Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
contamination, certain rock is more conducive to creating ground-
water pollution. Arsenic, for example, can be prevalent and con-
taminate drinking water supplies in areas with basalt and volcanic
rock. New Mexico is one example of that, says Sandia's Hightower.
Laws governing who gets how much water and from where com-
plicate the mix. If one city's well or aquifer is polluted, that city
probably can't just drill deeper or go somewhere else to satisfy its
water needs.
Water- Rich Midwest Thirsts
Location, geology, and international law add up to water short-
ages in small New Berlin, Wisconsin, even though the town isn't
far from Lake Michigan, part of the Great Lakes Basin, the larg-
est freshwater lake system on the planet. The town already gets
part of its water from the city of Milwaukee, which taps Lake
Michigan. The lake borders Canada, so its water is regulated by
international law.
Exacerbating New Berlin's problem is the fact the city is split by
a subcontinental divide. The east side of the city (and of the divide)
drains off the land into the Great Lakes Basin; on the other side
of the divide and the city, water fl ows away from the lake into the
Mississippi River Basin. In the scheme of access to water and inter-
national law, that makes a big difference. Water law, which we'll
talk more about in Chapter 5, can involve the premise that what
you take out of one basin or watershed has to go back to the same
basin. That doesn't always happen in New Berlin (or elsewhere)
because its drainage pattern prevents all the water returning to or
replenishing its source.
New Berlin's water shortage is expected to reach 3 million
gallons of water a day by 2020. And that's for a city of only
about 40,000 people. To get more water—in this case, from Lake
Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin—New Berlin petitioned
the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for a diversion
of Great Lakes water. Complicating matters, Wisconsin's use of
Great Lakes water is affected by international law and by the
