Water

Madison is blessed with an incredible abundance of water resources but the impact to the water supply, natural springs, Lake Mendota, permeable surface area and trees from human behavior and poor government planning has been a chronic problem in Madison. 

Lake Mendota was once a dumping ground for garbage and sewage which eventually reached the point where public complaints led to policy changes and behavior changes. Madison has reached another inflection point where it needs to change behavior again as water quality has declined in Lake Mendota and in our drinking water. Salt use and increasing hardscape has put the city on an unsustainable path.

The materials presented here will review the environmental challenges to our water supply in the Spring Harbor Neighborhood from a City of Madison project where the last 1.2 miles of Lake Mendota Drive are contemplated for a complex 3-year reconstruction project from 2022 to 2024.

Description of Lake Mendota Drive Area

Historic Lake Mendota Drive runs along the largest lake in Madison, Lake Mendota, and rests at the bottom of a 2,279 acre watershed that covers much of the west side of Madison.

Well 14 is located about two blocks off Lake Mendota Drive which pumps over 2 million gallons of drinking water each day. That water is distributed to Madison’s westside neighborhoods of Spring Harbor, Glen Oak Hills, Hill Farms, Sunset Village, Regent, Dudgeon-Monroe, the Village of Shorewood Hills and parts of the UW campus.

Lake Mendota and Well 14 have water quality problems related to high salinity which is a result of salt being spread on west side streets in volume, during the winter, that eventually works its way into the ground water, natural springs and into Lake Mendota.

Storm water runoff has been a challenging problem for years. As homes continue to increase in size, streets become larger, more sidewalks are constructed with many more planned, leading to a decline in the permeable surface available to soak up storm water.