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How about this…the suburbs of Milwaukee and Chicago adjoin, so it feels like the cities meet. Actually, they do meet.
Ehh . . . thats pushing it. Maybe along the shore, but apart from a few clusters of commercial development of outlet malls, cheese castles, trucks stops, and old motels from the 50s immediately around the interchanges, the space along 94 between Gurnee and Milwaukee county line is still mostly farms.
Ehh . . . thats pushing it. Maybe along the shore, but apart from a few clusters of commercial development of outlet malls, cheese castles, trucks stops, and old motels from the 50s immediately around the interchanges, the space along 94 between Gurnee and Milwaukee county line is still mostly farms.
I said metros, not cities proper. The Milwaukee metro includes Racine County, and the Chicago metro includes Kenosha County. They meet.
Ehh . . . thats pushing it. Maybe along the shore, but apart from a few clusters of commercial development of outlet malls, cheese castles, trucks stops, and old motels from the 50s immediately around the interchanges, the space along 94 between Gurnee and Milwaukee county line is still mostly farms.
The first article I found on the problem of Albuquerque's water (or lack, thereof). This needs to be addressed. I'm sure conservation efforts are ongoing, but it will probably always be an issue.
Probably not a lot of people know this, but Milwaukee is now known the global water capitol. Like it or not, growth in the desert just can't continue…it's not sustainable. SO, in light of this, I would choose Milwaukee. As far as the "scenery" part of this thread, I kind of love that Milwaukee is on a lake that looks like an ocean. That's pretty impressive.
The first article I found on the problem of Albuquerque's water (or lack, thereof). This needs to be addressed. I'm sure conservation efforts are ongoing, but it will probably always be an issue.
Probably not a lot of people know this, but Milwaukee is now known the global water capitol. Like it or not, growth in the desert just can't continue…it's not sustainable. SO, in light of this, I would choose Milwaukee. As far as the "scenery" part of this thread, I kind of love that Milwaukee is on a lake that looks like an ocean. That's pretty impressive.
Albuquerque sits on top of an aquifer and now gets most of its water from the Colorado by way of the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project which feeds the Rio Grande with water from those rivers to carry downstream where Albuquerque pulls the water for treatment through an inlet as the river enters the city. The city purchased water rights to a share of the Colorado in the 1950s. It didn't start drawing upon its allocation until the 2000s.
It was once believed that the city sat on top of an underground Lake Superior and that our aquifer was limitless. In the 1980s and '90s more thorough surveys were done on our aquifer and it was learned that it had much less good, immediately potable water and much more brackish water which would require more expensive treatment once it was necessary to drill in the areas where it was present. It was also learned that the aquifer wasn't recharging as quickly as thought and that there was subsidence in the areas where water was being pumped.
That's when conservation efforts were started and the city decided to start drawing upon its reserves from the Colorado and use that as its primary source of water and to use the aquifer instead as a backup and last resort. Doing this would thus mean much less pumping from the aquifer and that would allow it to recharge quicker.
The conservation efforts in the last 20 years have been quite successful. The city went from using 250 gallons per person per day before the efforts started, to using 127 gallons per person per day last year. And there's every indication that number will continue to go down in the years ahead. The city now uses less water total today with 70 percent more people in its water service area than it did in the early 1980s. That's truly remarkable to think about.
The water conservation efforts have been mostly voluntary and have included rebates for switching old toilets with water efficient ones, free low-flow aerators for faucets and shower spouts, incentives for replacing grass and water intensive plants and trees and adding cisterns and systems to collect rainwater for watering landscaping in yards, fines for wasting water (such as runny and inefficient sprinklers and washing cars with the water running from a hose) and restrictions on times to water in the hotter months when water will evaporate quickly.
Albuquerque also has in place a massive system to use wastewater for industrial, irrigation and watering purposes. I talked about this in the Phoenix vs. Albuquerque thread but there I forgot that there are actually two massive areas of the city where this system is in place. One area is where the majority of offices and industry is located in this city. It also serves to water the parks and golf courses in an adjacent, more residential area. That is on the north side of town, the second is on the south side of town which is heavily industrial and includes the airport and its landscaping and two more public golf courses. That means most public golf courses are hooked up to be watered with wastewater.
I'd point out that Albuquerque has very few golf courses. There are one military, two university, four public, six private and four resort golf courses in the immediate urban area of the metro and two more in the outlying areas. That's 19 total for a metro the size of some New England states combined. And compare that to Phoenix which has well over two hundred (closer to 250) in its metro area.
If anyone is familiar with Albuquerque they know it is not wasting water by making the desert a lush place. And the few areas that are somewhat lush are most often to be found nearer the Sandia Mountains where there is much more precipitation on average than the rest of the city, thus lessening the need for intensive watering to keep those kinds of plants alive.
Albuquerque is also not growing at meteoric speed and it probably never will. The city itself has doubled and tripled in size before but it has never added more than 105,000 people in a decade. It added almost 100,000 people in the last decade but this decade is shaping up to be much less. The metro also has never added incredible amounts of people. Last Census was the most in its history at a little less than 160,000 people. The metro also is not growing nearly as fast this decade as it was last. It is estimated at about 904,000 in 2014 up about 17,000 in four years from about 887,000 in the 2010 Census.
This slowdown in growth has happened before. The last time it was this dramatic was in the 1960s after the incredible boom of the 1940s and '50s when the city tripled and doubled in size and the city added only about 43,000 people after adding its highest number ever of more than 105,000 people in the 1950s. The 1980s and '90s were also relatively slow compared to the 1970s and 2000s growth rates of 21 percent each.
Albuquerque has a secure water future and it is making it more secure by continuing to use less water and making efforts to not waste the water it does use and using more of its runoff and wastewater for irrigation and industrial uses.
Last edited by ABQalex; 03-22-2016 at 08:18 PM..
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