How the growing “One Water” movement is not only helping the environment but also saving millions of dollars

May 8, 2018 — The Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District in Wisconsin had a problem. Due to tightening state and federal regulations, it had to help decrease the amount of phosphorus in the 540-square-mile (1,400-square-kilometer) Yahara River watershed. It was already removing 95 percent of the phosphorus from its wastewater effluent; new phosphorus level limits would require the equivalent of 96 percent removal...

...But since the state and federal governments are regulating the final water quality — not one source’s discharge — the district decided to address the problem in another way. Instead of investing those millions in more intensive phosphorus removal, the district decided to go after unregulated sources of phosphorus into the watershed from agriculture and urban and suburban runoff...

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Ken Notes: I love the systemic approach especially when you work cooperatively with the businesses, farmers, and individual involved. We could do sooooo much to improve our environment by looking for solutions rather than pointing fingers.