About Water, Walker, And This Blog, Turning Seven

I looked back at the early posts on this blog that began Feb. 2, 2007, more than 13,000 posts ago.

Many are still topical - - climate change, regional water issues, the Great Lakes compact, etc - - hence the name of the blog.

The goal was to follow the impact of politics on Wisconsin's environmental and also to explain how and why those politics work, and for whom, or not.

But things began to change here in 2010 as Scott Walker the gubernatorial candidate began to propose and then institute after his win an radical environmental agenda - - a ideological attack also reflected in other areas, like labor, energy, education and health care, among others - - that is now being written into law by the GOP-led Legislature, implemented by business leaders he put atop the DNR and being soft-pedaled by some media commentators defaulting on their watchdog role.

There were early signs of Walker's intention to unwind long-standing legal protections that had given Wisconsin a strong and deserved environmental reputation as he handed over resources, like groundwater and wetlands, to people out to make a buck - - even though the State Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine says the waters and their surroundings are commonly-held assets to be guarded by the state as trustee for all the people, not sold, given away or disrespected.

Among the early signs:

*  Walker's very telling claim during the campaign that it was opponent Tom Barrett with the radical environmental agenda. This is what we now know is Walker's pattern - - twisted, even dishonest rhetoric, a flight from transparency despite his boast about it (scrubbed from his website), and all blended with finger-pointing and misdirection verified time and time again by PolitiFact, its few "True" ratings and far greater total of "False" and "Pants on Fire" conclusions when reviewing Walker's remarks.

And for a perfect point of closure: the link to Walker's campaign ad wherein he made the claim about Barrett is now blocked. See this posting. File at #transparencyfail.

*  Walker's very early push for a special bill passed by the Legislature to allow a donor to develop a wetlands near Lambeau Field for an outdoors supply retailer before the DNR had finished its environmental review.

And that was just the beginning.

Three years later, the Legislature at Walker's urging has also approved new special interest laws easing construction impacts into, at or near wetlands and shorelines, has shown disinterest in regulating rapidly-expanding frac sand mine and mega-dairy industries, and has even set in motion a fast-track review of what would be the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine upstream from the Bad River reservation, wild-rice beds, and Lake Superior.

Regardless of legitimate concerns about acid mine drainage, drinking water contamination, groundwater depletion, asbestos dust and the mass fillings of wetlands and other waterways for thirty-five years of excavation that includes of million and millions of tons of waste rock, soil, and vegetation dumped as the Penokee Hills range is dynamited to oblivion.

The wetlands at issue near Lambeau Field was twelve acres - - precisely the kind of small wetlands fill cited by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1966 Hixon ruling still cited even by Walker's DNR (read and copy before that gets deleted, too) explaining how the larger ecosystem that is held in trust for all the people could be lost through the cumulative impacts of little fills here and there.

The first phase of the iron mine, after raking away the Penokee Hills, is 4.5 miles long, a half-mile wide and somewhere between 700-to-1,000 feet deep. And the iron ore is said to run for another 17.5 miles.

Making the Lambeau Field filling look like a pebble on a beach, a rain drop in a hurricane.

That is why over seven years there are more blog posts here about Walker and his environmental agenda than any other topic, and I suspect the trend will continue this year as the iron mine review proceeds, the Legislature tries to undo existing legislation so phosphorous polluters can have an extra 20 years to cleanup a growing number of polluted rivers and streams, and Walker's DNR still cannot meet the enforcement record of his recent predecessors, including the pro-business Republican Tommy Thompson.