A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
I won't recap what you already know. If you missed it, Sunday's Journal Sentinel Crossroads section has lots of good articles on the city's water problem. One statistic that I find interesting is that we have dropped our water use by 20% while the population increased by 17%. It is interesting that time period is when everyone started walking around with bottled water in their hand.
Looking at those bottles, the water comes from places around the country and sometimes the world. We are lucky that we don't have to return the bottles for a deposit. Use your imagination about that! But that is what a requirement is if we have any chance of getting Lake Michigan water to solve both our radium issue and declining aquifer issue.
I appreciate what Mayor Nelson is doing to get us that Lake Michigan water. However, as the Great Lakes Compact is written, It appears that it won't happen anytime soon. With that in mind, I have to look at that 17% raise in population. It isn't all larger households. What could that 20% reduction in water use have been without the new houses? At what point will water use begin to raise again. It is said our aquifer can never replenish itself at the rate we are using water. Let's hope those bottled water companies never require a deposit!
