Water-rich Milwaukee wants to woo Atlanta businesses
Words of the enemy: ‘If you’re a wet business in Atlanta, you ought to be thinking about Milwaukee water’
Milwaukee: Atlanta’s most cunning and conniving foe.
While metro Atlanta fights tooth and nail for its water supply, some folks in the water-rich Wisconsin city say they could capitalize on our crisis — and hit us where it hurts.
That means they’re coming to steal our businesses! Knives out!
“We have plenty of water and we have plenty of pumping capacity. It’s the perfect place for a wet industry to locate,” says Rich Meeusen, CEO of Milwaukee-based water-meter maker Badger Meter Inc, a Milwaukee native who is also co-chairman of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, a local group that promotes the city as a water-technology center.
Mr. Meeusen says he got the idea after reading a report on the excess capacity of the water system and news of Atlanta’s water woes. In July, a federal judge ordered that Lake Lanier, a major source of water in the Atlanta area, would no longer be available as a drinking-water supply in three years.
Mr. Meeusen wants Milwaukee to run ads in Atlanta to try to lure away businesses. “If you’re a wet business in Atlanta, you ought to be thinking about Milwaukee water,” he says.
After the jump, Atlanta Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter tells the WSJ, “aww, hell naw, not so fast.”