Earth Day Is Just Another Holiday For Polluters In Wisconsin

Earth Day, 2011, is just another day of willfully polluting Wisconsin waters, as Gov. Scott Walker continues to bar implementation of a rule written collaboratively among many stakeholders to keep algae from choking the state's rivers, lakes and streams.

There's a great collection of reporting, testimonials, video, and documentation proving that fetid algae blooms are bad for Wisconsin businesses - - check out the series on the website of the River Alliance of Wisconsin - -  and predictions that his actions risk more stringent enforcement from outside, federal officials who are legally-bound to enforce the US Clean Water Act.

But as he did with high-speed rail, and wind farms, and transit system aids, and recycling, Walker says "no."

He's talking about a two-year delay in phosphorus controls. He must assume our attention span is as short as is his. I wonder if the Village of Maple Bluff will let the algae wash up below the Governor's Mansion on Lake Mendota and let the chief executive breath deeply his folly.

It may have no effect, as he was content to let Bradford Beach in Milwaukee go to hell until private donors and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District found the funding to rake the beaches and stop Walker's County government from continuing to let polluted stormwater from Lake Park run through the County's pipes right on to the sand and the shallow water.

Walker's one-dimensional behavior when it comes to the environment - - "No" - - comes about because he listens first to the largest of the corporate interests who funded his campaign and who pour money into the far-right advocacy groups and institutions that support him: the highway lobby, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, and the builders - - from which, no surprise, have come several top appointees to the Department of Natural Resources.

Walker has done this, and will do more to extinguish Wisconsin's environmental leadership  while repeating that "Wisconsin is open for business."

As if there is a hostile divide between jobs and a clean environment, between clean air and water, and a growing economy, that requires redefining the DNR as pro-business.

It will take nothing less than the successful recall and ouster at the polls of this radical governor who is light years away from the legacy of Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day's founder, and from mainstream Wisconsin conservation thinking, to remove the his cynicism from the land and the body politic.

Here's hoping for a brighter, cleaner, and more honest, Walker-free Earth Day, 2012 in Wisconsin [Granted, delays in a successful recall process would push that to 2013, but we might know by Earth Day 2012 if enough valid signatures were filed].