Editorial: It's time for a water czar

Posted: Nov. 15, 2006

An idea whose time has come may actually be on its way, something that doesn't always happen in Wisconsin. The idea is water conservation, and it could arrive in the form of an efficiency chief hired by the state Public Service Commission to coordinate and monitor water conservation efforts.

Eric Callisto, a PSC executive assistant, told a special legislative committee that the public is ready to embrace water conservation and accept that the resource needs protection. We concur. Through articles, television and even lawsuits, the public is well aware that water quality and quantity are becoming major public policy issues across the globe, including in southeastern Wisconsin.

Waukesha and New Berlin are asking for Lake Michigan water to help alleviate a serious radium problem in the deep aquifer on which their municipal wells rely. Municipal wells have become issues in East Troy, the Eagles - town and village - and in the Lake Country of Waukesha County. Milwaukee has an underutilized water works system and a wastewater treatment system that everyone loves to criticize.

At the same time, a new international agreement over use and protection of the Great Lakes has been forged and is awaiting approval from state legislatures and Congress. The committee that heard the recommendation to hire a water czar on Monday is charged with creating enabling legislation for that agreement in Wisconsin.

A key piece of the agreement - the Great Lakes Water Resource Compact - stresses the need for serious water conservation by communities seeking to get water from the Great Lakes. Waukesha has begun a conservation program that holds promise; other communities outside the natural basin of the lakes that want Lake Michigan water need to do the same.

A state water czar to coordinate and monitor such programs could be a big help to those communities. The suggestion came in a report put together by an advisory group of environmentalists, utility and government officials, farmers and industrialists. The report also argued, among other things, that water should be recycled; water rates should discourage waste; more water-saving hardware should be used to restrict flow; and water conservation education should be an integral part of all water conservation plans.

All are good suggestions and deserve to become part of public policy.

But a warning from PSC officials also should be heeded: Conservation efforts must avoid driving heavy industrial water users to switch from municipal water systems to private wells or to leave the state over the cost of regulation. Such efforts also should avoid harming water utilities that are trying to cope with the loss of industrial customers. The officials are right: A balance must be found.

Although the report was aimed at addressing water utility issues, it has a message for all state residents: It's time to stop wasting water. Creating a new position to help communities do that would be a solid first step.