James Rowen: Water woes should be a wake-up call
By James Rowen
The Capital Times
The news about dangerous levels of manganese and other contaminants in the city of Madison's drinking water showed that what had been taken for granted -- in this case, the capital city's purportedly pure well water -- has been allowed to slip.
Wisconsin had long been a leader in water quality and environmental protection. It had been recognized as a Great Lakes steward that had produced pioneers like Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson, as well as cutting-edge water protection law.
But the Madison water troubles are telling all Wisconsinites that we are foolish to think that the city and state's progressive traditions and good intentions somehow guarantee that drinking water is safe.
We also have been equally passive when assuming that the supply of water in Wisconsin is endless.
We make these assumptions even though the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and water utility managers around the state know that runoff from farms, parking lots and highways continues to contaminate the state's streams, rivers and lakes -- the very waters that help sustain our health and economy.
Along with their lists of water supply "hot spots," these same officials know that there are relatively new forms of dangerous contaminants in Wisconsin waters, ranging from algae toxins to residues of powerful prescription medicines.
And there are mounting water quantity issues that also are not being approached and solved in a systematic way.
In southeast Wisconsin in the last month, developers introduced plans for mega-developments -- not typical spot subdivisions or big box stores -- in two small towns that would put an even heavier strain on already taxed ground water supplies.
One proposal in Delafield calls for the construction of more than 500 homes, a hotel and related commercial and retail businesses.
A second plan, in Sussex, calls for 180 homes, a YMCA and additional enterprises -- all on open land.
Sussex faces a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order to reduce the radium content in its ground water supply, yet Sussex also recently chose not to introduce water conservation ordinances.
Both communities are in western Waukesha County, where sprawl has contributed to a dramatic decline in the depth of the region's major underground water supply and one of the fastest rates of residential conversion of farmland in the country.
That's why the city of Waukesha is laying the groundwork for a controversial and potentially precedent-setting proposal to pipe Lake Michigan water across the subcontinental divide -- an important geological boundary that lies west of Milwaukee.
If approved by other Great Lakes states and Canadian officials, the diversion of water would remove 20 million gallons daily from Lake Michigan and guarantee a supply of fresh water to the very developers who are gobbling up the Waukesha landscape.
That water would be lost to the Great Lakes basin and Lake Michigan specifically, because Waukesha wants to continue to discharge treated sewage water into the Fox River, which flows west of the subcontinental divide to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.
In other words, the diversion would create a net loss to Lake Michigan: Waukesha says that returning treated sewage water to Lake Michigan would be too expensive.
This is somewhat similar to the impact of rapid development throughout Dane County, where water is intercepted and withdrawn by pumping before it finds its way to Lake Mendota -- and is then treated and dumped after usage downstream from the lake.
Madison's water woes should be a wake-up call to the city and state about water quality issues. Milwaukee went through an even bigger crisis some years ago when the parasite cryptosporidium infected its drinking water.
Other Wisconsin communities continue to deal either with arsenic and lead contamination in their wells or with quantity issues, as development and thirsty neighboring towns threaten lake and stream levels.
Approving subdivisions in the Lake Mendota region or piping Lake Michigan water across the subcontinental divide only transfers water troubles and mismanagement from one basin to another.
That's not a solution. That's not policymaking. That's denial.
Wisconsin villages, towns and cities need to coordinate management of the state's water resources -- ground water, surface water and treated sewage -- with water policy and management better integrated into land use and transportation planning.
That's the only way we can ensure that there will be enough clean water for Wisconsin's citizens, businesses and recreation.
James Rowen is a Milwaukee writer and consultant. E-mail: jer45y@yahoo.com
Published: June 5, 2006
