Central Wisconsin Rep. Krug Stiffs Clean Water Group, Is No-Show with No Call

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for water
and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

Faced with preserving a way of life against economic and environmental devastation, a growing citizens' movement held a meeting this week to preserve and protect groundwater in central Wisconsin.

The featured speaker was State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin). Krug did not show up at the meeting; Krug did not call.

Why would a sitting state representative treat his own constituents with such open contempt?

Krug runs political interference for the polluters and plunderers of Wisconsin waters. Krug often skips scheduled meetings.

Krug is also a champion for the proposed massive Wysocki factory farm in central Wisconsin that would devastate an entire region and imperil the new Sand Valley Golf Resort, some four miles south of the proposed industrial site.

From a May 23, 2017 email from factory farm fighter, Bruce Dimick of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin:

Hello All,

Bill Leichtnam, (Wood County, (Wisconsin), Supervisor, (Saratoga, Wisconsin)) and I attended today's meeting of the South-East Wood County Groundwater Group at the Saratoga Town Hall. This group of concerned citizens is meeting monthly to grapple with the groundwater issues of Wood County and surrounding communities in the Central Sands. The group is sanctioned by the Wood County Board and is chaired by Peter Manley.  

It includes farmers and Tamas Houlihan, of the WPVGA, (Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association), among others, so it is a diverse group.  If we are going to solve these water issues, we need to get all the stakeholders involved.

Frequently we have an expert speaker as the focal point for the meeting.  Representative Scott Krug was scheduled to be our featured speaker today. The topic was "Recent Groundwater Legislation".   As many of you know Rep. Krug was a key driving force behind the recent passage of Senate Bill 76/ Assembly Bill 105 which removes further restrictions on High Capacity Wells. Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors took a strong stand against this bill as did most of the pro-environment groups throughout the state.

So, we were quite anxious to hear what Rep. Krug had to say in defense of this legislation which many of his constituents opposed.

Surprise! Surprise! Rep. Krug did not show up and did not bother to call Peter Manley to say he was not coming.

Actually I don't think anyone in the room was surprised that Rep. Krug did not show up. He has a reputation for stiffing his constituents.

Bruce Dimick
[links added, per author]

Halting Rapacious Polluters as Scott Walker Opens Wisconsin for Sale

Peninsula Pulse

"Mired in Manure" is the 2014 year-in-review headline in the Peninsula Pulse, a bi-weekly covering the Cape Cod of the Midwest, aka Door County Wisconsin.

Impressive journal for a region where people go for romantic trips, honeymoons and visits from around the country to get away to stunning northern forests and streams jutting into Lake Michigan.

Door County is what Aldo Leopold had in mind when he said, "The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."

Surly, Wisconsin wants to protect areas such as Door County, Bayfield and Ashland counties, Wood and Adams counties, and the abundant fresh water and forests in general.

No. Not while Scott Walker is governor.

Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are proliferating in Wisconsin, and they are a catastrophic threat to the environment, having already inflicted damage around the state.

Scott Walker is silent, he won't protect our water, Walker gets paid by the polluters to run interference. His administration policy is more production for CAFOs, less protection for people.

Scott Walker worked to make it possible for foreign investors to buy farm land and lease it.

The Republican Attorney General issued an advisory opinion that foreign ownership of Wisconsin agriculture and forestry is legal for tracts 640 acres and less.

Attorney General Van Hollen quietly issued his announcement the Friday before Christmas.

Wisconsin is for sale to the highest foreign bidder with 640-acre lots for CAFOs.

Big Ag is polluting waters so badly that in one Wisconsin county, Kewaunee, a child cannot wash out a cut in the summer with water from the faucet because of the pathogens from CAFOs have made the water undrinkable and unsafe.

Many still in parts of Brown County will only drink bottled water.

Turns out it's terribly unhealthy to vector liquid cow manure into aquifers and surface waters.

And if the proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) massive open pit mine is allowed, "toxic residue will literally flow into the clean waters of northern Wisconsin," notes the New York Times last summer, but Scott Walker's campaigns were well-paid.

Adams County resident, Don Ystad, notes Wisconsin counties are fighting back against the polluters.

Writes Ystad in an email:

An ad appeared in last week's shopper inviting residents to attend a meeting being held by the Adams County Planning and Zoning Committee at the Adams County Community Center on January 13th at 7:00 PM to discuss the possibility of creating a county forestry zoning district. It's called a public informational hearing for gathering information and public input only. Anyone interested is invited to attend, participate and provide input.

