Judge: Wisconsin Republicans Ran Afoul of State Constitution in Attempted Industrial Water Grab

Clean Wisconsin v Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(Dane County Case Number 2016 CV002817)

Legal and political body shot to Republican project to direct public water to polluting industries

Madison, Wisconsin — In a win for Wisconsin citizens and clean water, a Dane County Judge ruled the Wisconsin Constitution remains the law of the land with respect to protection of the public surface and groundwater.

The ruling by Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn contradicts a 2016 advisory opinion by the Republican Wisconsin Attorney General, Brad Schimel, who declared in a widely panned political statement the Wisconsin Constitution no longer protects public waters against private industrial claims of ownership.

Bailey-Rihn cited the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine granting authority to the state Department of Natural Resources, (DNR), to protect the public's waters.

The ruling vacates eight DNR permits for corporate high capacity water wells.

"This Court is bound by nearly 120 years of precedent and a long rich history in the State of respecting the Wisconsin Constitution and its fundamental protection of the waters of the State for the enjoyment of all," Bailey-Rihn wrote in a decision issued Oct. 11, (Wisconsin State Journal).

The case is Clean Wisconsin Inc v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, (Dane County Case Number 2016 CV002817). Nine separate cases ligating legal petitions filed by Clean Wisconsin on Oct. 28, 2016 were consolidated into one case on Dec. 13, 2016.

The ruling represents a set-back to a Wisconsin Republican game-plan in which the Republican Attorney General takes unprecedented action on behalf of private Republican donors, followed by action of the Republican-gerrymandered legislature and Republican-ruled state agencies that cite the opinion as justification for official action benefiting private Republican interests.

Echos of 2008 voter obstruction

In 2008 Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen tried to push through the courts a new constitutional requirement to vote: An exact match of a voters' names in databases of various government bureaucracies that is Van Hollen's perverse interpretation of a federal voting statute.

In October 2008, it was reported by WisPolitics that Reince Priebus (then Wisconsin GOP Chair) and Wisconsin McCain-Palin co-chair Van Hollen met before and at the 2008 National Republican Convention in St. Paul to discuss the voter obstruction effort which was employed by the Van Hollen-headed Wisconsin Department of Justice during the 2008 presidential campaign. Van Hollen later admitted his hyper-partisan lawsuit to obstruct the vote was brought in collusion with the Republican Party.

It took a judicial ruling to halt the Republicans' attempt to obstruct the vote; and it will take a judicial ruling to vacate Republican initiatives to disregard the Wisconsin Constitution as Republicans look to pollute and deplete Wisconsin waters.

A reproduction of the Clean Wisconsin, Inc. Oct 11 press release is below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Wisconsin’s Waters Win in Clean Wisconsin High-Capacity Well Case
Court orders to vacate seven permits, remand one for consideration

MADISON, WI —In a critical ruling for Wisconsin’s waters, Dane County Circuit Court ordered the DNR to vacate, or invalidate, seven high-capacity well permits and remand one for consideration. Clean Wisconsin sued the DNR in October of 2016, after the agency issued a series of high-capacity well permits that disregarded its own scientific analysis of the impacts the wells would have on neighboring water bodies. The proposed wells would be located primarily in the Central Sands region of Wisconsin, where groundwater depletion is already a serious problem.

“Wisconsin’s Constitution directs DNR to protect our water for everyone in the state, not just for the benefit of the few,” said Katie Nekola, General Counsel for Clean Wisconsin. “Today’s decision recognizes that duty and requires DNR to vacate or remand these well permits.

“These huge wells pump millions of gallons of water every day, in an area of the state where streams are drying up and lake levels are falling,” said Nekola. “Water is not infinite; it’s DNR’s job to manage water withdrawals so that a few users don’t take more than their share, at the expense of private wells and public waters.”

DNR’s decision to issue the permits, which had been “on hold,” came after Attorney General Brad Schimel’s opinion that DNR did not have the authority to impose permit conditions on those wells. DNR often places conditions on permit approvals that help prevent environmental damage; however, after the AG’s opinion, it ceased doing so.

