Sep 26, 2014

Scott Walker's Contributors' Gift: Neurotoxins, Carcinogens, MRSA, Ecoli, Listeria, Salmonella ...

It takes a long list to include all the toxins dumped into Wisconsin waters (including drinking-water aquifers) by the special interests of the concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFOs), the Dairy Business Association and the Frac Sand Industry (VanEgeren, Capital Times).

Under virtually no regulation (the DNR has to be ordered by judges to do their job after Scott Walker took over), and with $Millions lavished onto mostly (but not all) Republicans by these special interests, Wisconsin has become Number One in CAFOs under the politicized regulatory environment engendered by Walker, and Number One in Frac Sand operations, as communities' health in nearby regions are imperiled.

Writes VanEgeren:

"Special interests have pretty much crippled the ability of DNR staff to do their jobs," Kimberlee Wright of the Midwest Environmental Advocates said. "Sound science is being overruled … leaving citizens very much at risk." ...

It would be nice to hear Wisconsin politicians bellow repeatedly: Special interests will not trump the health and environment of Wisconsin.

But if Scott Walker is to be believed, God wants special interests to operate with the help of government: "I like to say thanks to God and the glaciers" for leaving behind the right kind of sand in Wisconsin, Walker said last year, (Ivey, Capital Times) publically calling for more frac sand production with no mention of the health consequences.

Maybe God feels that a child in Kewaunee County Wisconsin should not able wash out a cut with water drawn from the faucet, washing out a child's scrape or cut, an act that no responsible parent would do in that county where 16 CAFOs have devastated the groundwater of a former tourism destination, where CAFOs put profit over public health, Lake Michigan and children.

I asked Bob Clarke of the Friends of the Central Sands how he felt about an ad law judge ruling last week the DNR has the right and obligation to require groundwater monitoring at the New Chester Dairy LLC, Wisconsin's largest CAFO owned by Milk Source LLC, in Adams County.

Milk Source complained the ruling is "unfair" using reasoning that escapes this writer.

Bob Clarke replied: "It is unfortunate that ensuring safe drinking water would be viewed as unfair'. What is unfair is the fact that ordinary citizens must resort to the courts to force those entrusted with the protection of our health and natural resources to do their job. The neighbors didn't invite them to ruin their water. What is unfair is that we have to deal with this mess at all."

Point taken.

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