "And the plan has to be objective and neutral, or it's money down the drain. But paying your lead consultant for work on issues that include diversion policy when that consultant has just put together a precedent-setting diversion plan blows a hole in the study's credibility."

New Berlin also has a representative at the table during the water study committee meetings, Rowen said, "the same meetings where the consultants also sits and participates."

Ald. Michael Murphy, who also has been involved in the water controversy, says Ruekert's dual role "raises some inherent conflicts."

Ruekert/Mielke - New Berlin diversion plan was submitted to the State Department of Natural Resources, which contacted other Great Lakes governors about the idea. No one, however, thought to tell Milwaukee officials.

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Part of New Berlin is within MMSD boundaries. City officials say water would be returned to Lake Michigan through MMSD facilities.

Murphy said a DNR official earlier promised to keep city leaders informed of any diversion application.

"Of course, we weren't," he said.

Gov. Doyle has indicated support of allowing the water to flow to western New Berlin, which Murphy said was "very short-sighted."

"It's very, very upsetting to me to see that kind of decision," he said.

Milwaukee already sells water to the eastern portion of New Berlin that lies east of the Continental Divide. Residents in the western portion of the city use water from radium-contaminated wells. New Berlin has six months to find a new water supply.

Sending water across the divide is problematic because it generally does not return to the lake and depletes that important resource. New Berlin says its wastewater returns to the lake through the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Ald. T. Anthony Zielinski in June introduced a resolution that would direct city officials to study the possibility of selling water to the "middle" portion of New Berlin that is west of the divide, but within MMSD boundaries. That resolution is being held in the Public Works Committee.

storyhill.net previously reported that Ruekert/Mielke claims as a client the city of Waukesha, which also needs a new water supply. Ruekert/Mielke said on its web site that it was hired to help Waukesha increase its water supply.

The chair of the SEWRPC water supply study advisory committee, Kurt Bauer, also has consulted for Ruekert/Mielke. Ruekert/-Mielke also previously owned SEWRPC's headquarters on Rockwood Dr. in Pewaukee.

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Conflict seen by "uninformed" people, SEWRPC chief says
Consultant roles' appropriate, Evenson says

Jan. 6, 2006 -- "Uninformed" people might see a conflict of interest in the intersecting roles of consultants working on a regional water supply study, but no such conflict exists, SEWRPC Executive Director Philip Evenson said.

"SEWRPC does not consider the relationships cited in your inquiry between the Waukesha Water Utility and Ruekert/Mielke and Dr. (Kurt) Bauer and Ruekert/Mielke to be conflicts of interest in terms of the water supply study. To uninformed individuals, these relationships might have the appearance of conflicts of interests," he said in an e-mail.

storyhill.net reported earlier this week that the Ruekert/Mielke engineering firm is a consultant on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission study while it also claims the Waukesha Water Utility as a client that it is helping to find new water supplies.

Waukesha's radium-based water problems were a major reason for the SEWRPC study. The utility has been pushing to divert water from Lake Michigan, which is strongly opposed by environmentalists and some Milwaukee-area officials.

"It should surprise no one that they (Ruekert/Mielke) have done work for the Waukesha Water Utility; indeed, their experience history shows that they have done work for over 50 water utilities in the Region," Evenson wrote. "That experience base is one of the reasons the firm was selected to provide targeted engineering help."

Consultants are technical and not policy advisors to the planning process, he said.

Under its contract with SEWRPC, Ruekert/Mielke, will prepare a "state of the art water supply report" that includes "information that may effect the formulation of alternative water supply plans and the selection of a recommended plan."

The firm also is to develop standards for water supply infrastructure, according to the contract.

Advisory Committee chairman Kurt Bauer, the former executive director of SEWRPC, has done consulting work for Ruekert/Mielke.

Bauer, Evenson said, was selected for many reasons, "not the least of which is his set of proven personal skills in structuring and leading committee work."

Evenson said Bauer's "integrity is above reproach."

Bauer, who now works for SEWRPC as an independent contractor, had nothing to do with selecting consultants for the project, Evenson said.

In addition, Evenson said, the water supply study is directed by the advisory committee, not staff and consultants.

"The advisory committee will select a final recommended plan," Evenson wrote. "Depending upon whatever policy implications there may be in that final plan, the study design has left open the possibility of convening a second committee of chief elected officials to weigh in on important policy issues. Then and only then will a final plan be placed before the SEWRPC for adoption."

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SEWRPC water study consultant works for Waukesha Water Utility, too
Ruekert-Mielke gets $109,100 pact

Jan. 3, 2006 -- The Waukesha engineering firm that won a $109,100 regional water study consulting contract from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission also boasts the Waukesha Water Utility as a client, records show.

The firm, Ruekert/Mielke, says on its web site that is assisting the "Waukesha Water Utility with increasing its water source capacity, while also achieving compliance with the radionuclide standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."

Waukesha's radium-based water problems were a major reason for the SEWRPC study. The utility has been pushing to divert water from Lake Michigan, which is strongly opposed by environmentalists and some Milwaukee-area officials.

Ruekert/Mielke long have had a close relationship with SEWRPC. Ruekert/Mielke previously owned SEWRPC's headquarters on Rockwood Drive in Pewaukee.

Kurt W. Bauer, the former SEWRPC chief who is chairman of the Water Study Advisory Committee, has done consulting work for Ruekert/Mielke, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal.

Jim Rowen, a Milwaukee writer and environmental consultant who has been involved in local water issues, said it was a concern that SEWRPC, Ruekert/Mielke and Bauer are managing the water study.

"These individuals and organizations have presided over the very sprawl development throughout the region that has led to Waukesha's overuse of groundwater," he said. "Concentrating that influence in the study process will pave the way for a diversion application, and with it, more sprawl and less water conservation."

SEWRPC Deputy Director Ken Yunker, who is heading SEWRPC staff efforts for the study, did not respond to an inquiry about the study Monday.

Under its contract with SEWRPC, Ruekert/Mielke, will prepare a "state of the art water supply report" that includes "information that may effect the formulation of alternative water supply plans and the selection of a recommended plan."

The firm also is to develop standards for water supply infrastructure, according to the contract.

The firm represented suburban interests in the MMSD "sewer wars" that ended a decade ago, and now is associated with concerns that could be affected by the outcome of the water study, including the Village of Pewaukee and Pabst Farms.

The firm recently won the Waukesha County Executive’s 2005 Business of the Year Award, according to the firm's web site.

"The award cites R/M’s role in developing sustainable, clean sources of water for Waukesha County, and their efforts in storm water management," the firm reports.

Ruekert/Mielke officials have given generously to Republicans candidates for state office. The only Democratic beneficiary since 2000 is Gov. Doyle, whose campaign took in $525 in five separate donations.

Over that same time period Ruekert/Mielke gave $10,777 to Republican candidates. The largest beneficiaries were former Gov. Scott McCallum, who got $1,477 from the firm; State. Rep. Scott Jensen (R-Waukesha), who received $1,425 and former State Rep. Steven Foti (R-Oconomowoc), who got $950, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign finance database. WDC includes contributions through June 30.

State Sen. Ted Kanavas (R -- Brookfield), who recently said that he favors allowing diversion of Lake Michigan water for use by Waukesha, has received $850 from Ruekert/Mielke employees.

Kanavas said he favors a plan under which counties outside the basin would return water to the lake by dumping treated wastewater back into the basin through tributaries like the Menomonee River in Milwaukee.

Former State Rep. Dan Vrakas, now Waukesha County Executive, received $675 from Ruekert/Mielke employees.