Door County Wisconsin: GOP Defiles Martha's Vineyard of the Midwest

Two futures for Door County Wisconsin: Life is in bloom
v. Our growing dead zones. Only one works for Wisconsin.

Attorney Ted Olson appeared on the national news shows back when federal litigation engaged the question whether states could deny marriage to same-gender couples, (Mal Contends).

In several appearances Olson was seen from Door County Wisconsin, a gorgeous retreat and destination in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan.

Door County is another region of Wisconsin where generations-long families are attempting to sound the alarm about Republican-abetted water pollution and degradation, while at the same time telling vacationers to come to Door County. It's a mixed message.

If the Republican and Big Ag war on Wisconsin water continues apace, Door County will no longer face its public relations dilemma.

The war for clean, safe water will have been lost, as the lunatic in the White House continues to savage protections for clean water as well. Ted Olson will find another destination.

Former Door County Advocate editor out on his own since about last November, Lee Luft, is sounding the alarm. Wisconsin should listen.

From the Kewaunee County Comet:

In Door and Kewaunee Counties nearly every major waterway and water body is now listed on the EPA’s Impaired Waters List.

Not good. The column echoes concerns of 10,000s in the northeastern peninsula, yet reading Luft's prose resembles listening to a battered wife on TV afraid of retaliation from a felonious husband.

Luft laughingly presents the local Republican member of Congress as working to solve water-pollutions problems. Ahh, yeah.

Luft's warnings are necessary, but writing from fear of the toxic-toilet politicians and polluters is never a good posture

From the Door County Visitor Bureau comes word of Spring and early Summer, "Life is in bloom":

With 300 miles of shoreline, you can watch a sunrise and a sunset over the water without leaving the county. See thousands of acres of orchards, explore art galleries, devour delicious cherry pie, sip on local wines and brews, splash in the lake or paddle along the bluffs, stroll through five state parks or tour 11 historic lighthouses. No matter what you're looking to get out of your vacation, our 19 unique communities allow you to live life well.

Going to have to come up with a new slogan, if Republicans and polluters keep up their war against water.

Live life well just does not comport with millions of gallons of cow shit.

Susan Turner: Witnessed Wisconsin’s Water Degradation over 18 Years

Lynn Utesch is a clean water fighter in northeastern Wisconsin.
Utesch is running for state assembly against Big Ag's man in
northeastern Wisconsin, Republican state rep. Joel Kitchens.
Image by Coburn Dukehart
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

'Dreamed of retiring in Door County,' - No more

Iowa resident, Susan Turner, has a powerful letter in the Door County Pulse.

The Republican war against water is of course an act of insanity, even many Republicans may note water is necessary for life.

Yet, this fact does not stop Republicans from taking money from, and helping polluters pollute, driving families from their multi-generational homes with no remorse.

This is unacceptable.

Writes Turner:

The scale of industrial animal operations, concentration of manure produced in one location, makes this a crime against nature.

We shouldn’t be expected to compromise our water or hold our breath to accommodate agribusiness over community.

I’m a tourist of Wisconsin. I dreamed of retiring to the Door County area. That would be a foolish thing to invest in now. The idea of no swimming or consuming water, due to contamination, throws a wet blanket on vacations and investing in real estate.

April 29, 2013 at 1:30 pm, my three children and I were victims of hazardous gases as we headed south from the Wisconsin Dells on Highway12 between Baraboo and Prairie Du Sac. Center pivots spraying liquid nutrients made us close windows and speed faster as we searched for air that was not burning our lungs and nostrils. When we got a clean pocket of air, the caustic stench happened again. A service van on the opposite side of the road had pulled over with the driver sitting on the ground using an inhaler. He could not even operate his vehicle.

This past week my husband and I vacationed in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We chose Bayfield County because it has the cleanest water. We can swim, boat, fish, and drink the water, for now.

Republicans are destroying Wisconsin, and it's happening little by little, step by step, as implied by Turner. This ought to alarm everyone, particularly Door County, the Martha's Vinyard of the Midwest.

