If there’s one positive to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that we’ve been knocked out of our comfort zones, and forced to recalibrate and reevaluate the important things in life and business. The virus and global economic downward spiral have driven…
Thoughts from Engineers: The Food Industry Has a Major Impact on Water Resources
Cheesemaking is a bonafide American industry that generates some $50 billion in revenue every year. In the regions of New York where dairy farms dominate,…
Thoughts From Engineers: A River Runs Through It: When Green Infrastructure Is More Than a Bit Player
Urban water management is on course to complete an evolutionary circle. When cities began to modernize more than 100 years ago, the goal was to dispose…
Thoughts From Engineers: Spinning Gold: Desalination Steps in to Alleviate World’s Water Crisis
A scenario reminiscent of Garret Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” plays out quietly around the globe. Proof that swelling populations in bone-dry regions of the world can no longer survive on existing reserves of freshwater, technology (and money) step…
Thoughts From Engineers: Water Scarcity is Common: The Grim Reality of Freshwater Supplies Worldwide
Most news headlines barely get my attention, but it was startling to come across a list of 11 cities projected to experience serious water shortages within the next 50 years due to a combination of polluted and diminishing water supplies, climate change and…
Thoughts From Engineers: When a Deep Tunnel Isn’t Enough: Milwaukee Wrestles with Combined Sewer Overflows
The City of Milwaukee was on the cusp of a victory lap. After several expansions to the Deep Tunnel storage system and other significant district-wide improvements to grey and green infrastructure, Milwaukee appeared more prepared than ever for the “mother…
Thoughts From Engineers: Look to the Watershed to Protect Water Quality
The results of an in-depth study of groundwater released in early 2019 showed that 42 percent of private wells in southwest Wisconsin are contaminated with bacteria associated with farm operations and failing septic systems. In northeast Wisconsin, the region’s…
Thoughts From Engineers: A First for the Great Lakes: Water Piped Out and Back In
The city of Waukesha, Wis., received permission in 2016 to divert 8.2 million gallons of Lake Michigan water per day as a new source of drinking water. Waukesha will use Milwaukee’s existing infrastructure to pump water out of Lake Michigan and 12.5 miles…
Thoughts From Engineers: The Hidden Monster That’s Our Failing Water Infrastructure
An aging house built in the 1930s with chipping paint, a porch door that swings eerily in the wind and precariously leaning support beams gets attention. A bridge with rusty trusses and roads with potholes get attention as well. People complain—loudly—to…
Thoughts From Engineers: Rethinking the Water We Drink
Although it may come as a surprise to some, a few communities in the United States must work harder and invest more to secure clean drinking water every day. In a particularly bone-dry part of the country, one municipality has been working on a thorny water-supply…
