Wauwatosa Battled Milwaukee for Access to Lake Michigan Water
by Dave Vogel
Historic Wauwatosa, Issue 227, July 2015
There was a time when Wauwatosa posted signs at city entry and exit points boasting of its good schools and artesian well water. With dramatic geographic growth through annexation in the early 1950s, artesian well water no longer was a selling point. Private wells were running dry or being tested and found unsafe for drinking in areas new to the city.
Wauwatosa was desperate for Lake Michigan water that Milwaukee was selling to every other adjacent suburb. But Milwaukee singled out Wauwatosa in its refusal.
This is a look back at the passionate fight over that water, Wauwatosa’s ultimate victory, and the anticlimactic capping of city wells 50 years ago.
The city’s first waterworks were installed in 1897 on Blanchard Street. It was piped through solid rock 1,350 feet deep and produced a flow of 450,000 gallons a day. In the pumping station, which still stands, two boilers powered two pumps that sent water from the well to a tank 160 feet above the well’s top. The Blanchard Street well was more than sufficient for a city with a population slightly above 3,000.
As the city grew, more wells were dug. But a 1959 city report said the water table had been receding by 7 feet per year for several years.
“It has been obvious since 1950, and particularly so since the annexation in 1953, that a different and more reliable source of water must be found to serve Wauwatosa,” the report said.
Early signs of contamination were detected in 1956 in private wells in the Park Ridge neighborhood southeast of Mayfair Road and Capitol Drive. Some residents and officials blamed Milwaukee, which was dumping waste at an old Works Progress Administration quarry in nearby Currie Park.
Fruitlessly, Wauwatosa officials worked with other suburbs to find ways to create an alternative water utility or metropolitan water commission.
Finally, in November 1956, Wauwatosa Mayor William B. Knuese petitioned the Public Service Commission (PSC), asking that it order Milwaukee to sell water to Wauwatosa. “Over my dead body unless there is a political consolidation of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa,” said Milwaukee Ald. Matt Shimenz.
While Wauwatosa was thirsting for Milwaukee water, Milwaukee was searching for new sites to dump its waste. It owned the former Wauwatosa Stone Co. quarry at 3342 N. 100th St. and wanted to use it for “sanitary fill.” Wauwatosa aldermen said that would be OK as long as Milwaukee provided water to homes north of Burleigh Street where shallow wells had been contaminated by Milwaukee’s Currie Park dump. Still, no deal.
While Wauwatosa struggled in 1956 to provide water to homes and businesses near Mayfair and Bluemound roads, Milwaukee County was about to drill a deep well to serve the new zoo property.
In its petition to the PSC, Wauwatosa claimed that Milwaukee had shut off service to one customer whose house straddled the municipal borders. Officials also said the state AFL-CIO had sought Milwaukee water for its headquarters at 6333 W. Bluemound Road and that Milwaukee had refused service unless Wauwatosa permitted annexation of the property.
The petition also noted that more than 200 Wauwatosa homes already were getting Lake Michigan water under a 1908 agreement in which the county ran water mains west on North Avenue and south on North 83rd Street to serve county institutions.
Probably because of jagged boundary lines created in annexation battles, Wauwatosa noted that its water works served seven Milwaukee homes.
PSC hearings on the Wauwatosa petition dragged out more than a year.
Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler criticized suburbs for annexing land without the ability to supply water to the new areas. With Milwaukee water, he said, the suburbs also would draw industries away from Milwaukee.
“How about becoming part of the city politically?” Zeidler asked. “You want city services without paying taxes.”
The PSC finally acted in April 1958 with an emergency order that Milwaukee immediately begin selling Wauwatosa up to 2 million gallons of water a day. The PSC also directed Milwaukee to immediately start enlarging and improving its water facilities to service Wauwatosa permanently. Milwaukee’s Common Council voted to appeal the ruling, but Zeidler vetoed the council resolution.
In his 2005 book, A Liberal In City Government, Zeidler wrote, “In August of 1958, the suburbs finally broke the back of Milwaukee’s resistance to selling water to the suburbs. The sudden change occurred because the Public Service Commission, which was dominated by Republicans, ordered Milwaukee to sell water to Wauwatosa on the grounds that Milwaukee was a water utility and therefore had to serve Wauwatosa.
“… The aldermen and I were in favor of fighting the PSC order at first. However, I was advised by an assistant city attorney that if Milwaukee lost its challenge of the order, the city could be sued for damages, which might run into the millions of dollars. I felt that the PSC order would be sustained not on its merits but on the political power of the suburbs and then we could be sued. Based on the advice of the city attorney’s office, I ultimately vetoed a Common Council resolution challenging the PSC order.
“I also came around to feeling that Milwaukee should serve Wauwatosa with water because the lethargy and indifference of the Wauwatosa city government about furnishing water to its own citizens was so great as to jeopardize the health of the metropolitan area. The Wauwatosa government was a clever one politically, but terribly poor administratively in furnishing vital services. It always seemed to be looking for a free ride on its neighbors.”
The first connection to Milwaukee water was at 64th and Center streets, which helped the older parts of the city but not the newly annexed area. There wasn’t enough water pressure to serve the northwest and southwest areas. Besides, Wauwatosa lacked a water main grid in the new areas.
With the flow of Milwaukee water on the horizon, residents of the new areas were reluctant to spend hundreds of dollars to drill wells, so well water woes rolled into the 1960s.
Throughout the water war, Wauwatosa was experiencing its most rapid growth ever. Mayfair Mall opened in the fall of 1958. Its stores were served by a deep well that pumped 1,500 gallons per minute. In the face of a west side water shortage in 1963 — four wells along Fisher Parkway were found to be contaminated — Mayfair offered to sell water to the city.
In his book, Zeidler reflected on Milwaukee’s battles with the suburbs: “During the period of 1948 to 1960, almost everything the city feared about the water works and metropolitan developments came to pass.”
After eight years of bitter name-calling and litigation, the two cities finally ratified a contract in December 1962. At less than six miles from the lake, Wauwatosa was closer to its water source than some areas newly annexed by Milwaukee. In phases, water mains were extended and elevated reservoirs were built, including the imposing reservoir at N.114th and W. Burleigh streets that is the largest in the state.
It has been over 50 years since anyone in Wauwatosa relied on wells for drinking water.
You must be logged in to post a comment.