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On the Water Front
Hosted by Lynn Broaddus, Ph.D. MBA | Director, Environment Programs
We All Live on an Island - Part II
The “Smart Guide to Island Housekeeping” also has guidance about water conservation, probably with stateside tourists in mind. On St. John, fresh water is supplied by the skies. There is no groundwater, no glacier, no roaring river. Homes and businesses collect rainwater in large cisterns. From there, an electric pump circulates the water through the building’s plumbing as needed. Many homes, like the one we stayed in, have state-of-the-art filtration systems to ensure that the water is safe for drinking.
Read MoreIs it Really Worth the Trouble?
Some things are hard for me to understand. Like why it's easier to dig iron ore from deep within the earth than to mine our nation's refuse heaps and scrap piles for discarded iron.
Read MoreHydraulic Fracturing Comes to Wisconsin
As someone who follows U.S. water issues fairly closely, especially those associated with the water-energy "collision" as the Union of Concernced Scientists so aptly calls it, I thought that hydraulic fracturing was a distant concern for those of us who live in Wisconsin. The latest newsletter of the River Alliance of Wisconsin has corrected my error.
Read MoreWhat's Food Got To Do With It?
What does access to healthy food have to do with clean water? Bear with me for a minute, but hopefully you'll agree that there's a link.
Read MoreWater Conservation at Wingspread
Those of you who live in arid climates may find this hard to believe, but in the parts of Wisconsin that lie along Lake Michigan, water conservation isn't talked about much. Milwaukee is working hard to be an international water technology hub, supplying innovation to industry around the globe. But at the same time, the city is trying to attract water intensive industry by greatly reducing the price of its water for new industrial users and the closest that we come to hear
Read MoreThe Value of Clean Water: A Superior Perspective
What’s water worth? It’s a frequent topic of conversation in my professional circles and perhaps yours as well.
Read MoreWhy Isn't Our Water That Clean?
I recently returned from one of those magical summer vacations, this one catalyzed by the goal of reconnecting with Ingrid and Signe, our exchange student ‘daughters’, in their home countries of Norway and Denmark. I’m embarrassed to say that, with our family’s hectic schedules, the only advance planning we did focused on fundamentals like plane tickets and passports. The rest of our research was done literally ‘on the fly’, hovering over the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately for us, it all worked wonderfully well.
Read MoreBig Vision: Re-inventing America's Urban Water Infrastructure
I can't help but be hopeful about our ability to solve our country's overwhelming water challenges when I see the extraordinarily gifted and committed people trying to tackle these problems. It's one of the great parts of my job - to find these experts and to try to figure out how to help them advance their ideas.
Read MoreWater-related Illness at Home
If Janisse Ray was ‘poetry on fire’, Marc Gorelick was science on fire. Last Monday night, to a crowd of about 40 river lovers (aka, supporters of Milwaukee Riverkeeper®), Marc presented an overview of his research on whether or not the quality of our water and our infrastructure are making kids sick.
Read MoreWith Thanks to Janisse
Poetry on fire. That’s the way Janisse Ray caught our attention, we 450 water warriors and river rats, assembled for the 2011 River Rally in Charleston, South Carolina. She stopped us cold with her poem, accelerated by passion. Seated with our lunches in the Charleston Convention Center ballroom, forks arrested mid-way to mouths, it would have been blasphemous to chew while the oracle dispensed manna from the river gods.
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