![\"water\"](\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/water.jpg\" "\\"water\\"")
Does Lake Lanier hold an important message about the possibility for economic growth in the Milwaukee area? If so, it\u2019s a message that business and political leaders in Wisconsin need to move with urgency, boldness, and vision if they want to make southeast Wisconsin the hub of freshwater-related business in North America.<\/p>\n
That was a key theme of a conference Monday convened by Marquette Law School. \u201cMilwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward\u201d brought Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and business and academic leaders together before an audience of several hundred at the Alumni Memorial Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dream is, by 2015, when people think water, they think Milwaukee,\u201d said Richard A. Meeusen, president and CEO of Badger Meter and co-chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, a group of civic leaders focused on building\u00a0 the metropolitan area as a hub for\u00a0businesses related to water.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Meeusen; Barry Grossman, an attorney at Foley & Lardner; and Barrett all spoke about Lake Lanier. The lake in northern Georgia is a main source of water for the Atlanta area. In July, a federal judge ruled against continued use of the lake to meet Atlanta\u2019s water needs. Although that is far from the final word in a dispute that has built for years, the ruling makes it significantly more likely that industries in Atlanta will be facing shortages of water within several years.<\/p>\n
Barrett said businesses there -\u2013 or in other places around the country where water shortages will become realities -\u2013 are going to ask, \u201c\u2019Where can I get water?\u2019\u201d His response: \u201cHere we are.\u201d He added, \u201cTurn about is fair play,\u201d and there would be poetic justice if Milwaukee got some businesses to move\u00a0from Atlanta, given the way the Braves baseball team moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1965. Meeusen said Milwaukee leaders should be contacting Atlanta business people and running ads in newspapers there promoting the availability of water in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
Meussen said, \u201cWe should be, in this city, trading water for jobs.\u201d He said M-7 leaders had been asking government regulators if it is legal to offer companies free or reduced price water if they move to the Milwaukee area, and were told recently by the state Public Service Commission that it is.<\/p>\n
Anselmo Teixeira, senior vice president of Siemens Water Technologies, said, \u201cWe truly have a great opportunity in our hands.\u201d He said there is no established water technology hub in North America, and Milwaukee has some substantial advantages in seeking to become such a center \u2013 if the right things are done both by government, university, and business leaders.<\/p>\n
Grossman, a member of M-7 Water Council board of directors, said, \u201cWe need to place a large bet, we need to place it quickly, if we\u2019re going to establish leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
In prepared remarks, Doyle said, \u201cWisconsin is in a unique position to be a world leader in the water industry. . . . Here in Wisconsin, we have a great story to tell and it is time for the world to hear.\u201d\u00a0 But in a panel discussion before Doyle arrived, Meeusen said emphatically that the state is not doing enough to put Milwaukee on track to be that water capital.<\/p>\n
In welcoming people to the program, Law School Dean Joseph D. Kearney said the event was an example of the way the Law School can bring people together to work on major policy issues facing the Milwaukee area.\u00a0 Mike Gousha, Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy at the Law School, moderated the morning-long session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does Lake Lanier hold an important message about the possibility for economic growth in the Milwaukee area? If so, it\u2019s a message that business and political leaders in Wisconsin need to move with urgency, boldness, and vision if they want to make southeast Wisconsin the hub of freshwater-related business in North America. That was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milwaukee","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}