Wisconsin Clean Water Advocates Are in Fighting Mood

'Why do we, as a democratic society, allow the rich and powerful to trample over the rights and health of the average rural citizen!'

Updated - Commenting on children drinking manure-laden water caused by factory farms, Janet McConaughey of Ixonia, Wisconsin, (Jefferson County), said:

"What I'm concerned about is (5-year-old grandson) Jordan's world. So, I want to know that when he's grown up, he'll have a decent place to live. He'll have clean air, clean water," (Bowden, Wisconsin Public Radio).

Ms. McConaughey is not alone as Gov. Scott Walker has ceded rural Wisconsin as a colony to Big Ag, without regard to the consequences to families and communities.

Walker's brazen give-away of private homes and public communities is a major political fight that is bearing electoral fruit.

But a major battle is the Wisconsin courts.

In central Wisconsin, 10,000s of residents are waiting to hear what the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide to do with their communities and homes in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case, awaiting opinion and decision.

Golden Sands is a name of a proposed factory farm of the infamous Wysocki corporation.

The stakes are high.

1. The Court can eliminate the democratic capacity of families to protect local conditions, property values, drinking water, health, and local character.

2. The Court can decide to impose onto Wisconsin a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights.
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Clean water advocates have built a movement in Wisconsin.
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On April 3, Big Ag's candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Michael Screnock, Scott Walker's candidate, was decisively defeated by Rebecca Dallet who campaigned in part on protecting clean water as a value.

Consider the unofficial results from four central-Wisconsin counties, much of which would be devastated by an adverse Court decision in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case.

Next to each county below is the Trump victory margin in 2016, and the Democratic swing.

Adams County: (Won by Trump 58 to 36 percent)

Rebecca Dallet       - 1892 votes (49 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 1912 votes (50 percent)
—Democratic swing of 21 points

Wood County (Won by Trump 56 to 37)

Rebecca Dallet       - 6471 votes (52 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 5933 votes (47 percent)
—Democratic swing of 24 points

Juneau County (Won by Trump 60 to 34)

Rebecca Dallet       -  2157 votes (45 percent)
Michael Screnock  -  2600 votes (54 percent)
—Democratic swing of 17 points

Portage County (Lost by Trump 44 to 49)

Rebecca Dallet       - 7455 votes (62 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 4435 votes (37 percent)
—Democratic swing of 20 points

[Trump figures are rounded. Dallet-Screnock figures omit scattering votes.]

Conclusion: The Blue Wave is building in Wisconsin, and clean and safe water advocates are energizing the momentum.
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The Wysocki corporation has a factory farm in Juneau county, and it is polluting families unfortunate to live near the shit-emitting monstrosity, the Central Sands Dairy, LLC.

Central Sands is applying for a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit.

An update from central Wisconsin residents, Bruce Dimick and Doreen Dimick follows:

Hello all,

On March 22, 2018 there was a WPDES public renewal hearing for the Wysocki CAFO, Central Sands Dairy, in Armenia, Juneau County. This public hearing was conducted by the DNR as are all these public hearings. Wysocki has been in frequent violation of his current WPDES permit, but that appears to be of no great concern to the DNR.

I did not have any great expectations about how this hearing would go, but I was greatly encouraged by the outcome.  First of all at least 9 citizens from Saratoga showed up and 5 of those citizens spoke in opposition to renewal of Wysocki's WPDES permit. But what was the biggest surprise was that at least 50 people showed up for the hearing and an additional 13 people, all from Armenia and the surrounding area spoke up against.  No one spoke in favor of granting Wysocki a renewal.  The people from Armenia spoke from the heart. They had had their wells contaminated, their property devalued, and their way of life degraded.

Sheri Red Fox, who can't use her water for much of anything, spoke of having to distill enough water just to brush her teeth and have enough to drink and cook with.  She lives quite close to the CAFO.  A former employee of Wysocki spoke of how he had been ordered to spread manure on frozen ground and on snow covered fields, all of which is illegal.  When he complained he was fired by Wysocki's managers and threatened if he ever told anyone about what was going on.  One member of the Armenia Town Board spoke up on how the contaminated water was adversely affecting his constituents.

