The Year of Water

About the Year of Water
Events
How It Started
Projects & Updates
What You Can Do
Water Conservation Links
In the News

About The Year of Water

In spring 2011, we surveyed Monona residents, and learned that water was their most important concern. In fall 2011, with water rates increasing by 32%, the City of Monona and The Natural Step Monona invited residential customers of the Monona Water Utility to register to compete in 2012′s Water Conservation Challenge, a year-long contest between households to reduce their water consumption.

Mayor Bob Miller proclaimed 2012 the Year of Water, a year for community members “to learn about water and actively engage in taking positive steps to change how we use and manage water,” according to the proclamation. To assist groups in taking on water conservation or management projects during the Year of Water, UW-Madison students have met with groups this fall, sharing ways to conserve and ideas for projects they could do. We invite you to be part of the community-wide, community-building activities in 2012. What will your group pledge to do?

It is an incredible time to be working to create awareness and measurable change around water. In what promises to be a highlight of the Year of Water, in July 2012, the Lake Monona Water Walk will be led by First Nations Ojibwe Grandmother Josephine Mandamin and by William Waterway Marks. Mandamin has walked around all of the Great Lakes and is featured in the documentary Waterlife. Marks is the author of The Holy Order of Water and Water Voices from Around the World, which is a compilation of the voices of renowned world leaders. We are thrilled to have them lead a walk around our lake!

Multiple advocacy and nonprofit groups, along with many leaders from around the area, are helping with the project and we have barely begun to get the word out. “Stay tuned” for more information, or join in helping, too, by contacting us at info@tnsmonona.org.

Events

The Water Conservation Challenge allows Monona residents to compete during Monona’s Year of Water. Challenge participants will save water, save money, and maybe even win prizes, too.

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How It Started

By:  Abigail Jackson

Last spring, a team of students in a Capstone Class from University of Wisconsin Nelson Institute and volunteers from The Natural Step Monona (TNS Monona) knocked on every door in the city of Monona to deliver a survey about citizens’ concerns of sustainability, the barriers to making change, and the methods they were adopting to become more sustainable. Replying to a question about which community issues were most important to them, the top two responses were clean lakes and clean drinking water. In addition to these concerns, the water utility rates increased by 32% on November 1, 2011 because of the costs of major infrastructure improvements.

Spring 2011 Capstone Class

To bring the community together for action around water concerns, Mayor Bob Miller spoke on October 17th, 2011 declaring: “…I, Robert E. Miller, Mayor of the City of Monona, Wisconsin, do hereby proclaim 2012 as the year of water in the City of Monona, and urge all citizens to rally around and take positive steps towards water management and use.” In collaboration, the city and TNS Monona have translated the symbolic declaration into a “Water Conservation Challenge.” The challenge not only promotes water conservation, but also addresses the ever-growing financial concerns of homeowners by showing that conservation is a money-saving opportunity. Water meters of participants will be read on January 3, 2012, and then again on December 28, 2012. The top three households—those that have reduced their water consumption by the greatest percentage—will win cash prizes. The challenge also offers prizes to those who use innovative, efficient methods to conserve, and education efforts throughout the year will share simple methods homeowners can use to achieve success.

Simultaneously, the Nelson Institute and TNS Monona are reaching out to groups within the Monona community to recruit them to take on a water conservation or water management project during the Year of Water, helping make water a principle concern in citizens’ minds. Heather Gates, Executive Director of TNS Monona states, “The goal is to generate greater interest, more sharing of ideas, and more community action around improving water use and management in Monona.”

Fall 2011 Capstone Class

The Nelson Institute students have made presentations to community groups of all kinds: sports teams, church groups, Girl Scouts, city committees, and more.  The students showed each group ways to conserve water and reduce stormwater runoff, and then asked them to pledge to commit to a project. Ideas for projects range from small to big, including things like water harvesting through rain barrels, structural changes within the city to prevent unnecessary storm water runoff, home water audits, conservation education, and public awareness campaigns. See Projects & Updates for how your group can get involved.

Applicable to Monona’s efforts, noted Wisconsin author and ecologist Aldo Leopold described the need for a community environmental mindset perfectly, “[The idea] that land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.” It goes without saying that every resident of Monona is affected by water in terms of its availability, sanitation, and cost. Therefore, each resident must embrace water conservation and best management practices as important values to uphold. Gates explains, “We have to change both the systems we have created and our behaviors. Individuals, businesses, organizations, and governments all have to do their parts to ensure that our resources are healthy and plentiful for us and for future generations.”

