Editorial: Watershed trust can be a force for regional unity

The newly formed group has a sensible plan to deal with water quality issues with a regional approach, based on the natural watersheds of the area.

Posted: May 3, 2008

Clean water is essential to a healthy environment, a healthy economy and, not least, a healthy populace. And improving water quality in a region is one of the first steps to creating a place where families and businesses want to be. That's why last week's launch of a regional group to address water quality issues in southeastern Wisconsin has enormous potential.

Water

Milwaukee Watersheds

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The Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust is designed to be an umbrella organization for environmental groups, business organizations, government interests, public policy groups and citizens of all types. A nongovernmental, non-taxing organization, the trust hopes to help coordinate the efforts of the other groups to reduce pollution, especially non-point or runoff pollution, and to create cleaner waterways.

Born and named Monday at the fifth annual Clean Rivers, Clean Lakes conference - sponsored by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District - the trust has many parents. One was the Public Policy Forum's water study of several years ago, out of which came a separate group that continued to look at regional solutions to water issues. Instrumental in guiding that group was Nancy Frank, chair of the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Also involved in the effort to get the trust off the ground have been groups such as the River Revitalization Foundation, the Metropolitan Builders Association, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, Clean Wisconsin, Midwest Environmental Advocates; utilities such as We Energies; government organizations such as MMSD, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission; and individuals such as Mequon Mayor Christine Nuernberg, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Andy Holschbach of Ozaukee County's Resources and Land Management Department, Milwaukee Director of Environmental Sustainability Ann Beier, Patrick Marchese of Oneida Total Integrated Enterprises, Peter McAvoy of the 16th Street Community Health Center and Karen Sands of Earthtech.

But no one pushed harder or was more instrumental than Kevin Shafer, the sewerage district's executive director, and the district's staff, who started talking about this concept more than a year ago and kept pushing until it became a reality.

Much more needs to be done before the trust can become an effective organization, but the first step has been taken. Modeled after a similar group in Illinois - Chicago Wilderness - the idea is to deal with water quality issues regionally, based on the natural watersheds of the area rather than on arbitrary political boundaries. Given that water doesn't much care about such things as political boundaries, that makes a lot of sense.

The vision of Shafer and others encompassed in the trust involves moving beyond regulation, pipes and treatment plants to create working partnerships to improve water quality.

The trust has five primary purposes, according to its memorandum of understanding:

• To achieve water resource goals and objectives - such as clean water, conservation and ecological function - through innovative and sustainable practices.

• To improve water quality in the greater Milwaukee watersheds to support a healthy regional economy and improve quality of life.

• To test and then implement innovative approaches and practices that will achieve improvements in water resources in a cost-effective way.

• To build partnerships and enhance collaborative decision-making and joint project implementation, engaging government, business, the building industry, agriculture, environmental and other stakeholder organizations to obtain broad agreement and recommend where to invest funds to get the greatest benefit.

• Through collaborative action, to increase the region's success in attracting new funding and leverage existing funding for water quality and water resource improvements.

Money will be critical. Chicago Wilderness has been successful at least in part because of substantial federal funding. Addressing serious issues of pollution posed by urban and rural runoff will take money. Addressing the conference on Monday, Shafer stressed the need for a market-based approach and the importance of finding cost-effective solutions.

Studies have indicated that runoff is probably the largest remaining water pollution problem. Industrial waste and sewer overflows are still issues, but the big problem comes from pollutants - oil, animal waste, fertilizers, pesticides - washed into watersheds by rain or snow melt. In addition to pushing for more public and private funding for correcting those problems, the trust also could help communities choose priorities among cleanup measures, Shafer told the Journal Sentinel's Don Behm (www.jsonline.com/744218).

Finding adequate financing will be one challenge. The Joyce Foundation in Chicago already has awarded a $207,500 grant to several local and state environmental groups, including Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, to support their involvement in the larger partnership. One activity funded by the plan will be a citizen monitoring program.

Another challenge will be coordinating the efforts of disparate groups with their own agendas. The good news is that right now, significant groups are all on board. Making sure everyone is on the same page won't be easy. The trust will have to be patient, open and inclusive if it is to succeed in creating a truly regional collaborative effort.

And everyone means everyone: Businesses, municipalities, environmental groups, farmers and homeowners all contribute to the problem and have a stake in solving it. Some answers will be regionwide, some will be addressed at the municipal level, some will come in backyards as homeowners disconnect downspouts from sewers and add rain barrels.

As important as it is to address water quality issues on a watershed basis, the trust's efforts also could pay off in another important way. Just as with efforts of the recently created Milwaukee 7 economic development group and the Regional Transit Authority, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust will provide another venue for groups from Ozaukee County to Kenosha County to work together.

Such efforts can create closer bonds between people and suggest partnerships where none existed before. And just like clean water, that's good for us all.

What should be the priorities of the newly created Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial department