WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK 1989-1990


the wharf, and return to the Mississippi had been forced to suspend service.
Silting made the turn around impossible and later the Mississippi's change
in
channel made it impossible even to enter the Fever River. In 1820 Henry
Schoolcraft wrote of the transparent waters of Green Bay. An 1887 observer
of the bay spoke of the character of the water as one sailed north from the
city
of Green Bay: "As one passes to the north, the water clears until in
places
may be seen the bottom."9
   Leonard S. Smith, engineer for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural His-
tory Survey, wrote about the impact of development on the waterpower of
southern Wisconsin streams and rivers. Settlement and cultivation, he noted,
brought the harnessing of waterpower and by the early 1900s these same
forces produced idle, burned, and decayed mills. Water flow patterns result-
ing in larger freshets and a lessened flow at low water seasons, made dams
harder to maintain physically and waterpower less seasonally reliable. Silting
from the runoff of cultivated land had decreased pondage. These environ-
mental changes along with a host of economic factors made many mills passe.

3. Urban and Industrial Growth and Polluted Waters
  The vast growth in population, urban centers, and manufacturing clearly
made an impact on both the nature of waterways and the quality of water.
From the beginnings of settlement, people looked to natural surface water
supplies such as springs, streams, and lakes as a source of drinking water
and
shortly began digging wells for a close, convenient water supply. Outdoor
toilets were standard. Waste water, garbage, and chamber pot contents were
simply thrown wherever convenient. As villages grew into towns and towns
into cities, problems of healthy drinking water, sewage, and garbage disposal
became critical. The frequent epidemics of typhoid fever and other water-
borne diseases forced action later in the century. The size of an urban com-
munity often, but not invariably, influenced how soon health problems pre-
cipitated action.
  In the Fox River mill towns of Neenah-Menasha one large typhoid and 2
diptheria epidemics during the last 3 decades of the 19th century, caused
in
the opinion of the cities' historians by "garbage in the backyards,
manure in
the streets, polluted wells, and befouled streams", generated only a
general
disposition to establish pest houses in the plague years. After leading manu-
facturers insisted, Neenah built a sewage system in 1881 and a water system
in 1893. Leading businessmen of Menasha spearheaded a drive to secure a
public water system in 1905.
  In Milwaukee the timing was somewhat different. There a central city-
operated water system became imperative in the late 1860s for public health
and to serve growing industry. Between 1869 and 1874 the city built a system
to pump Lake Michigan water at first only to subscribing customers. Be-
cause industrial wastes and general sewage found its way into river and lake
water long before and long after sewer construction began, health problems
continued. Milwaukee had 165 miles of sewers by 1885. The Sewerage Com-
mission created by state legislation in 1913 concentrated on getting pollution
under control. Its first major accomplishment was the Jones Island sewage
disposal plant put into operation in 1925.


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