Great Lakes Water Supply Program

The Waukesha Water Utility (WWU) provides water treatment and distribution services to the City of Waukesha (Waukesha), portions of the Town of Waukesha, and the City of Pewaukee. The local aquifer that served as Waukesha’s primary source of drinking water was being simultaneously depleted and subjected to increases in the concentrations of radium and other contaminants. WWU commissioned the Great Water Alliance (Program) to transition Waukesha’s water supply from groundwater to Lake Michigan water.

GRAEF provided structural engineering for the design and construction of the Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) Water Supply Pumping Station (WSPS) project. The project, located near South 74th Street and West Oklahoma Avenue, utilized a water supply from the MWW distribution system and conveyed to a new Waukesha Booster Pumping Station via an 8.5-mile-long, 30-inch water supply pipeline.

GRAEF provided structural engineering, civil engineering and landscape architecture on Contract Package 3 Booster Pumping Station (BPS). The purpose of the Booster Pumping Station and Water Tower is to store, treat, and pump potable water received from the water supplier via the Water Supply Pipeline and convey that water to the WWU distribution system. The on-site ground storage reservoirs with 9 million gallons of capacity provide a delineation between the Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) and WWU systems and provide emergency storage.

Structural engineering including foundation and structure design for the booster pumping station, as well as structural bracing and supports for process piping to resist thrust forces. Civil engineering and landscape architecture supported the system design with appropriate site elements including site security fencing; access drives, parking lots and sidewalk; storm water best management practices to control and treat storm water runoff generated on the site; and a planting plan including a barrier of trees and shrubs to separate the site water storage tanks and buildings from the surrounding residential area, and to dampen some noise from the generators on site.

The Program is the first for a community in a county straddling the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin to access Great Lakes water through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (Compact). Successful implementation of the Program will set industry precedents for solving water quality and water scarcity challenges for at-risk water supplies in other Great Lakes Communities eligible to receive Great Lakes water through the Compact.