This timeline explores the changes people have made to keep our water safe.
Roman aqueducts carried 1.2 billion liters of water a day a distance of 57 miles in to bring fresh water to the city.
Hippocrates, a Greek physician recommends boiling and filtering water
Greeks invent and enjoy hot and cold showers
Elaborate sewage system and 1st flush toilet on the island of Crete.
Hundreds die after an outbreak of cholera after drinking from a contaminated well in England.
Louis Pasteur develops a theory that micro-organisms (germs) spread disease.
Milwaukee opens first sewers to push waste into lakes and rivers.
Massachusetts State Board of Health hires MIT scientist, Ellen Swallow Richards, to conduct the first state-wide study of water pollution.
With sewerage floating to the top of the area lakes and rivers, Milwaukee uses a large pump to flush the rivers with water from Lake Michigan.
First drinking water treatment systems built in the U.S. to reduce micro-organisms from contaminating water.
Ellen Swallow Richards publishes a guide to engineering sanitary systems.
Sewerage contaminates Milwaukee's Lake Michigan shoreline. Typhoid Fever becomes a concern for all residents of Milwaukee.
With pollution and sewerage remaining a health issue in Milwaukee, the Sewerage Commission of Milwaukee is established.
Water quality standards established for drinking water by the U.S. Federal Government.
The Sewerage Commission of Milwaukee creates a water treatment plant on Jones Island in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee expands the Jones Island water treatment plant to treat water for the growing population of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee's population continued to grow and water treatment had to keep up. Jones Island expands again.
Trout Unlimited, formed by concerned Michigan citizens, is created to conserve, protect, and restore Michigan's cold water fisheries and their watersheds.
In order to keep up with population growth in Milwaukee, another plant had to be built. The South Shore Waste-Water Plant was built in Oak Creek, WI.
For the third time, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire for the third time in 1969. It burned for 8 days!
President Nixon establishes the EPA to protect public health through the air, water, and land.
The Clean Water Act establishes a program to control the pollution in the waters of the United States.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) decides to upgrade water treatment systems for Milwaukee to comply with the Clean Water Act.
The Safe Drinking Water Act establishes drinking water standards.
With continued growth of Milwaukee's population, the South Shore Waste-Water Plant in Oak Creek, WI expands.
MMSD creates Milwaukee Water Pollution Abatement Program to repair and expand waste-water treatment. The Deep Tunnel was planned to prevent dumping sewerage into Lake Michigan.
Water Quality Act requires the EPA to regulate storm water runoff, as well as states to prepare plans to control non-point source pollution.
403,000 people in Milwaukee become ill from contamination of the water supply. The outbreak cost $31.7 million in medical costs and $64.6 million in productivity losses.
Milwaukee Water Works invests $89 million to upgrade water systems to protect and treat drinking water in Milwaukee.
The Global Water Center opens its doors in Milwaukee.
Hindu, Egyptian, and ancient writing from India recommends water treatments like filtration. a few of the materials they'll need charcoal and sunlight to boil and strain the water.
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