Many people from Armenia thanked those of us from Saratoga for standing with them.

I could not identify anyone from the Wysocki organization being at the hearing, but I am sure they had at least one plant to report back to "Jimmy".

No one is under any illusion that the DNR will not renew the WPDES permit, but the testimony given is now a matter of public record and could be used in court proceedings in the future.
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WPDES PERMIT HEARING FOR CENTRAL SANDS DAIRY – MARCH 22, 2018

Geologically speaking, the Central Sands area was a large lake called Glacial Lake Wisconsin formed after the last ice age.  There was a large ice dam in the Wisconsin Dells area that allowed the lake to persist for 5 or 10,000 years. During those years, the lake filled up with sand from the Wisconsin River and its tributaries. Once the ice dam gave way, the lake drained and our current environment was slowly established. We might envision that we are living over a huge washtub of sand filled with water. The sand is quite porous, so this washtub is continually replenished with rainwater and snowmelt. There is no real distinction between surface water and ground water in this porous environment.

 Most of us who live in the Central Sands in rural areas have our own private wells, whether they be drilled wells or sandpoints.  For the most part we are all drinking from the same aquifer.  This aquifer is both plentiful and vulnerable to pollution due to the porosity of the sandy soil. It is incumbent on all of us that live here and use this aquifer to protect it for the good of all. 

Excessive nitrates are a particular pollutant that easily are dissolved in rainwater and flow down into the aquifer. The EPA limit for dissolved nitrates in drinking water is 10 ppm for municipal water supplies for health reasons. Colorectal cancer, blue baby syndrome, and other deadly ailments are among the diseases linked to nitrates in drinking water.

The Central Sands Dairy has a total of 9 monitoring wells strategically placed around the CAFO.  Many of these monitoring wells have consistently exceeded the EPA limit of 10 ppm by wide margins.  The worst reading that I have seen recorded was 88 ppm for CSD 7S in October 2017.  Think of that – almost 9 times the EPA limit!

So all this contaminated water flows in a predominately southeasterly direction on its way to the now highly contaminated Lake Petenwell. Along the way it contaminates the water supplies of the rural residents in its path.

All of us siting here today know that the DNR will renew the WPDES permit for the Central Sands Dairy. The question is why do we, as a democratic society, allow the rich and powerful to trample over the rights and health of the average rural citizen!
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WPDES PERMIT HEARING FOR CENTRAL SANDS DAIRY,
Mar. 22, 2018

The hearing today centers on the DNR’s decision whether or not to give the Central Sands Dairy a permit to continue operations for the next five years and under what conditions it may operate. One would think that this permit would be based on what effect the dairy has and has had on the groundwater in the area of and around the dairy. 

The EPA standard for maximum nitrogen in the groundwater is 10 ppm, yet almost all the monitoring wells in and around Central Sands Dairy show levels well above that standard. So it is very concerning that it seems that there have been  no real efforts to enforce that standard. There is no way that the houses around the CSD have drinkable well water and must choose expensive bottled water and/or a reverse osmosis system.  Indeed one would wonder where the dairy is accessing the water that is given to the cows that produce the milk. 

Municipal water supplies must stay within the 10 ppm limit. Restaurants or other service businesses that rely on water must stay within that limit. Central Sands Dairy is not even close. I would urge the DNR to deny the permit under present business practices and enforce some meaningful limits.

Doreen Dimick
Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Environmental Statement on CAFO Factory Delayed; Pro-CAFO State Rep. Faces Mounting Opposition

Updated - The Wysocki corporation's proposed factory farm in central Wisconsin has caused a political furor since detailed plans were first sprung on citizens at a community forum in Wisconsin Rapids in July 2012.

The sitting State Representative, Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa), was present and told a clean water activist, Nancy Koch, to "quit your bitching," (Mal Contends).

Koch and 1,000s of clean water supporters have never let up, (Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Rome and Saratoga Concerned, (Facebook)).

Before plans can proceed with the construction of this massive facility, (a CAFO or Confined Animal Feeding Operation), an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has to be released by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, (DNR).

The Republican-led DNR is sensitive to the political fortunes of Krug, so once again the EIS release has been delayed so Krug, a Wysocki CAFO supporter, will not face more opposition than he already has arrayed against him.

