In a state bordered by the Mississippi on the west, Lake Superior to the north, and Lake Michigan eastward water and its related issues make up a large share of our environmental issues and conflicts. According to Wikipedia, Wisconsin contains 11,188 square miles of water and has more lakes than Minnesota.

Wisconsin's water issues are many and varied. As a major part of of the state's industry, Paper Mills have long been a major actor in the water issue due to their past pollution and current cleanup attempts of many of Wisconsin's water ways. Now water quality has moved past the simple clean up of point source pollution however. Non-point pollution caused by large farming operations, stormwater, and construction site runoff has become an increasingly important part of Wisconsin's water quality questions. The Clean Water Act has stipulated the regulation of these on-point sources and Wisconsin at the state and municipal levels has started to take on solving this problem. There are many organizations working on the stormwater and non-point problems, including the Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust. Stormwater and runoff are one of the key sources of pollution in most waterways today, including Lake Michigan.

Stormwater management has become an important part of municipal regulations throughout Wisconsin as more and more municipalities begin taking on and considering stormwater utilities. Many Wisconsin residents, specifically those in the Milwaukee area and expanding, have started noticing an addition charge on their water bills for stormwater. While many residents are initially upset by the new charge, usually quite small, the money is used to set up Best Management Practices (BMP) for thinks like flood prevention, sewer overflow prevention, and storwater retention, which will benefit the overall community. Stormwater utilities are a contested subject matter. Many people feel that the money should either come from property taxes or that the utility is a new and illegal tax. Many proposed utilities fail, however the number of operational stormwater utilities in the US increases every year.