Wisconsin Lake Communties Fight Big Ag Polluters

Our plentiful Wisconsin surface waters include three lakes in northern Adams county, Lakes Arrowhead, Camelot and Sherwood located around the town of Rome in central Wisconsin.

The lakes are beautiful, and many a retired grandparent has their grand-kids over for fun, recreation, the simple joy of watching children playing.

Against this is Big Ag that without conscience pollutes, depletes and poisons the lakes, imperiling a region Wisconsin as a state should be protecting and nourishing.

Residents of Rome have taken issue with this writer's being too harsh in describing what Big Ag is inflicting. I get it, I speak for myself.

It's difficult to market a region as an attraction for tourism and recreation as Wisconsin Republicans are working against you, and water.

If industrialized agriculture polluters and its protectors are not stopped, there is not going to be a Rome, Wisconsin. Ask the folks who live on Long Lake in Waushara County in central Wisconsin, (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Big Ag is politically protected. Gov. Scott Walker (R) and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) are on the side of the polluters who sell out decent, hard-working families who moved to central Wisconsin the last decades for peace—a small home on a lake, paradise in central Wisconsin.

Here's the latest communication from Rome resident, Don Ystad:

Interesting timing, after a TriLakes annual meeting attended by 100 people agreeing unanimously that we need qualified help in addressing our water issues, this article should appear in the Milwaukee Journal discussing the water level issues in our central sands area. It amplifies the difference in attitudes of an agriculture industry intent on expansion compared with citizens trying to protect their lakes, streams and drinking water wells.  As you reflect on your holiday weekend up here and the condition of our water, please support TriLakes in their efforts to urge our town to co-sponsor a citizen meeting with knowledgeable speakers to understand our water issues and begin determining a course of action to clean up our lakes and protect them.

Ystad references Lee Bergquist's important series appearing in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel this week.

Bergquist's work is a must-read, because clean and safe water in Wisconsin under Republican rule is going to become a memory.

Writes Bergquist:

In a major policy shift, the [Republican-led] Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said on June 10 that it will no longer place restrictions on high-capacity wells, or deny applications for new wells, by first evaluating the cumulative effect they could have on the ecosystem.

A leading Wisconsin water scientist said the new approach is a step backward.

'The frustrating thing for me is that it puts us back on a footing of an unplanned future for water use,' said Ken Bradbury, director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. 'In other words, it’s sort of everyone for themselves again.'

The DNR changed its review process after receiving a legal opinion from Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, who concluded the agency did not have the authority to consider the compounding effects of such water use. He was responding to a request from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and a GOP-dominated legislative committee.

'It was all a predetermined, preordained strategy by the attorney general, the DNR, the governor and Robin Vos and the Legislature,' said Carl Sinderbrand, a Madison attorney who has litigated cases involving high-capacity wells. 'They wanted to prevent the DNR from regulating wells.'

Clean and safe water in Wisconsin, this is one resource that if ignored will go away.

Wisc DNR to Homeowners: Test Your Own Water, You're on Your Own

The Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources admits it has failed to protect our water resources so now the DNR encourages us to test our water more frequently, adding we are on our own to discover if our water wells are poisoned.

State government is no longer in that business.

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources:

By Central Office August 31, 2016

Wisconsin's groundwater resources play a critical role in human health and the economy and the 2016 annual report of the Groundwater Coordinating Council summarizes the state of these important resources.

Nearly three-quarters of Wisconsin residents rely on groundwater as the primary source for their drinking water and the report aims to further public understanding of groundwater quality and quantity as well as the need for ongoing research into the factors that affect groundwater supplies. This year's report encourages broader testing of private wells and notes areas of the state where progress is being made to reduce nitrate levels.

The Groundwater Coordinating Council was formed in 1984 to help state agencies coordinate activities and exchange information on groundwater. Today, the council and its subcommittees regularly bring together staff from more than 10 different agencies, institutions and organizations to communicate and work together on a variety of research, monitoring, data management, education and planning issues. These activities increase coordination across agency lines to avoid duplication, create efficiencies and benefit Wisconsin's taxpayers.

Patrick Stevens, administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' environmental management division and chairman of the Groundwater Coordinating Council, said the group's work reflects the need for coordination in managing the resource in Wisconsin. In addition to supplying homes and supporting businesses, Wisconsin's groundwater also provides critical habitat through spring-fed rivers, lakes and streams.

"Wisconsin's groundwater helps anchor the state's economy and is fundamental to a healthy environment," Stevens said. "The Groundwater Coordinating Council's report helps identify next steps to protect and preserve our valuable groundwater resources."

Steve Ales, acting director for DNR's bureau of drinking water and groundwater said the 2016 report includes a finding that 16 counties including Dane, La Crosse and Wood show decreasing nitrate concentrations. Nitrate is Wisconsin's most widespread groundwater contaminant and it correlates with the presence of other contaminants, so the decrease in these counties represents a positive trend. Ales said ongoing monitoring will be needed to help show how pervasive the trend is and whether beneficial agriculture practices in these counties may be applied in other areas.

The report also highlights the need for additional testing of private wells. Unlike public water systems, protection and maintenance of private wells is largely the responsibility of homeowners. In some counties, such as Dane, Portage and Kewaunee, more than 10 percent of private wells, on average, are tested for coliform bacteria each year. However, the state average of private wells tested annually for total coliform bacteria is only about 6 percent.