Republicans and school privatization forces are dumping $100,000s in an attempt to beat back a challenge by clean water activist, David Gorski, (Facebook). Scott Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have held fundraisers for Krug.

So, naturally the DNR is doing its part with the Republican Party for the benefit of the CAFO champ, Scott Krug.

From Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors:

EIS release delayed and public hearing cancelled I received a call today from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources regrading the pending Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS release has once again been delayed and the pubic hearing scheduled for October has been cancelled.

Although this does not come as a huge surprise we do feel the DNR is indeed getting closer to the actual completion of the document. No future release date or public hearing date has been determined at this time.

Of course, no release or public hearing has been determined, and the release date won't be until after the election.

Special delivery of liquid cow manure to Wisconsin streams and
lakes - Courtesy of Scott Krug, Scott Walker, and the
Dairy Business Association

Rep. Scott Krug Skips Wood County Groundwater Ordinance Meeting

Facing heavy lobbying from the polluters' lobby, the Dairy Business Association, the Wood County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a groundwater protection ordinance Tuesday. (Anderson, Gannett Co. News) (Mal Contends)

Wisconsin State Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) spoke in favor of the groundwater ordinance.

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa and ALEC) was absent.

Why did State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa and ALEC) blow off this meeting?

Krug is quietly assisting Scott Walker, Walker's DNR and the Dairy Business Association in their project in which one objective and inevitable consequence is to contaminate and literally toxify area lakes and groundwater.

Nice.

This is what a corrupt group of politicians and Big Ag do when they sell out the people of Wisconsin for money.

The owners don't live on the industrialized factory farms, they safely live far away from the millions of tons of liquidized manure they deposit into the environment.

Krug is running a con on the people of 72nd state assembly district in central Wisconsin. Krug pretends to care about the health of water, and even instituted an informal surface-water citizens advisory group in which members say Krug never took minutes, often didn't show up, and then made numerous references to the group during campaign season.

Wood County Enacts Ordinance Protecting Ground and Surface Water

"I just want safe water," said Julie Kreutzer at the Wood County County Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday in Wisconsin Rapids. (Anderson, Gannett Co. News)

Sounds reasonable enough.

But Kreutzer is a resident of the town of Saratoga in central Wisconsin where a proposed industrialized, Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) or factory farm is sited, and the CAFO owners, the Wysocki corporation through its entities limiting their personal liability, are not keen on what Ms. Kreutzer wants.

The problem for Kreutzer is the CAFO owners, the Wood and Adams county citizens, and CAFO experts—know if the CAFO is to be built, it will pollute on a massive scale, befouling waters, land and the air with nitrates, phosphorous and ammonia from millions of gallons of liquidized manure produced annually.

The groundwater ordinance passed on a close 10-9 vote on Tuesday, after heavy lobbying by Big Ag, the Dairy Business Association (DBA), that works against safe groundwater ordinances all over Wisconsin as the DBA seeks its right to pollute.

The CAFO would be an environmental and economic disaster for a region gaining its footing after the decline of the paper mill industry.

In response, residents are citing the abundant natural resources of the area and promoting the recreation and tourism potential, efforts that would be imperiled by the massively polluting CAFO.

These are costs the CAFO owners are willing to inflict onto Wood and Adams county, negative externalities.

Wysocki already sucks up huge quantities of groundwater through its numerous high capacity water wells that make for an unsustainable future for the region.

These are also costs Wysocki is willing to see inflicted onto the community.

Wood County joins other Wisconsin counties and towns in enacting ordinances protecting groundwater from CAFOs within the past year, including Kewaunee County, Bayfield County, Ashland County and Oneida County.

But for James Wysocki it's mind over matter, Wysocki doesn't mind polluting and using up groundwater because area families don't matter.

Don't Look Back, Saying 'We Should Have Done Something'

Big Ag - The Report from the Dairy State

In Wisconsin under Scott Walker's reign, the range of issues applicable to this headline is wide.

Don Ystad of Nekoosa in northern Adams county is referring to the proposed massive Wysocki Golden Sands, industrialized diary, the CAFO factory model.

