DNR In WI About To Jettison Rules, Investigations, Public Input

Friday is the end of a comment period during which you can tell the DNR to dial back the war on the Wisconsin's environment by retaining environmental impact statement (EIS) reviews and other tried-and-true methods of guaranteeing that Wisconsin's resources are managed in the public interest.

The Sierra Club lays it out:

Proposed Rule Changes Reduce Oversight & Public Input for Factory Farms, High Capacity Wells, and other Projects Sweeping changes have been proposed for NR 150, the rule which establishes the procedures the Department of Natural Resources uses to follow the Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act (WEPA). The proposed changes reduce public input and eliminate the use of Environmental Assessments Tell your story about why maintaining environmental oversight and public input is critical to your local area!  and Environmental Impact Statements as a means of complying with WEPA for a wide variety of developments.  Although some environmental groups were invited to provide input on the proposed rule changes, the WDNR also received external recommendations on these changes from a broad array of manufacturers, home-builders, paper companies, and utilities.  The stated intent of the changes are to make the Department's WEPA compliance more effective, meaningful and consistent.   However, the DNR also states that "the level of environmental analysis required for DNR actions will be considerably less under the proposed rule."  Specifically, changes to NR 150 remove the requirement for an Environmental Assessment (EA) for several activities, including high capacity well permits, county forest planning, commercial waste storage facilities, and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs, or factory farms).  Changes to NR 150 also remove the requirement for and EA or EIS for "prior compliance actions" defined as a project that has obtained prior approval for actions that are similar to the proposed action in kind, scale and environmental setting.  These include Wisconsin pollution discharge elimination system (WPDES) permits, solid waste facilities, species introductions and timber management projects.

Wisconsin has already experienced rapid increases in the number of factory farms, sand mines and high capacity wells impacting our water and land in recent years.   Wisconsin's 235 factory farms and over 60 sand mines are already jeopardizing land and well water safety.  Increasing numbers of high capacity wells pose acute threats to the central sands region where water depletion is already threatening the Little Plover River and other water resources.  More, not less oversight and modeling is needed to assess potential impacts of these types of developments in the future, especially given the need to protect our resources in the context a changing climate. Please send your comments, along with your own personal stories to: jeff.schimpff@wisconsin.gov and david.siebert@Wisconsin.gov at the WI Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) today on why we should keep NR 150 rules requiring strong oversight and robust public participation for factory farms, high capacity wells, and other developments intact.  Please comment today.

The comment deadline is May 3, 2013.