It is recommended that private well owners test their water at least once a year for coliform and E. coli bacteria, important indicators of health risk. A home well also should be tested for nitrate at least once, and on a regular basis if there is agricultural activity in the area.

For more information, visit DNR.wi.gov and search "Groundwater Coordinating Council." Last Revised: Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Any Great Lakes Gov. Can Halt Lake Michigan Water Diversion; Walker Continues Deplete-and-Pollute Policy

"There are approximately 160,000 public drinking water systems
in the United States, (DHS)." In Michigan and Wisconsin,
clean water is under siege by Republican governors as desperate
citizens look to the federal government for relief and protection.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources
Compact of 2008 offers protection of the Great Lakes water.

Thanks to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact of 2008, one governor of a Great Lakes state can veto the diversion of water to the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin—a racist, white community residing in the Mississippi watershed.

Clean water activists are advising citizens to contact Gov. Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota) by March 3, 2016, (and the governors of the below states), to register objection to the Waukesha application for diversion of water from Lake Michigan. The Minnesota DNR is holding a listening session on March 3 in Duluth.

Clean water activists say the need to protect the waters of the Great Lakes from the dangerously deranged policies on water accelerated by Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) and Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Michigan) has taken on an increased urgency in light of the water poisoning and depletion policies exemplified by Walker and Snyder.

Waukesha needs the support of all the governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, under the terms of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.

The diversion of water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha would set a dangerous precedent that the Great Lakes water is for sale and available for any use by reckless cities such as Waukesha. The diversion would also send the message that genuinely sociopathic policies on water employed by Govs. Scott Walker and Rick Snyder are acceptable.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact of 2008 was enacted to protect fresh water from the policies employed by Walker, Snyder and corporate America seeking to privatize and pollute fresh water.

Wisc GOP Scams Public on High-capacity Water Wells

Wisconsin State Rep. Robin Vos
(R-Rochester, Wisconsin)
engineers water give-away
to special interests

Wisconsin Republicans want to give away our public fresh waters to Republican campaign contributors fast and quiet.

Even as Republicans work to appear to respond to constituents in central Wisconsin over proliferating high-capacity water wells, (wells drawing 100,000 gallons of water per day), the Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is working with the Republican Attorney General (and Scott Walker and all Wisconsin GOP legislators), to do an end-run around the Republicans' own bill, AB 477, (Richmond, AP).

This is a legislative scam, engineered by and abetted by all Wisconsin Republican office holders who will fall in line behind the Republican Dog and Pony show.

The Attorney General is expected, many residents fear, to issue an interpretation of the DNR's function under 2011 Act 21 protecting natural resources favorable to private parties obtaining an accelerated number of high-capacity well permits without consideration to the impact to area surface waters and other resources.

Wisconsin State Rep. Robin Vos' (R-Rochester, Wisconsin) letter is reproduced below, along with the objecting response of the Assembly Democratic leadership:

ROBIN J. VOS, SPEAKER OF THE WISCONSIN STATE ASSEMBLY

TO: Members of the Committee on Assembly Organization
FROM: Speaker Robin Vos, Chair
DATE: February 1, 2016
SUBJECT: Ballot 15-05 Request formal opinion of Attorney General

[MOTION] It is moved that the Committee on Assembly Organization request a formal opinion of the Attorney General relating to several questions surrounding 2011 Act 21 and the authority of the Department of Natural Resources to apply conditions related to monitoring wells and cumulative impact analyses prior to the grant of a high-capacity well permit. Please reference the attached letter.

I am recommending adoption of this motion. Please review and indicate your approval by circling 'aye" or "no", signing your name, and inserting the date. Thank you.

[If this ballot is not returned to the Speaker's office by Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. you will be designated as not voting.]

YES NO 

The Democratic response is reproduced below:

WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS

February 1, 2016
Speaker Robin Vos
Room 211 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953
Madison, WI 53708

(HAND DELIVERED)

Speaker Vos,

We strongly object to your decision to have the Committee on Assembly Organization vote by paper ballot to approve or deny the motion to ask the Attorney General to issue a formal opinion regarding the Department of Natural Resources' monitoring of high-capacity well permits.

This issue is the perfect example of why the committee should meet in person. The people of Wisconsin deserve to know why you chose not to have an open discussion about the critical issue of monitoring the impact of high-capacity wells in this state.

We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the background related to this request to the Attorney General and the reasons behind asking for this decision. It is our strong opinion that fast-tracking such a controversial request results in limiting public input and debate.

If there truly is confusion in our laws regarding high-capacity well permits, then we ought to be having an open and inclusive discussion to address this issue.

Put simply, choosing to conduct this vote by paper ballot goes against considering other alternatives for addressing this issue and is in contradiction to our Wisconsin values of open, honest and transparent government. We must have serious conversations about preserving clean water and protecting our lakes and streams.

Finally, limiting public input on this critical issue is in direct conflict with the spirit of the memorandum of understanding the leaders of our parties agreed to earlier this session.

Sincerely,

Peter W. Barca
Assembly Minority Leader

Katrina Shankland
Asst. Minority Leader

Andy Jorgensen
Minority Caucus Chair