Writes Ystad:

As many are reporting, the practice of confining many thousands of cows in a CAFO and then spreading the millions of gallons of manure is ruining our ground and surface water.  In Kewaunee County, with its 16 dairy CAFOs, one third of private drinking water wells are unusable because of manure runoff  from the CAFOs. These are not people attacking family farmers, they are citizens reporting on the resulting environmental damage that occurs from these industrial farms. Here in Rome and Saratoga, we are a population-dense recreational/residential area facing the same kind of issues if the Golden Sands Dairy CAFO is approved by the very same DNR under question.  If you are not actively alarmed over this possibility, you ought to be. Don't be one of 'those people' saying afterwards, 'why didn't someone do something?'

See this report for the crisis ignored, and abetted by Scott Walker and his band of polluters: A Report by Socially Responsible Agricultural Project in Partnership with Family Farm Defenders and Kewaunee Citizens Advocating Responsible Environmental Stewardship.

Writes Kimberlee Wright, J.D., Executive Director of the Midwest Environmental Advocates, Inc.:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The industrialization and corporate consolidation of dairy production has exploded nationwide over the last few decades, driving many small family dairy operations out of business. The total number of U.S. farms with dairy cows fell 88 percent between 1970 and 2006, while the number of dairy operations with more than 2,000 cows grew 104.6 percent between 2000 and 2006 (MacDonald, et al., 2007). In Wisconsin alone, the number of farms with dairy operations has fallen from 150,000 to 10,500 since 1944 (Mueller, 2014)

Homes Under Attack in Wood Counties: Big Ag Suspect Number One

Message from proposed Wysocki CAFO to residents in
Wood County delivered in April 2015

Threats, Death Threats, Vandalism, Assaults and Now Slander

Residents in Wood and Adams counties in central Wisconsin working to halt a massively polluting proposed industrial dairy operation, a CAFO, are crime victims being met by a new spate of theft, criminal destruction, intimidation and a possible cyber attack on a home in the Town of Saratoga. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

The proposed siting of the massive 5,300-animal, 7,000-acre Wysocki CAFO has already driven down property valuations in the area because of the predictable consequence of the pollution and inflictions on health that come with CAFO operations. (Mal Contends)

Ten more signs vandalized the weekend of May 29-31, 2015
in Wood County.

On one hand are multi-generational families working to stimulate the economic activity associated with tourism and recreation, and to protect their homes and their families' health.

Then there is James Wysocki whose proposed CAFO is already depressing a troubled economy, and should the CAFO ever begin operations tourism, recreation, streams, lakes and aquifers—already being drained by Wysocki's high capacity water wells used in potato-growing operations—would in short order become relics and the area an economic wasteland.

Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors are fighting back but Wysocki is protected politically by Gov. Scott Walker and local Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) whose first public words on the proposed CAFO siting were "Quit your bitching," made to Nancy Koch, on July 19, 2012 at a special Saratoga Town Board meeting drawing 100s of people so the meeting was held at the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center.

"Your Hous [sic] Is Next," reads a threat left near the home and
on the land of a family protesting the proposed massive Wysocki
CAFO in central Wisconsin. It take a certain pathology of CAFO
owners to deliberately poison neighbors, and another pathology to
leave this type of sick threat. The note was left after the sign of a
cow (below) had the cow's head removed. Photo: Nancy Koch

Wysocki and his political allies in the GOP have nothing but contempt for the people of central Wisconsin.

"These good people are trying to protect their homes and existing lifestyle from this proposed CAFO that would surround their homes with the stink, dirt, noise, and water quality issues that come with these huge industrialized farms. Any of us would do the same to protect our own property values, and in fact, those of us living in the surrounding area will be the worse for it if this goes through. The odors from their existing CAFO in Armenia can be smelled 11 miles away in Nekoosa. How far away are you from the proposed CAFO?," writes area resident, Don Ystad in an email.

A resident of Wisconsin Rapids, in a letter to the Wood County Sheriff, references threats and vandalism on land owned by Thor Lasy—a cordial 84-year-old retired businessman with property in Wood County, who has not even taken a position on the proposed CAFO—but is a recreational enthusiast who believes a depressed area economy could become vibrant again if people could come together and promote the recreation and tourism potential of the region. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune).

