There was a faction on the Waukesha Common Council and in the city at-large that did not Waukesha entangled, as they saw it, in a contractual relationship with Milwaukee for water and the regional policy cooperation Milwaukee expected.
So a water deal with Racine or Oak Creek instead would ease that political strain in and for Waukesha, though it sets up a fresh obstacle for Waukesha in addition to the higher cost of bringing water from the farther-away municipalities:
There is the return flow issue, as the Great Lakes Compact requires diverted water to be returned as close to the point of withdrawal as possible. The return flow proposed in the diversion application - - the Menomonee River via Underwood Creek - - was designed with a Milwaukee withdrawal in mind.
I believe also that the Environmental Impact Statement being prepared by the DNR is evaluating that return flow as proposed with Milwaukee, too.
How fast could the science could be catalogued and studied should the Root River be used as a return flow route for a Racine sale to meet the EIS requirements and pass the eight-state muster for diversion approval, too?