Happenings

COMMUNITY POWERED PUTS THE HUMANITIES TO WORK

Emily Riewestahl, a project coordinator for Community Powered, a new initiative of Wisconsin Humanities (WH), returned home recently to Spooner to collaborate with the Spooner Memorial Library. After pursuing studies around the country, she has a new perspective on where she grew up. Riewestahl noticed that one of the strengths of her hometown is the care people have for each other and the intertwining relationships among citizens.

Riewestahl and the other Project Coordinators for Community Powered have begun mapping local assets, connecting with community leaders, and working with community members to learn their community’s stories. In Spooner, Appleton, Racine, and Forest County’s Potowatomi community, the Project Coordinators collaborate with public library mentors and community members on projects that are locally meaningful and that strengthen the roots of community and help build resilience.

Community Powered was inspired by the work of Arijit Sen, a professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at UW–Milwaukee, who worked alongside communities in his Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School for a decade. Sen is serving as Co-Director of Community Powered, collaborating with WH to draw upon its 50 years of experience working with local partners to act on regional strengths, histories, and aspirations. Sen and fellow Co-Director Chrissy Widmayer trained Project Coordinators to support their work in their communities.

Wisconsin Humanities funds more than 3,500 community-led projects around the state through its grant program, and is also known for programs like the Love Wisconsin digital storytelling platform and the Human Powered podcast. Since its beginning, the organization has used the humanities to strengthen our democracy by responding to grassroots needs. Community Powered is putting the tools of the humanities to work for everyone—listening, discussing, reflecting, and imagining. Through the project, Riewestahl hopes to nurture Spooner’s unique spirit as she keeps asking questions to spark new ideas. Jessica Becker

MAKING WAVES FROM WISCONSIN: LEADERSHIP IN CLEAN WATER

People driving across the Leo Frigo Bridge into Green Bay have a beautiful view of the Fox River, the Bay, and two 100-foot high, salmon-hued cylinders that represent sustainability in action. Those cylinders are anaerobic digesters at the Resource Recovery and Electrical Energy facility, or R2E2, containing microbes that convert organic matter in wastewater into methane gas. The gas then fuels electrical generators for NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District. The digesters meet about half the electrical needs of the facility, while also recovering heat, saving money, and reducing the utility’s carbon footprint.

According to NEW Water Executive Director Tom Sigmund, recovering the resources in wastewater is a critical tool for solving water issues. This visionary approach to water issues is one reason the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) tapped Sigmund to serve as new President this year.

In another innovative use of wastewater, around 70 wastewater treatment utilities in Wisconsin are participating in a study that helps track community levels of infection from viruses such as COVID and flu by testing samples of local wastewater.

In 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, and the Clean Water Act followed two years later, initiating profound reforms to improve and protect water quality. However, much of the national infrastructure built on the heels of the Clean Water Act is reaching the end of its useful life and is in need of upgrades that could help cope with both water scarcity and unprecedented storm surges. “We need to take advantage of increased federal funding to help resolve some of these challenges and remind our elected officials that this funding must be increased significantly to adequately address the needs of our sector,” Sigmund said.

Meanwhile, with initiatives such as the Freshwater Collaborative (a partnership of Wisconsin’s 13 public universities), the establishment of a National Estuarine Research Reserve on the bay of Green Bay, and resource recovery facilities like NEW Water’s R2E2, Wisconsin continues the crucial work of studying and protecting our waters and their uses.

Tricia Garrison