Following is Rhonda Carrell's letter of Wisconsin Rapids:

Sheriff Reichert,

I am aware that Thor Laisy has spoken with you. ...

Every time I enter a meeting that pertains to Saratoga and see city police or sheriffs deputies, I just cringe. ... We are residents of an area where a bad business plan is in the process of being executed. We have been wronged. Our lives have turned into a living hell because this will not go away. We, at our home, have been on the receiving end of so many possible acts of intimidation, I will not be able to recite them all. I have, at times, felt unsafe on my own property and keep a gun close. I am alone a lot because my husband works out of town. This has taken a major toll on my health and our lives.

1. Man threatened me at the Saratoga Town banquet hall (in the parking lot) before the first meeting pertaining to the proposed CAFO. I was circulating a petition in the parking lot pertaining to asking our Town Board to fight the proposal. I asked my husband to keep an eye on him. When he left, he got into a Wysocki truck.

2. Man threatened my life if I did not back off from opposing this project at the PAC Center in Rapids on July 17, 2012. He then went and stood at the end if the row where my family and friend were sitting and stood there the entire time.

3. The night before we submitted 43 lbs of info to the DNR as part of the EIS, I was sitting in our living room going over materials to be submitted. After 11:00 pm someone was banging on the French doors next to where I was sitting. It happened in the middle of the night on the French doors outside our bedroom. We could not locate who it was by the time we got outside. Our deck is almost 700’ off Evergreen Avenue. This was not a coincidence. No one would just stumble onto our deck.

4. We have had broken glass at the end of our driveway NUMEROUS times and roadkill twice.

5. My husband was at our mailbox parked in the ditch (not in the road at all). He heard a vehicle coming toward him, accelerating quickly, and looked up just in time to see a late model green Ford F150 4X4 supercab (identical to my husband’s truck except color different) swerving toward his car. The truck missed him by an estimated two inches. The truck had the Wysocki logo on the door. We asked around to see who it belonged to because it was not one of their field trucks and were told, at the time the incident occurred, the only green late model supercab in the fleet belonged to Louis Wysocki’s grandson.

6. Computer has been hacked. Will not type all details. If interested, I will share details. Phone also hacked via email.

7. We have had many signs & pink cows stolen as have my husband’s parents on Mill Avenue. They have had their ditch torn up many times. Their home is across the road from Wysocki field in Saratoga.

8. I have been followed several times by a Wysocki worker. Sometimes in work truck, sometimes in a different vehicle. I don’t know who he is but it is uncomfortable. He may be the same man that threatened me at the PAC & Saratoga Town Hall.

9. Someone used a shotgun to destroy a scarecrow that was wearing a Protect Wood County T-shirt displayed at the end of our driveway.

I have actually heard the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce blamed us for the tipping over of a beautiful stone community events sign just south of the Nepco Lake bridge. I have heard the developers who own the land have repeated this untruth. WHY would anyone do that? Through a source within the DOT, I was told the developers tore it down themselves for one reason or another. I’m not clear as to who owned the sign but have been concerned about this accusation since I heard of it. This is simply NOT true.

We are here and were living our dream until all this started. We do not deserve what we have been going through. I’m certain I have left out many incidents, but I believe this is enough to help you understand something isn’t right.

Late Sunday night and into Monday morning many of our signs were damaged and torn down. One resident who will not speak up said theirs were damaged at approximately 1:20 am Monday. Whomever is doing this drops someone off by the signs/cows and the person working on signs has tools. There have been bolts, nuts and other materials used to erect the cows left on the ground after they have taken them down. This is the current description on what occurred early Monday. We are aware of 1- pink cow beheaded and 4 other anti CAFO signs on Hwy. 13 at top of 5 Mile Creek hill being thrown out in the road, 1- large pink cow at Evergreen & Hwy. 13 and also tore down the 4X8 STOP THE WYSOCKI CAFO sign & frame, 1-large pink cow at Ten Mile Creek, 1- small pink cow beat up with a hammer on 10 Mile Ave. East of Hwy. 13, 1- large pink cow beheaded & tipped over at Bell Road along Hwy. 73 aling with 2- 4X8 signs, one a painting of cupped hands holding water and on the back of that was a STOP THE WYSOCKI CAFO.

