The WI/Walker/Schimel/Scott Pruitt alliance gets deeper

[Updated from 6/19/18 with the addition of Kurt Thiede, a 4th senior WI official, joining the Trump administration. Thiede is at US EPA.] 

There's more evidence that Wisconsin is the policy shop and personnel pool for Trump deregulatory valet and blatantly pro-corporate US EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.

* Pruitt last year hired Scott Walker's DNR Secretary and lead corporate cudgel Cathy Stepp, eventually naming her EPA's Great Lakes regional director.

* Kurt Thiede, Stepp's deputy, joined her in Chicago as Chief of Staff in February.

The move of Stepp and now Thiede to the EPA comes at a time when Foxconn Technology Group has started to submit environmental permit applications to the DNR for a massive industrial complex in Racine County.

*  Pruitt also hired a GOP AG Brad Schimel staffer, David Ross, to a EPA's key water post. I'd written about Ross and that move, here.

But wait, there's more.

Remember the story in January about Atty. Anna Wildman, a former Wisconsin CAFO lobbyist named by Wisconsin AG Brad Schimel to replace Ross and oversee the AG's environmental unit?

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s appointment of a lawyer and former dairy industry lobbyist to lead the environmental protection unit of the Justice Department has drawn objections from the leader of a public interest law firm and concerns from a former secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.

Well, she's already gone.

To the EPA.

And a job under the afore-mentioned David Ross, Pruitt's Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Water. 

Dave Ross is the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Dave has more than 20 years of experience working on water issues in both state government and the private sector.  

Prior to joining EPA in January 2018, Mr. Ross worked as the Director of the Environmental Protection Unit at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. 

Wildeman is now EPA's Deputy Assistant Administrator, according to this EPA web page. 

Anna Wildeman, Deputy Assistant Administrator 

And here's what's managed at EPA's Office of Water:

What We Do 

The Office of Water (OW) ensures drinking water is safe, and restores and maintains oceans, watersheds, and their aquatic ecosystems to protect human health, support economic and recreational activities, and provide healthy habitat for fish, plants and wildlife. 

OW is responsible for implementing the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, and portions of the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Ocean Dumping Ban Act, Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, Shore Protection Act, Marine Plastics Pollution Research and Control Act, London Dumping Convention, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and several other statutes. 

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Office of Water works with the ten EPA regional offices, other federal agencies, state and local governments, American Indian tribes, the regulated community, organized professional and interest groups, land owners and managers, and the public-at-large. 

OW provides guidance, specifies scientific methods and data collection requirements, performs oversight and facilitates communication among those involved. 

OW helps the states and American Indian tribes to build capacity, and water programs can be delegated to them for implementation.

And the Office Water runs these, too: 

• Immediate Office of the Assistant Administrator for Water
• Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
• Office of Science and Technology
• Office of Wastewater Management
• Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds