Politics and Water Supply in Milwaukee, 1870-1995 Kate Foss-Mollan
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Purdue University Press e-books Purdue University Press 1-1-2001 Hard Water: Politics and Water Supply in Milwaukee, 1870-1995 Kate Foss-Mollan Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks Recommended Citation Foss-Mollan, Kate, "Hard Water: Politics and Water Supply in Milwaukee, 1870-1995" (2001). Purdue University Press e-books. Book 12. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/12 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. PURDUE UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES IN THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY FROM THE BOOK: F of suburbs and the crypto- When perception is allowed to rule government response, the OSS -M t a time when East Coast sporidium outbreak of 1993. result can be chaotic at best, potentially fatal at worst. The A OLLAN cities had been providing water She also looks at the political need for improved methods of decision making in the field of for half a century and Midwestern power struggle between the state public works will become more dramatic in the coming cities had begun to offer such ser- and local governments during decades, as decades-old infrastructure begins to decay. Hard vice as a necessary component of the days of the city’s Socialist Learning from Milwaukee’s mistakes may save cities time, urban life, Milwaukee was still administrations and shows how money, frustration, and lives. struggling with balancing the de- decisions about Milwaukee’s sires of its citizens, the opinions water would ultimately lead to Water of different political parties re- the imposition of state control garding the best method for ser- over utilities. Throughout this OLITICS AND P vice provision, and the best means often turbulent history, the Also of Interest H ATER UPPLY of providing those services. Hard reader sees how such a basic hu- ARD W S Building New York’s Sewers Water shows how these struggles man need as access to clean, Developing Mechanisms of Urban Management have continued over Milwaukee’s plenteous water can be thwarted by Joanne Abel Goldman IN MILWAUKEE, W 155-year history, and how costly by the very institutions that were “. fills an important gap in the history of public utilities . [Goldman’s] real 1870–1995 the consequences can be. entrusted with its procurement. achievement is showing how political and economic factors shaped water supply and sewer policy.”—Technology and Culture ATER Kate Foss-Mollan’s story of how Milwaukee got its water sup- cloth, ISBN 1-55753-095-5 ply weaves together strands from KATE FOSS-MOLLAN holds a political science, urban history, Ph.D. in urban studies from the Enabling American Innovation technology and biology, and University of Wisconsin- Engineering and the National Science Foundation by Dian Olson Belanger media studies. From arguments Milwaukee. She has taught his- “As Dian Olson Belanger ably shows in this book, the entire history of about supplying poor neighbor- tory at the University of Wis- engineering in the National Science Foundation is intimately bound up with hoods with water to partisan de- consin-Whitewater and was pre- questions of engineering’s character and status relative to basic scientific bates over the need for a filtration viously employed as a water research.”—Science and Technology plant, the history of Milwaukee’s chemist for four years at the cloth, ISBN 1-55753-111-0 water supply supplies many les- Milwaukee Water Works. Her sons for today. research focuses on the history P An engaging narrator, Foss- of Milwaukee and on urban im- U ATE OSS OLLAN R K F -M Mollan focuses on specific land- migrant populations. ISBN 1-55753-195-1 D U marks in Milwaukee’s eventful Purdue University Press E history, such as the incorporation West Lafayette, Indiana insert bar code P URDUE UNIVERSITY PRESS HARD WATER History of Technology Series HARD WATER Politics and Water Supply in Milwaukee, 1870–1995 Kate Foss-Mollan Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana Copyright 2001 by Purdue University Press. All rights reserved. 