I’m told this info should be referred to Deputy Christiansen with case #15-8145 attached. If you wish to speak with me, our number is [xxx].

If you could help, please do. We have just been doing our best to live some sort of normal life in the middle of this mess.

Sincerely,

Rhonda Carrell
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494

County Sups Reduce Wood County to Wysockiland

Updated - As Adams County in central Wisconsin sees plummeting property values, the County implements a TIF grant for the proposed Keiser golf resort. (Mal Contends)

The idea is promoting tourism and recreation will offset the economic drag caused by the rapid decline of the paper mill industry in central Wisconsin.

It's a pay-to-play move, but TIF grants do make sense. And so does promoting tourism and recreation. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

An ever-present problem is pollution caused by manure runoff.

How about Wood County?

Wood County won't make a move without the okay of Big Ag's James Wysocki whose potato operations already befoul area lakes. Wysocki is a big funder of Scott Walker.

Now, Wysocki proposes a massive Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) in central Wisconsin that is driving down property valuations and freezing economic activity.

Even Wisconsin largest daily newspaper with a rightist bent comes out editorially against runoff, pointing out the fact that Scott Walker's budget actually increases runoff, (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

"Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation’s (CAFOs) [factory farms] burden our society with an array of negative externalities [costs borne by adjacent communities]. The environmental damages that CAFO’s have caused are nearly impossible to put into a numerical figure that the average individual would be able to grasp and comprehend. The primary detrimental effects that CAFOs produce consist of water pollution, air pollution, animal welfare concerns and the mismanagement of waste," notes Joshua Yelle, native of central Wisconsin, now working in graduate school.

Most of the Wood County Board of Supervisors are 100 percent behind Wysocki and 100 percent against the community opposition to the proposed Wysocki CAFO and current aerial spraying of liquid cow manure, a highly destructive practice. (Hanson, NASA/Harvard University)

The community needs to be discouraged from intruding in public policy. It's so bad that the Wood County Board actively discourages citizen attendance at public meetings. (Mal Contends) (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

Even as Wysocki operations suck up area aquifers with numerous high-capacity water wells, and area lakes and streams are polluted, Wysocki wants to make the situation worse against widespread community opposition.

Wysocki doesn't care much about community sentiment though, and unfortunately for those living in Wood County neither does the Wood County Board of Supervisors.

This is a crazy public policy commitment: A choice between a massive factory farm-CAFO v. Tourism and recreation is no choice at all.

Scott Walker, Scott Krug Just Don't Get It on CAFOs

The Town of Saratoga gets it.

Patt Pisellini of Rome, Wisconsin gets it.

Writes Pisellini:

I spent my summers in Clark County, on a dairy farm. We never had a 'lagoon,' and we took our cows out to pasture each morning.

Our milk was safe to drink, and our water did not test positive for nitrates.

Responsible dairy farmers would NEVER let such things happen - AND we knew the names of every cow, because they came when they were called. Our cows didn't recoil from human touch.

Seems simple enough.

But accelerating under Scott Walker and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa), a recipient of the Dairy Business Association's Legislative Achievement Award in 2012, America's Dairyland is being transformed into a system more akin to bioterrorism, vectoring pathogens into Wisconsin waters and aquifers.

In 2013, Wisconsin Republicans continued their assault on local control and water quality, after effectively gutting the DNR.

Writes Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona):

In stark contrast to the long tradition of collaboration, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee snuck a non-fiscal provision into the budget that could have dire consequences for the future of our waters. Motion #375, offered by Rep. Dan LaMahieu (R-Cascade), and passed on a party line vote of 12-4, removes the ability for anyone to challenge an application or permit for a high capacity well based on the cumulative impacts that well and others have on Wisconsin’s water supply. In addition, the provision is applied retroactively to any current challenges ongoing when the bill is signed into law.

Scott Krug voted for the budget, and Walker signed it.

Krug, Walker and the Republicans don't get it.

On October 6, Monday (6:30 - 8:30 P.M.) at the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and Rome and Saratoga Friendly will co-host a candidate forum with Dana Duncan (D-Port Edwards) and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa).

Things will become much clearer to Scott Krug.