What changed at Waukesha taps when the lake water arrived
In October 2023 the City of Waukesha finished moving its water supply from deep wells to Lake Michigan. Hardness at city taps went from roughly 21 grains to about 8, and softeners across the city were left set for water that no longer arrives.
Call (262) 333-5451Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pmWhy the city gave up its wells
Waukesha drew its water from deep sandstone wells, and two things went wrong with them. The aquifer under the city was being drawn down, and the well water held naturally occurring radium in excess of the federal standard.
Both problems are a matter of public record, and together they sent the city looking to Lake Michigan for a new supply.
The Compact and the 2016 approval
Use of Lake Michigan water falls under the Great Lakes Compact of 2008, and Waukesha lies wholly outside the Great Lakes basin. The city spent a decade applying under the Compact before it won approval in 2016, which made it the first community wholly outside the basin cleared for Lake Michigan water.
The approval had two halves. Waukesha buys lake water, and it returns its treated wastewater to the lake.
What arrived at the tap
The switch was completed in October 2023. City hardness went from roughly 21 grains per gallon to about 8, around 60% softer by the published figures.
That moved city water out of the USGS very hard class and into the hard one. It did not make it soft, which is why the softener question in Waukesha became a real question instead of a foregone answer. Any paperwork in the house from before the switch, a past quote, a utility notice or a setting jotted in a softener manual, refers to water that no longer reaches city taps.
What the switch left alone
Private wells beyond the city system kept their groundwater, including the well homes in the Village of Waukesha and the Town of Genesee. Nothing about October 2023 reached them.
Inside the city, every softener kept whatever setting it already had. A unit set for roughly 21 grains stayed set for 21 until someone changed it, so a family that moved into a city house since then may have a softener set for water it has never had. On the Waukesha sewer, the City's softener salt program calls for softeners in use to go through optimization by an approved company.
Common questions
When did Waukesha switch to Lake Michigan water?
Approval arrived in 2016, after a decade of applications, and the switch itself was completed in October 2023.
Where does Waukesha's used water go now?
Under the 2016 approval, the city returns its treated wastewater to Lake Michigan. That return is the second half of the arrangement that lets it buy lake water.
Did my softener's setting change along with the water?
No. A softener keeps whatever setting it was given, so one set before October 2023 may still be working from the old figure of roughly 21 grains.
More for Waukesha homes
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- Softener optimization in Waukesha: what the salt program asks
- Does a Waukesha home on lake water still need a softener?
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