Saturday, April 6, 2013

List Of "Impaired" Wisconsin Waterways, Per The DNR, Raise Questions

I was rooting around the DNR's website after reading all about the agency's new vision and action plan, and this link bubbled to the top:

Wisconsin’s 2012 Impaired Waters List

Read a little deeper, and found two things that are not confidence-builders - - but which suggest actions plans of their own. The bold-facing is mine:

*  Every two years, section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to publish a list of all waters that are not meeting the following designated uses: fish and aquatic life, recreation, public health and welfare, and wildlife. The existing Impaired Waters List includes more than 700 rivers, streams and lakes. In 2012, updates include 138 new waters to the list. The primary pollutants are total phosphorus, mercury and total suspended solids. Twenty eight waters are being proposed for delisting including 3 streams that have been successfully restored: German Valley Branch in Dane County and Eagle and Joos Valley Creeks in Buffalo County. [Read About Restorations...]

As I read it, the agency is touting three restorations while 138 new waters were added? Really?

* And this, just for the record:
In response to public comments from U.S. EPA and Wisconsin citizens, changes have been made to the proposed Impaired Waters List. DNR is re–opened the public comment period to allow review of the modified protocols and changes to the list.
C'mon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not a problem, the impaired waterways will disappear from the list entirely in a few years. O ye James of little faith, complainest thou not.
Once we get a few more High Cap wells up and running, there won't be any water ways left to worry about. And don't forget anything that's left will be mitigated. Like you know "mitigate" - pick up whatever the schmucks in Wisconsin have got and move it on down to Texas, maybe China, or coat it in resins and inject it all under some other part of the U.S. It's all still there, it's just, you know "improved", reformed, hauled in a truck, and then stored, and then REstored. Yep. We all gonna be clean as a whistle up here sooner than you think.