Despite water law enforcement, compliance resistance, WI DNR asks...

[Update - - headline corrected. Sorry for coding errors.] 

You already know that GOP Gov. Scott Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality" Department of Natural Resources has failed to comply with Federal clean water obligations since 2011, and US monitors have just completed a review of DNR records after citizen complaints, presumably to encourage the Walker administration to follow through, and groundwater pollution near the state's expanding big dairy and animal feeding operations is rampant.

Yet DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp's agency 

emailed this today:

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Do you have water quality data from Wisconsin’s lakes, streams, or rivers?

If so, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources would like to hear from you. 

Every two years, the DNR requests that citizens and interested groups submit their surface water data (biological, chemical and physical). Data meeting specified requirements will be evaluated, along with department data, to assess the quality of the state’s water resources and to pinpoint problem areas. In accordance with the Clean Water Act, DNR uses these assessments to prepare a statewide Integrated Water Quality Report (“Integrated Report”), which includes an updated list of impaired waters. 

Data will be accepted from the public for a one-month period from December 28 – January 31, 2017.

To enable DNR to efficiently process the data, a specific data submittal format is used. Data must be submitted electronically and the information must be submitted in specific Excel spreadsheet formats, along with quality assurance documentation. Data received as PDF files or in other hard copy formats will not be accepted.

Required elements include: 

• A Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP).
• Data in the specified Excel spreadsheet format (template provided). 
• Locational information in specified spreadsheet format (template provided). 
• General information about the submitter, entered in an online form. 

Templates and further instructions are available on the Surface Water Assessments 

webpage: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/surfacewater/assessments.html.

Guidance on minimum data requirements and how WDNR evaluates the data is available in the 2018 Wisconsin Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology (WisCALM). This guidance is currently undergoing revisions for the 2018 reporting cycle, and the 2018 version may be accessed at:
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/surfacewater/assessments.html.