Drinking Water Week provides reason to reflect
Cooking pasta for the family. Taking a hot shower. Filling up your kids’ sports bottle. No matter what the use, we rely on high-quality tap water every day. Drinking Water Week (May 7-13) offers us an opportunity to put the spotlight on the water we often take for granted.
The 35th annual Drinking Water Week is a national observance by the American Water Works Association and water professionals across North America. The purpose of this week — for which Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt signed a proclamation for the city of Green Bay — is to recognize the vital role water plays in our daily lives.
In Green Bay, our utility pumps, treats and delivers an average of 18 million gallons of water every day. In contrast, 783 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.
While much of the attention on drinking water is, by default, on the water itself, what deserves equal attention is the infrastructure that delivers our water. Green Bay has more than 440 miles of water mains in its distribution system and, much like other communities across the nation, some of this system (water mains and valves) is 75 to 100 years old. Incredibly, some of the city’s water infrastructure is nearly as old as the Green Bay Water Utility (1886).
Green Bay is not alone in its aging water infrastructure. A recently released report from the American Society of Civil Engineers says Wisconsin will face $1 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs in the next 20 years because of an aging water infrastructure.
The rule of thumb in the industry is to replace 1 percent of a city’s water distribution system per year so that the entire system is updated over a 100-year span. Over the past decade, we have updated/replaced an average of 2.5 miles of water main per year. Obviously, that leaves room for us to step up our game.
Why is this so essential? Our water infrastructure is necessary to the “top of mind” things we associate with the water coming out of our faucets. But maintaining our water infrastructure is critical on a deeper level, too. There’s a much larger-scale impact that water and water infrastructure have on public health, economic vitality, fire protection and quality of life. The Greater Green Bay Chamber will release an economic development plan later this week that puts “quality of place” as a top priority for regional economic development. Whether it’s capitalizing on the water from a recreational standpoint with the bay or a drinking standpoint, let’s stop, acknowledge and appreciate water’s integral role in creating the quality of life we have here.
Previous generations had some amazing forethought when they opted, in 1957, to obtain the city’s drinking water from Lake Michigan just north of Kewaunee. They invested in a pumping station there as well as a still-progressive filtration plant that can provide up to 45 million gallons of water a day, if needed. All too often, out of sight is out of mind. While the deterioration of aging bridges and roads is easily visible, water mains and service buried six feet underground are not. We can’t continue to expect a system of pipes/water mains that were put in place before we were born to continue to deliver the water quality we deserve. Even the best-laid system requires maintenance and updating.
Show your appreciation for your water by advocating for infrastructure investment.
Nancy Quirk is general manager of the Green Bay Water Utility.