Waukesha is running out of water. After losing a legal battle with the feds over radium levels, the city has to decide whether to appeal, excavate for water elsewhere, or seek water from Milwaukee. The third option is the most unlikely since international treaty prohibits Waukesha and other nearby suburbs from obtaining water across the subcontinental divide.

Perhaps all these backers of suburban development need to start factoring in the availabilility and sustainability of affordable, uncontaminated water before they continue to pave over their landscape.