Two elections featuring leaders of the polluters' lobby in the capitol—state reps Joel Kitchens (R) and Scott Krug (R)—show toxic-toilet politicians against two lifelong environmentalists.

At some point, we will come to understand such environmentalists are saving Wisconsin.

Writes environmentalist, farmer, veteran and state assembly candidate, Lynn Utesch from Kewaunee County in northeastern Wisconsin, commenting on his run for Wisconsin's first district assembly race:

The 1st Assembly District is unique — an Island, a Peninsula, the Niagara Escarpment — all make this place we have chosen to call home special. Apart from the shared natural beauty that surrounds us, and the waters of Lake Michigan — the 1st Assembly District also has challenges that must be addressed.

Water is the #1 issue in the 1st Assembly District. Arriving in Kewaunee in 2004, one of the first things our family experienced was the poisoning of the Treml family due to the spreading of liquid manure tainting their well, affecting the entire family, and sending their infant daughter to intensive care.

In fall of 2014, in Jacksonport, a similar scenario played out with an infant and 16 people poisoned due to liquid manure spreading near a sinkhole. Currently in Kewaunee County 34% of the tested wells are unfit to drink due to high nitrates, e-coli, or both. 

Citizens would do well to heed the words of Ms. Turner and Lynn Utesch.

Chicago Tribune Blockbuster on CAFOs—Unlivable, Cruel and Sociopathic

Thousands of northern Wisconsin residents are working to stop
operation of a pig CAFO that would devastate a pristine region
bordering Lake Superior and pristine lands
Image: Citizens Concerned about Lake Superior CAFOs

Update: "Nobody hangs their clothes out or keep their windows open," said Annette Harl.
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From David Jackson and staff in the Chicago Tribune today:

Hundreds of large hog facilities have been constructed across Illinois in recent years, using a factory-like system to grow thousands of pigs and put inexpensive bacon on your plate.

But a Tribune investigation finds all that cheap meat is coming at great cost to rural communities.

Sickening odors imprison people in their homes. Vast lagoons of manure leak into streams and ponds, killing fish. And weak Illinois laws put few restrictions on pork producers who want to build and expand.
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Jackson's work should earn his team a Pulitzer as this wide-ranging investigation gives hope to millions of residents who face fleeing multi-generational homes after Big Ag comes near their communities.

If media covers this tragedy, then Big Ag will face massive resistance and near-unanimous opposition.

Wisconsin Towns—Saratoga, Rome—Promote Their Region, as Big Ag Targets Area for Destruction

No rational, healthy human being deals well when sociopaths live in their midst.

In central Wisconsin, the industrial agricultural operation, the Wysocki corporation, and its partners are doing their worst to upset residents and poison, (literally), the environment.

Long-time residents are fighting back as two small Wisconsin towns, Saratoga and Rome, are hitting the Net to promote the recreational and tourism attractions the central Wisconsin region holds dear.

Several citizens reached the last several days said their communities are experiencing feelings they find difficult to describe as Big Ag is willfully toxifying this picturesque area known as the Golden Sands.

Folks are not taking this lying down.

This writer has standing invitations this summer to fish on ponds and lakes, drink cold beer, and have some laughs.

Central Wisconsin invites the world to visit and enjoy life.

From Rome:

Weekend in Rome, Wisconsin

From Saratoga: Water is for all to share. It knows no town, county or state boundary.

The Town of Saratoga and its citizens are working hard to protect this wonderful resource for all. Please join us in our efforts to keep Golden Sands Dairy -- and any other entity that might threaten our resources -- out of Saratoga.

Reports Chronicle Scott Walker-GOP Work for Wisconsin Water Polluters

"We have a choice about the kind of world we leave to
future generations.But unless we heed the warning signals,
there may be no historian to recall one day
that we failed to act in time."— Charles H. Stoddard

"Brought into right relationships with the wilderness, man
would see that his appropriation of Earth's resources
beyond his personal needs would only bring
imbalance and begat ultimate loss and poverty by all."
— John Muir

A three-part investigative series by Ryan Schuessler examines Scott Walker's politicization of the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) and the scale of pollution of Wisconsin's fresh waters, noting specifically the DNR's protection of polluters, (Aljazeera-America).

