Scott Gordon

The term "corrosion" has leached its way into public discussion about drinking water over recent weeks, thanks largely to the roiling water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Public policies addressing lead in drinking water have serious holes, as reports from Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism revealed this week. But Wisconsin is also the home of one of the more ambitious lead-mitigation projects in U.S. history.

About 39 percent of Wisconsin's households get their drinking water from private wells while most of the rest of the state's 5.7 million people rely on public utilities for this basic necessity. But utility customers across Wisconsin get their water on very different terms.

To consider the long-term challenges of climate change and the short-term impacts of powerful weather cycles like the El Niño Southern Oscillation is to face down a wild tangle of variables. This is especially true in agriculture, where weather and climatic variations affect precipitation, temperature, and the timing of planting and harvesting.