Are there limits to the state's new radical agenda?
Ah - - who needs that Nanny state crap, say ultra-pro-business-come-what-may GOP legislators who are gearing up to stop the state from enforcing rules to keep viruses and other contaminants out of Wisconsin municipal water systems.
Yeah, that'll recruit new industry to Wisconsin. I can see the new Welcome To Wisconsin signs now:
Open For Business: Bring Your Own Medicine Bag.
Right now, about 12% of Wisconsin municipal systems do not continuously disinfect, says the DNR, which has had the nerve, along with the previous Legislature, of applying science to rule-making.
And The who-cares-what's-in-the-water coalition is looking for co-sponsors (note Erik Severson, a new State Rep. from Osceola, is a physician), while Harsdorf is on Joint Finance. There's you new GOP at work.
As they say in their legislative email:
DATE: January 27, 2011
TO: Legislative Colleagues
FROM: Senators Sheila Harsdorf
Representative Erik Severson
RE: Co-sponsorship of LRB-0937, relating to disinfection of municipal water supplies.
We will be introducing LRB-0937 which seeks to prohibit the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from mandating continuous disinfection of municipal water supplies.
Last summer, the DNR promulgated a rule that made several changes to state regulations relating to water. Some of these changes were required by the federal government; however, the DNR went beyond federal requirements in a provision relating to municipal water disinfection. This change is a new mandate on municipalities requiring continuous disinfection of their water supply. Approximately 70 municipalities across the state currently do not continuously disinfect their water and are impacted by this rule.
This mandate imposes a significant cost on municipalities. One community cited a price tag of $2.9 million for complying with this mandate, which is several times larger than the community’s annual budget. Despite having a good record for providing a quality water supply, this municipality is facing a significant capital project to comply with the new DNR rule by December 2013.
This bill would prohibit the DNR from requiring municipal water systems to provide continuous disinfection, unless federal law requires continuous disinfection in the future.
If you would like to co-sponsor this legislation, please respond to this e-mail or call Sen. Harsdorf office at 6-7745 or Rep. Severson’s office at 7-2365 by February 9th.
Co-sponsors will be added to both the Senate and Assembly versions unless requested otherwise.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Current law requires the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to administer a safe drinking water program and to establish all safeguards that DNR determines to be necessary in protecting public health from impure drinking water supplies.
DNR has promulgated a rule that requires municipal drinking water systems to provide continuous disinfection of the water that they provide, beginning no later than December 1, 2013.
This bill prohibits DNR from requiring a municipal water system to provide continuous disinfection of the water that it provides, unless continuous disinfection is required under federal law.
The dnr rule looks to be enacted in order to comply with the “Great Lakes Compact” rather than a response to a actual health issue occurrence. The Great Lakes Compact is another one of those Agenda 21 programs designed to take control away from local communities. If the communities are currently in compliance with federal standards and there are no problems then this should be good enough. The eco-bimbos of the DNR should stick to planting fish and putting out forest fires and they are getting worse at doing even this.
ReplyDeleteThe term "eco bimbos" ..... says a great deal about the comment from "Anonymous". The Great Lakes Compact has been approved by Congress and each of the Great Lake States as a model of international cooperation and responsible resource management. Perhaps "Anonymous" would fit in better in another, less educated, part of the country, where water resources are less protected.
ReplyDeleteI almost deleted that "eco bimbos" comment but left it for publication because it tells us a lot about the commenter.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous 1: You drink the first glass.
ReplyDelete