With the tools and supplies made available through information on this website, citizens of Monona can easily make water conservation and better management practices a part of their mindset. Whether each resident decides to do that by way of community groups and/or individual lifestyle changes is up to them, but the Year of Water 2012 has arrived, and all residents are encouraged to join the movement to improve Monona’s water future.

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Projects & Pledges

In proclaiming 2012 the Year of Water, Mayor Bob Miller said it would be, “a time for the community, city, groups, businesses, individuals, and others to learn about water and actively engage in taking positive steps to change how we use and manage water.” To help create this change, you and your groups are needed to pledge and complete a water-related project during 2012. This is a great way for community groups to gain exposure and at the same time aid in creating a more sustainable Monona for the future.

Details on how to be part of this community-wide effort are here.

Saint Stephen’s Lutheran Church
Pledge: St. Stephen’s church is excited to present ways worshippers can save and protect water at their homes, businesses, and at church. Among these ways will be their workshop on how to construct and install rain barrels in recognition of Earth Day and the Year of Water.  They are also hosting The Natural Step Monona Study Arcs on sustainability–special water-focused arcs–starting in late February. (See more here.) They will also put tips up on their bulletin board for every week of the year of water.

Girl Scouts
Pledge: The Girl Scouts have pledged to participate in WOW! This is a girl-scout created series of journeys entitled Wonders of Water. They will learn about how so many people aren’t fortunate enough to live somewhere where it is so easy to have access to fresh, clean water. These girls will also work to protect local water, or help keep it clean in their community, all while helping to educate people about this essential resource.  One troop has planned a clean-up of the pond behind their school.

Friends of the Senior Center
Pledge:  They will be showing water related movies at their Friday Film evenings.  In addition, they are very interested in water runoff  and hope to develop a project on the issue.

MG21
Pledge:  Rebecca, one of the two teachers that work in this small school, has pledged to make the Year of Water a priority in the winter/spring semester. She is looking at several options, including using Xeriscaping to create a rain garden, and planting long, native prairie grass on hills around the school. These projects would both help prevent runoff, and provide a natural environment for wildlife. She will also give our water-based PowerPoint presentation to her class next semester, and will encourage students to take up projects based on and around water.

Monona Grove High School Audio-Visual Club
Pledge: The A-V Club is producing water-saving public service announcements for the public news station in collaboration with the environmental club.

Monona Grove High School Drama Club
Pledge to be determined: The Drama Club is interested in water-bottle-refill stations and native tree planting.

Monona Grove High School Environmental Club
Pledge:  The Environmental Club is developing water-saving public service announcements with the AV Club to air on the local cable channel.  The are also interested in water-bottle-refill stations and a “Ban the Bottle” campaign.  Along with the Year of Water, they have also created a sub-committee on Lakes and Waterways, focusing on issues related to water.

Monona Grove Soccer Club
Pledge to be determined: The socceer club is interested in the problems with goose-poop in the soccer fields and would like help in developing and implementing ideas. They also suggested they might be interested in providing labor for another group’s project.

City of Monona Parks & Recreation Department
Pledge to be determined: The department has not yet decided what it will do, but is interested in learning more about pervious parking surfaces and water-bottle refill stations.

City of Monona Sustainability Committee
Pledge:  The Sustainability Committee worked with a group from Marquette University to develop an online database where Monona residents will be able to log on to see how their household ranks among similar households in terms of water efficiency and can also note their water consumption. (Sign up to be alerted when the site goes “live” by going here.) In collaboration with the high school groups, the committee is also working to produce thirty-second water conservation public service announcements to be broadcasted on the local cable channel.  Additionally, the committee is researching incentive programs, such as toilet replacement rebates.

As more groups come on board, check back here for updates and ideas to spark your water project!

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What You Can Do

There are plenty of ways individuals can also conserve water during the Year of Water

• Find and fix dripping faucets, leaking toilets, and leaking outdoor irrigation systems.
• Replace your toilet. (If the largest water user in your home—your toilet—is not the water-efficient, 1.6-gallon-per-flush kind, get one that is. Or go here to learn a simple way to save with each flush.)
• Choose a front loading, high-efficiency washing machine.
• Select landscape plants that are drought-tolerant and appropriate for our climate, and replace thirsty grass with natural landscaping.
• Water only when your plants really need it.
• Turn off the water when lathering, brushing teeth, and shaving.
• Collect rainwater in rain barrels and use for gardening.

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Water Conservation Links

100 Ways to Conserve

EPA’s WaterSense Project

H2ous.org

In the News

Conservation at the heart of year-long contest

Monona’s Year of Water Kicks Off

Jobs and Water for America (from Forbes)