Brookfield Basics

Please include in your list development in the city that puts an unnecessary burden on our water supply?  I'm thinking of things like numerous health clubs, hotels and restaurants with huge laundry requirements. Maybe designers should eliminate the fountains and waterfalls and recycle that water for watering the grass. Residents are required to limit our watering but is the same requirement put on commercial tennants?

Good evening "My Two Cents", and thank you for your comments. Water should be a consideration in everything we do, and certainly that includes development.  But more important I think, is the question of our individual attitude towards water.  Development is an issue, but not the primary concern.  Rather, it is our casual, wanton view towards water that is the largest problem.  Is it the health club - or the people who take thirty minute showers in the health club?

The Brookfield City Code for water usage applies to all properties: residential, commercial or government.  The recently updated lawn sprinkling rules apply to every property, including those not connected to city water.

As for fountains, etc., it's a balancing act.  The city is criticized for "bland" architecture so fountains get added for visual interest.  The water is pumped in a loop - not flushed down the drain and replaced with new water.  The only loss is through evaporation.  Large office parks often have ponds with a fountain in the middle.  The real reason is that the ponds hold stormwater to prevent it from flooding neighbors and if that water was stagnant it would breed mosquitoes, algae, etc.  The fountain aerates the water to keep it clean.  Visual interest is just an added benefit.

Hi Tom, I can see where the community will regulate its own publicly funded water system. Especially if they have the monitoring tools to see water levels in their wells. On the other hand I do not like the fact that they want to regulate my private well, especially when they do not moitor all the diffferent aquafiers for all the different well depths. They have those private wells where people have complained about there water quality and abudance or lack there of. The city then programs its water installation activities accordingly.

Yet while they feel they have the power to tell me when to be able to use my private well they do nothing to protect the aquafier by insisting that indivituals do the yearly sanitizing of there system necessary to protect the aquafier. No sealaed well caps being required to keep out the earwigs and other vermin that polute the water. This type of regulation would be more meaning full instead of just telling me not to use my well because of those that are on a municipal system are regulated. So much for private water rights.  

The city is welcome to come and maintain my well for me as long as they want to tell me how to use it. The City also lets those people that have a well continue to use it during the time after they hook up to municipal water but once again do nothing to protect the water in that well. Once hooked up the wells should be immediately professionaly abandonded to protect the aquafier.

Some of the older wells not yet professionally abandonded have the unsealed well caps , at the very least the homeowners should be required to install a sealed well cap right away for all our benifit. I think its dead wrong for them to tell me how to use my well especially when I have no problem.

Let me please add a bit more information to the discussion.

All 23 city wells draw from the same water system, and range from 250 feet to 1800 feet deep.  The utility's many shallow wells compete with the residential wells for water.  While there are many aquifers at various depths, they are all fed by rain water.  It's a very complex system with many unexpected connections.  State law allows this broad regulation in recognition of that fact.

State law, administered by the DNR for uniformity, dictates that all private wells be tested for coliform bacteria (often sewage contamination from private septic systems) after any repair work.  In practice only plumbers do this since they could lose their license if they don't.  Mortgage companies require the report before giving a mortgage.

When I was on a private well I shock chlorinated once a year.  I think it helped in many ways, but it took half a day to do.  Many people have an attitude of "it works - don't fix it."

The state plumbing code has required vermin proof caps for well over a decade.  It is enforced when a new well is dug or a plumber repairs an existing one.  The old wells are grandfathered in.  During the floods of 1997-1998 many of the well caps were under water and the aquifers were contaminated.  There were no such problems on the city system.  

Can you imagine the outcry if the city inspectors went to every property and wrote orders to correct (place new caps on old wells)?  I can just hear the screams of trespassing, police state tactics, never had trouble before, it's my money and none of your business, etc.  It's all a balancing act between public health and political reality.

A few years ago the city water connection policy was changed so that if a new water main is installed in front of your house, you must connect within 10 years or when your house sells, whichever is sooner.  That defused the argument of "I shouldn't have to connect because I put in a new pump last year and won't get any use out of it."  Even after connection you are allowed to continue to use your old well for lawn watering, a political compromise for the same reason.  When you do stop using the well, it must be abandoned according to DNR regulations, which involves removing the casing and filling the hole.

Water main projects used to be by resident request, but that's fairly rare now, perhaps one project every 2 years.  New subdivisions are required to use city water to get approved.  For the last few years the projects have been placed based on an engineering plan of connecting areas already surrounded by water, interconnecting existing systems, etc.  Every project is surrounded by controversy and is subject to multiple hearings and votes by the water board and common council.

For much more information, check the city web site at:

www.cityofbrookfield.com/index.asp

Ald. Scott A. Berg, Brookfield Water Board Chairman

The above commentary is interesting and informative.  But none of it addresses the issue I raised, which is conservation.  My main point is that we need to USE LESS WATER.

Just as a small add to Ald. Scott Bergs commentary if a well is abandoned the casing does not have to be removed unless it is a sand point type well which is highly unlikely here in this area, very prevlant in other areas. The standard method to professionally abandon a well is to fill it with a very special compound that either a licensed well driller can do, licensed plumber , or licensed pump company. The cost of course depends upon the depth of the well.

While the Building inspection department has the power to enforce those areas under there stewardship no one ever leans on them until there well went bad because the neighbor next door does not have a sealed well cap. Tough to point the finger of guilty with out knowing where the pollution came from. I think enforcement of the sealed well cap should be made even if some ones well is grandfathered not to have to do it. Minor cost and having the water tested is free with the county or a very small charge. They will even provide the instructions and the jar.

Tom, protecting the aquifer is as important as using it wisely. To try and sell that to those that don't maintain there well is difficult. I have tried to tell people with wells how to do it. My pump installer has a dandy brochure that explains the simple process. Possibly some elderly people would not be inclined to want to do that so the sources mentioned here are readily available in the community.

Using less water will be a challenge to sell, people will shower, wash there clothes and prevail in there private life style always. The lawn watering thing is all the city can do. Some of the aquifers in the area actually will have there source of water far away from our area and other people are using them with out regulation. You can do only so much. Good subject.