Common Ground
A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
Nelson And Scrima All Wet On Water?
One wants water from Lake Michigan. One wants every quarry and pothole in the ground used as water reservoirs. Two very different extremes, but neither really mattering as it is overlooked that our Aldermen are really the ones who make the decision.
Inspired by reports of how much money it typically costs from the so called stimulus program to create an alleged job, I came up with my own proposal to solve our problem with making DNR and EPA pinheads happy. Oops, that should have been something less sarcastic. Change that to bureaucrats.
Lets do the math. The city estimates that obtaining Lake Michigan water to cost $78 Million dollars. Keep in mind that I don't know of many instances of government estimates being close to correct. For example, depending on which Obama person you listen to, the Stimulus program created 250,000 or as many as 2,000,000 jobs. Seems to me that as tight-fisted as the IRS is, they would have a better idea of it.
No matter, lets take that $78 Million dollar figure and divide that into the number of housing units in the city. According the government's quick-facts on Waukesha, there were 26,856 dwellings in the city. So that amounts to $2,904 per house. Remember that number.
Now, the reason that we are considering all of this water mess is primarily because some government bureaucrats have decided that the level of radium in our water is too much. These are the same people that say the air we exhale, carbon dioxide, is a toxic substance. Well, just as activated charcoal absorbs carbon dioxide, your ordinary everyday water softener absorbs the radium in the water and down the drain it goes rather than into our bones.
Ok, water softeners eliminate radium. I just installed a new water softener, myself, for less than $500. It has used a 40 pound bag of salt in a months time so salt will cost around $50 a year, give or take. Professional installation would cost more and of course a softener from the pro would also cost more. He's got to mark that price up too. But my point is made. We could eliminate our radium problem by requiring a working water softener in each dwelling just as we require a water and sewer hook-up.
I realize that doesn't cover the issue of the falling water table in our wells, but the city is considering a 60 unit housing project on the Northwest side of the city. Until our water issue is settled, shouldn't we put a moratorium on increasing our water consumption?
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