![]() Milwaukee, a much larger city, also has three elevated storage tanks. For example, Brookfield has four and New Berlin has three. Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources confirmed that for cities of a similar size, it’s not unusual to have three or four elevated storage tanks. "It’s not a lot for the size of the water system we have - no, not out of the ordinary," says David. Is that a lot for a city of 50,000 people? So, Wauwatosa has four municipal water towers, three of which are currently in use. Wauwatosa took the water fight to the state Public Service Commission, which in 1958 ordered Milwaukee to supply Tosa with water.īubbler Talk: What have you always wanted to know about the Milwaukee area that you'd like WUWM to explore? This was around the time that Milwaukee was competing with suburbs to annex land. In the mid-1900s, Milwaukee refused to supply Lake Michigan water to Wauwatosa, which was reliant on well water.Īn article from the Wauwatosa Historical Society quotes then-Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler saying, “How about becoming part of the city politically? You want city services without paying taxes.” Wauwatosa's water supply has a contentious history. "Depending on the time of day, it’s very likely a resident would be consuming water from inside the tower depending on how far they live from the tower and what time of day they are using it," he says. The lowest-use months are November through February, with around 115 million gallons of water flowing through sinks and showers. The highest-use months in Wauwatosa are June through August, when people consume around 150 million gallons of water. The Glenview water tower is only used during warmer months when water demand is higher. "The reason we elevate it is to make sure the pressure you guys need at home and the pressure our fire fighters need when they’re fighting a fire is available to them at all times," David says.ĭavid says the Burleigh and Feerick water towers are drained and refilled at least once a day to keep the water fresh. It’s stored in ground-level tanks as well as four water towers, elevated 125-200 feet off the ground. ![]() Tosa’s water comes from Lake Michigan via Milwaukee Water Works, which treats the water. And on any given day we need to prepare for the maximum use of that day." ![]() "So the city of Wauwatosa pumps in an average year over 1.5 billion gallons of water to our residents and commercial users. "Every community has a different number of water towers based on the need of the community," says David. To answer that question, Brice and I met Tosa’s public works director, David Simpson, at the Glenview water tower. The fourth city tower on Burleigh Street is pictured at the top of this page. WUWM Wauwatosa city water towers include, from left to right: the Glenview Avenue tower (Brice's favorite), the Feerick Street tower and the Research Park tower off of Watertown Plank Road. ![]()
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