Looking to soak up lake's potential

[GLF]

Economic asset largely untapped, leaders say

Tap water drawn from Lake Michigan and specially filtered at a Coca-Cola plant in Milwaukee sells for $1.59 a bottle. Brand name: Dasani

Fertilizer pellets made from the city's sewage bring in $7 million a year. Brand name: Milorganite.

A Brookfield company founded in 2002 makes sensors that measure the chemicals in water. Sales already have hit $1 million a year, with significant growth in Asia, particularly China. Name: AquaSensors LLC.

All are examples of how the Milwaukee region has commercialized a resource that local leaders say is critical to the area's future: the fresh water of the Great Lakes.

"Scientists and engineers from all over the world should be banging on our doors to learn of what we are developing here," Carlos Santiago, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in a speech this month. "We should be teaching the world about efficient freshwater usage."

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=441325