10987654321 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Foss-Mollan, Kate, 1957– Hard water : politics and water supply in Milwaukee, 1870–1995 / Kate Foss-Mollan. p. cm. —(History of technology series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55753-195-1 (acid-free paper) 1. Water-supply—Wisconsin—Milwaukee—History. I. Title. II. Series. HD4464.M5 F67 2000 333.91'2'0977595—dc21 00-008402 Dedicated to Mike Mollan CONTENTS Tables, Maps, and Figures ix Acknowledgments xi CHAPTER 1 A Brief Look at Urban Water Supply 1 CHAPTER 2 The Water That Made Milwaukee’s Beer Famous 37 CHAPTER 3 The Typhoid Cocktail Hour 80 CHAPTER 4 If You Can’t Join ’Em, Beat ’Em 117 CHAPTER 5 No Free Lunch 156 CHAPTER 6 A City Is Not a Business 195 Index 217 TABLES, MAPS, AND FIGURES Table 1: Water Petitions Filed and Approved, 1890–1910 63 Table 2: Populations of 14th and 18th Wards, 1890–1910 69 Table 3: Characteristics of 14th and 18th Wards, 1905 69 Table 4: Pipe Laid in 14th and 18th Wards, 1873–1910 70 Table 5: Chemical Dosages, Howard Plant, 1988–93 168 Table 6: Chemical Dosages, Linnwood Plant, 1988–93 168 Table 7: R-squared Values, Total Complaints and Sick Complaints, Linnwood and Howard Facilities, 1993–95 175 Table 8: Multiple Regression Results, Complaint Calls vs. Media Reports, Linnwood and Howard Facilities, 1993–95 176 Table 9: Water Department Funds Transferred, 1900–95 205 Map 1: Milwaukee, Sites of Pumping Station, Reservoir, and of Water Commissioners’ Residence, ca. 1875 79 Map 2: Milwaukee Wards, ca. 1900 79 Map 3: Incorporated Land, 1900 152 Map 4: Incorporated Land, 1910 152 Map 5: Incorporated Land, 1920 153 Map 6: Incorporated Land, 1930 153 Map 7: Incorporated Land, 1940 154 Map 8: Incorporated Land, 1950 154 Map 9: Incorporated Land, 1960 155 Figure 1: Diarrheal Illness, February–April 1993 177 ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in completing this book: the staff of the Milwaukee County Historical So- ciety; the staff at the Legislative Reference Bureau; the staff at the Mil- waukee Archives at the Milwaukee Public Library; the reference librar- ians at the UW-Madison Library and Law Library; and Richard Regent, Robert Erickson, Carrie Lewis, Jesse Cooks, A. J. Henry, Henry Tho- mas, Dan Welk, Mark Glasso, and Patricia Klappa of the Milwaukee Water Works. I would also like to thank Margo Anderson for having the patience to read this many times over the six years it took to write. Thanks to Susan and Sam Mollan for computer support and comic relief. Finally, I would like to thank my husband Mike Mollan for his unswerving support, and his willingness to complete the many house- hold chores which would have otherwise remained undone. xi CHAPTER 1 A BRIEF LOOK AT URBAN WATER SUPPLY Water is essential to life—the life of a city as well as the life of a human being. With- out water, a man dies. Without water, a com- munity suffers the same fate.—Leonard Scheele, U.S. Surgeon General, Report to Congress, 1952 Access to water is necessary to the modern way of life. The interrup- tion of a city’s water supply would have immediate consequences. Wa- ter rationing would be instituted to provide minimal supplies for drink- ing and cooking until sources from outside the affected area could be obtained. In the interim, manufacturing would have to shut down, bath- ing would cease, dishes would not be washed, toilets could not be flushed. If the supply were not quickly reestablished, foodstuffs requir- ing water for preparation, such as coffee, tea, juice and locally bottled soda and beer would become unavailable. Disease would soon appear as sewage remained unprocessed and pathogens were spread through insect or rodent vectors. Electricity and heat would cease to be avail- able as power plants would be unable to function without water cool- ing systems. Media coverage of recent episodes such as the Mississippi 1 2 Chapter 1 Valley floods of 1993, the Milwaukee cryptosporidium episode, and the siege of Sarejevo have brought before the public the concept that a city’s water supply can be its most vulnerable point. Considering the severity of the situation above it is somewhat sur- prising that until the last three decades urban water supply was a sub- ject in which there was little public interest, although scholars wrote largely unread works on the subject. In the last fifteen years, publicity regarding chemical and biological contamination of drinking water sources forced the issue to public notice, yet it can be argued that the issues involved in urban water supply policy are still not fully under- stood, even at the political decision-making ranks of local and national government. The ways in which urban water supply is regarded by those in con- trol of its purification and distribution can reveal much about local atti- tudes toward a city’s individuals, companies, and manufacturers. Ad- ditionally, decision-making processes about water supply can have repercussions for public opinion and confidence in local government. Water supply can affect the growth of a city, particularly when it is avail- able in a central city and not in surrounding communities. Finally, the response of water professionals to manufacturing, commercial, and resi- dent concerns over quality and quantity of water available can affect the stability of a city’s industrial and financial base. Throughout history, availability of water in urban areas has been shown to affect all these areas, yet it is rarely considered as a major reason for relocation of any person or company to an area.