University of Wisconsin - Extension

Historically, Wisconsin has had all the water it can use, but there are recent signs that it might not be the bottomless resource we once thought it was.

On Thursday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m. Wisconsin Public Television will premiere Water Rich, Water Poor, a documentary suggesting that the state's water supply may be dwindling. A framing event for the program, produced by Art Hackett, is the Perrier Corp.'s recent plans to drill for water and build a bottling plant in Wisconsin.

"Wisconsin has never really had a concern about conserving water," Hackett said. "How much can we use before it becomes a real problem?"

Several experts with UW-Extension ties contributed to the documentary. Ronald Hennings and Ken Bradbury of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, and George Kraft of the Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center, Stevens Point, served as commentators.

Dan Undersander, a crop program specialist with a joint appointment to Cooperative Extension and the UW-Madison College of Agriculture, and Eric Bangerter of Cooperative Extension's Electronic Publishing Group, are providing Web content to support the broadcast.