Part one examines the politicization of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Part two looks at the effect high capacity wells are having on the state’s Central Sands region. Part three reports on the Kewaunee County water crisis in northeastern Wisconsin and the Kewaunee-Door county peninsula.

Schuessler's series comes as Ron Seely and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism begin publishing a series on the same crisis of Wisconsin water in an investigative series entitled Failure at the Faucet this week.

Following the trajectory Scott Walker has set Wisconsin on will result in nationwide questioning of the safety of Wisconsin's abundant fresh waters and threaten our flourishing tourism and recreation pursuits.

This is widely regarded by environmentalists as a betrayal of the legacies of Increase A. Lapham, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Gaylord Nelson, Charles H. Stoddard and Sigurd F. Olson.

The biggest polluters imperiling Wisconsin's water is Big Ag and the industrialized factory farms known as CAFOs, (Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operations).

Lake Huron in north-central Wisconsin dried up from High
Capacity water wells in Waushara County
- Photo: Ryan Schuessler

The CAFO practice of massive and confined breeding of cows (and pigs) and vectoring the pathogen and toxin-laden manure into the environment has led to the toxification of both surface and groundwater.

Combined with the use of 1,000s of high capacity wells that suck up over 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, streams, lakes and small water wells are drying up.

In the Central Sands region alone, Schuessler notes, "[i]n 1950 there were fewer than 100 high capacity wells in the Central Sands. Today there are more than 3,000, or nearly half of all those in the state."

Clean Water, Clean Air Advocates Stand Together at Capitol

Rhonda Cain-Carrell of Wisconsin Rapids
speaks at the state capitol. Cain-Carrell
works with the group, Protect Wood
County and Its Neighbors
Photo: Criste Sullivan-Greening

Update: Lynn Utesch is now a candidate for the Wisconsin state assembly's first district, and is making protecting water the major campaign commitment.
 ---
Madison, Wisconsin - About 100 people from across the state assembled at the state capitol on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

They want farms not factories, a major polluter of the water and air they're fighting to protect.

Lynn Utesch is a small farmer living in Kewaunee County and works with Kewaunee CARES (Facebook) in northeast Wisconsin.

He addressed the crowd and said heavily polluted Kewaunee County is a "cautionary tale" for the state.

"We have gathered here from all over Wisconsin, unified, to protect our water. ... All three of our rivers [in Kewaunee County] ... are on the EPA's impaired waters list. Thirty percent of our wells tested are contaminated with Ecoli and/or nitrates."

Citizen activism across the state is springing up as state protection for water deceases.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism begins a series today reporting on an unsustainable trajectory that sees 100,000s of Wisconsin citizens now without safe water at the faucet.

Clean, pure water is advocated by about 100 people at the capitol
Photo by Mary Dougherty of Citizens Concerned about
Lake Superior CAFOs

Ron Seely and his team's water series is entitled "Failure at the Faucet."

Writes Seely:

Lynda Cochart’s water from her private well was so poisoned by salmonella, nitrate, E. coli and manure-borne viruses that one researcher compared the results from her Kewaunee County farm to contamination in a Third World country. She suspects the problem is related to the county’s proliferation of large livestock operations, although testing did not pinpoint the source.

'Realize that we can’t drink, brush our teeth, wash dishes, wash food; we can’t use our water,' Cochart wrote in a letter last year to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, seeking intervention in the county’s drinking water problems.

'Our water is on our mind all the time. If drinking it doesn’t kill us, the stress of having it on our mind and worrying about it all the time will.'

Utesch of Kewaunee CARES noted the failure of the state Dept of Natural Resources to protect water. He also pointed out the DNR is working to assist Bi Ag polluters, "streamlining the permitting process for CAFOs (Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Operations)," as reflected in Scott Walker's last budget signed in July before Walker began his aborted run for the presidency.

Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin and Rome and Saratoga Friendly
Photo by John Endrizzi