Adams County ranks 16th in tourism within our state, largely because of access to quality hunting,fishing and water sports. As large scale agriculture and mineral-based industries expand in Wisconsin, much of the forestland is being clear cut and converted to cropland or sand mining. Not only would this change the complexion of our Adams County environment, it reduces the habitat for wildlife, reduces hunting land for sportsmen, and opens us up for environmental damage caused by increasing high cap wells and fertilizer and waste runoff. I would hope that a forest zoning district would establish a balance that protects our resource.

Many of you moved here for the same reasons I did; to live in a clean, natural environment with access to woods, water and recreation. Please attend this meeting on the 13th, share your thoughts, and encourage Adams County to protect our wonderful forest environment.

Today in Bayfield County, there is a public hearing on the massive proposed swine CAFO.

That a CAFO is even contemplated in this pristine region is absurd.

Construction of the Reicks View "Family Farm" LLC CAFO has already begun.

Want to know what a swine CAFO looks like?

Have a look. From North Carolina, owned by China:

And unless we stop this 560-acre CAFO coming to Bayfield County, it is available for sale to China.

By the way, China doesn't care so very much about pollution; clean and safe water won't be a priority once China gets a foothold in Wisconsin.

Thank you, Scott Walker.

Industrial farm model is killing the environment

"Those in the DNR and DATCP, right up to the state secretaries, C)athy Stepp and Ben Brancel, have met with our county leaders and indicated they can/will do nothing to assist us, even as some of our communities drift into third-world water status. (Lee Luft, Green Bay Press Gazette; cited in RestoreKewaunee (Facebook))

City High-Capacity Well Made Town Water Wells Go Dry, Town May Sue Stevens Point

Updated - Scott Walker made a conscious decision to have the DNR operate in its handing out high capacity water wells like candy at Halloween.

No Republican dissented, certainly not State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) representing part of the Central Sands region of Wisconsin vulnerable to high capacity wells and application of liquid cow manure.

This last Spring when new, even worse high capacity water well legislation would have been killed in the Senate, some in the Assembly felt safe to vote 'No' for the time being amid the tide of rapidly growing pro-water citizen movements, that will likely vote Krug out of his assembly district drawn to elect Republicans.

Kevin Carr of WSAU has a piece out reporting the Town of Hull is considering suing Stevens Point because the City's high capacity water well caused complete water loss for many Town residents.

Reports Carr:

It's known as Well 11; a high capacity well used by the City of Stevens Point. Not long after it first went online in May of 2012, residents in the Town of Hull started noticing some problems.

"Within 6 months or so, people started losing their water supply," Town Chairperson John Holdridge said.

Aaron Heckel is one of the residents who lost nearly all of his water after Well 11 went online.

"We couldn't shower or cook or do anything. The water would just regenerate a little bit throughout the day," Heckel said.

The well is being blamed for lowering the water supply. Town records show that since the well was first used, almost 40 residents have either been forced to drill new, deeper wells, or experience water pressure issues. Those who chose to replace their wells say it wasn't cheap.

The potential litigation on this two-year-old issue [see Town of Hull Water Issues) follows the new policy instituted in 2011 by Scott Walker's Department of Natural Resources to adopt presumptive approval to high capacity water well applications, as though the Wisconsin aquifers were unlimited in what Walker said is, .

"In a state with about 15,000 lakes and more than a quadrillion gallons of groundwater, it is hard to believe that water could ever be in short supply. Experts say, however, that the burgeoning number of so-called high-capacity wells is drawing down some ground and surface water," reports Kate Prengaman at WisconsinWatch.

Seemingly every week, there is a new story about a river, stream, aquifer or lake being drained or toxify or both.

"The number of these so-called high-capacity wells in Wisconsin has exploded exponentially in recent years due to sprawl, expanding dairy and agricultural operations and dozens of new frac sand mines, note The Political Environment.

Former DNR Secretary George Meyer said the DNR under Scott Walker "has failed to lead the way on studying the health and environmental impacts of rapidly growing industries such as sand mining and the spread of high-capacity water wells." (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal)

"In Walker’s first year in office he turned the DNR into an 'enterprise agency' with 'increased operating flexibility to enable the agency to improve customer service and business support.' This shifted staff and resources away from monitoring, oversight and compliance with environmental regulations and created the Office of Business Support and Sustainability at a time when two major threats to clean air and water were ramping up: Frac sand mining and massive Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) with thousands of head of livestock," notes Rebecca Kimble in The Progressive Magazine (March 2013).

Hull (population 5,346 ) is adjacent to Stevens Point (population 26,717).

Portage County in central Wisconsin is located where the Northern Highlands region meet the Central Plains or Central Sands region of Wisconsin.