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Editor’s Note
Keeping water on tap Sarah Wright | Editor
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aving reliable energy and water is essential for any municipality. Water, in particular, has drawn national headlines in recent years, following stories of lead and other undesirable contaminants in city water or shortages during droughts. Having resiliency baked into systems and staying as proactive as possible in embracing new technologies can help prevent service breakdowns. Within this issue, we are covering some massive water projects that are proactive in different ways. California is no stranger to droughts. So far, in 2022, the state has remained under significant drought conditions, with the International Space Station capturing video toward the end of April that shows the dwindling snowpack that helps fill much of the state’s reservoirs. Through data released April 26, U.S. Drought Monitor found that more than 95% of California was classified under severe or extreme drought, which increased from about 66% recorded in February. With continual droughts, California municipalities are exploring their options to keep water on tap. Writer Denise Fedorow profiles the ongoing, ambitious Regional Surface Water Project between the cities of Turlock and Ceres, Calif. Once complete, this project will pull water from the Tuolumne River to be treated and used
as a supplement to the two cities’ groundwater supplies. As a supplement, it will add an alternate source in case of depletion or contamination. Within the midwest, the city of Bemidji, Minn., discovered perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the underground aquifer that its five wells draw from for producing drinking water. This propelled the city to act, building a new water treatment plant. Writer Kevin Kilbane details this project, which won a 2022 Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota. On the energy side, two of our writers are profiling two cities — Ann Arbor, Mich., and Wauwatosa, Wis. — which are embarking on large green energy projects, including sizeable investments in solar energy. Ann Arbor hopes to be using 100% renewable energy by 2030, and to reach that goal, it has developed plans for solar panels to be added to 19 city
facilities. Wauwatosa has also been adding solar to different city buildings, while also investing in other green pursuits, like converting street lights to LED, constructing green alleys and prohibiting the use of singleuse plastic straws. Being proactive and diversifying systems, whether in water or energy, is beneficial, even if not a complete fix all for life’s unpredictable hiccups.
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10 THE MUNICIPAL | JUNE 2022
