The Political Environment: GOP continues to leave Wisconsin waters contaminated and unsafe

People in groundwater-contaminated Wisconsin from Kewaunee County to the Central Sands Counties and further south and west near the Iowa border can be excused for yelling at their computer screens if they saw this report the other day.

Experts: Nitrate Water Contamination Is Now a Public Health Threat

If you’re based in Wisconsin, you might want to inquire into the source of your drinking water. Much of the state’s water supply appears to be contaminated with nitrates, naturally occurring ions that can pose a risk to human health when consumed in concentrations that exceed—or, it turns out, even meet—federal standards. The October study that revealed the extent of the problem was published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.1

“High levels of nitrates in a human body can cause respiratory problems, particularly in babies with ‘blue baby syndrome,' reproductive complications for women, and have been connected to several types of cancer, including colorectal cancer and kidney cancer,” [researcher Chloe] Wardropper says.

Seriously - now?

Let's work back through just some of the record.

* I cited Minnesota media in 2018 which reported nitrate contamination in Wisconsin groundwater had these known consequences as reported by Wisconsin Watch in 2015:

Nitrate in water widespread, current rules no match for it

Born a month early in the spring of 1999, Case 8 had been thriving on formula. But at three weeks old, when her family ran out of bottled water and started using boiled water from the household well at the dairy farm where they lived, she got sick....Two days after she fell ill with methaemoglobinaemia, or “blue baby syndrome,” water tests turned up the most likely culprit — high levels of nitrate.

According to state estimates, nitrate is at unsafe levels in an estimated 94,000 Wisconsin households. One in five wells in heavily agricultural areas is now too polluted with nitrate for safe drinking, according to data from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

* As I said, 'now?' It's daily living in the aforementioned Central Sands and to the east in Kewaunee County, as I reported, in 2018, here.

WI Central Sands the next Flint? Kewaunee County already soaks up that honor.

* And take it from long-time Kewaunee County clean groundwater activist Nancy Utesch:

We in Kewaunee County share a commonality with Juneau County residents who are being poisoned through agricultural practices.

We asked the US Environmental Protection Agency for an investigation into the cause and source of well water contamination in our 2014 Safe Drinking Water Act petition, but the EPA has yet to address it.

Central Sands has the Wysocki CAFO. We have 16 CAFOs.

Wisconsin should long ago have stopped acting confused as to the cause and source of known, widespread contamination and moved instead to protect Kewaunee County residents and water resources of people statewide.
Manure flowing from a Kewaunee CAFO
While we are elated over the attention being focused by the grassroots work of our Central Sands comrades, we are baffled by the lack of response to two infant hospitalizations in 2004 and 2014, respectively, and to persistent water borne illnesses regularly documented at our local health department.

The EPA’s Region 5 in Chicago said on September 19, 2018 that Kewaunee’s 16 CAFOs, porous karst topography and costs were all factors delaying its response to our 2014 petition, but those are not valid reasons to delay an investigation and solutions for years.

Instead, the EPA’s grotesque neglect is failing to protect the health of Wisconsin citizens from known pollution threats posed by a growing industry which the EPA and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources should be credibly regulating.

When will the US EPA region 5 and our Wisconsin DNR do real investigations into the causes and sources of Kewaunee’s water contamination? And enforce solutions in the public interest?

What will it take?

Without real investigations, will we ever know the full extent and costs from the illness and suffering resulting from agribusiness here?

Why has it taken this long?

We have waited long enough.

I know that the Wisconsin DNR is working hard after eight years of Walker-era budget cuts and industry favors like this one -

Dairy group uses behind-the-scenes influence with Gov. Scott Walker to shift regulation of large livestock farms

- to repair the damage.

Waterway pollution in WI skyrockets during Walker, GOP reign

....the cumulative numbers in these [official, DNR biannual] reports which encompass most of Walker's tenure show the addition of 804 newly listed polluted waterways to the "more than 700" cited in 2012. The additions, 804, outpaced deletions, 96, by a ratio of more than eight-to-one, and leaves Walker with about double what he inherited....

And, yes, I read about the formation of a new broad-based initiative that is dedicated to action.

Four environmental and agricultural groups are coming together to advocate for meaningful state-level policy changes that support clean water and resilient farms.

Clean Wisconsin, the Dairy Business Association, The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association announced the partnership today at a virtual press conference.

This is a good step to be sure, and I applaud the veteran environmental groups like Clean Wisconsin which has been at this for 50 years and worked so diligently to guarantee clean water to every Wisconsin resident.

The obstacle is that corporately-compliant GOP legislators hold on to their gerrymandered majorities - and the rural dominance it guarantees - leaving groundwater continually impaired statewide.

* You can read about GOP leaders' preferences - in their own documents words - here:

Vos, Fitzgerald go to bat for 'existing and expanding CAFO operations'

* And here:

Farm siting rules likely heading back to drawing board after pushback from GOP, farm groups

* So realities like this openly punitive and partisan disregard for healthy drinking water -

Yes, GOP did oppose $40 million for lead pipe replacement because it helped Milwaukee too much

- and another 2019 GOP power move will remain automatic:

Wisconsin budget committee signs off on new dairy hub, nixes fee increases for large-scale farms

Evers’ plan would have increased the $345 annual fee to $660 yearly. On top of that, it would have required CAFO owners to pay $3,270 to operate the farm, a payment that would also have to be made every five years thereafter for permit reissuance.

As will deliberate moves like this very recent action by Republican legislators that upended years of disclosures, study, negotiations, and, finally some legislating - about yet another danger in the groundwater:

Legislative committee strips key language from rules to prevent PFAS contamination

Democrats accused the committee of “neutering” the state’s first law aimed at curbing PFAS contamination, while the committee’s GOP leaders agreed with industry groups who argued the DNR overstepped its authority.

Reminds me of Walker's intervention during his first few hours in office in January, 2011 on behalf of a business rather than public water policy:

A bill proposed this week by Gov. Scott Walker to sidestep a Department of Natural Resources' review of a wetland at a Green Bay-area retail project is drawing sharp criticism from environmentalists while also signaling his willingness to use his powers to advance his economic agenda.

The legislation would allow a developer to fill a small wetland for a retail sporting goods store at Highway 41 and Lombardi Ave.

Did I mention that the developer was a Walker donor?

As is the developer of a privately-owned golf course on freshly-annexed-and-pristine land in Sheboygan which would absorb state park land, and where land use and wetlands permits are being litigated?

More analysis, here.

A further mind-boggling insult is that the Wisconsin DNR remains joined with the developer in a lawsuit that seeks to bar citizens (opponents of the plan have created "Friends of the Black River Forest"- FBRF) from challenging the land:

DNR and Kohler Company fight residents' right to challenge a state agency's actions
So basically the state - that's the people, you and I - is arguing that the people can be barred from contesting the disposition of public land which is there for the people's use - than 400,000 annually, according to recent DNR records - and which, in this case, is park land literally within a stone's throw of the people who have filed a legal contest.

You get the picture - the big one in which clean water is too often in the background - and in Wisconsin Walker-era pro-polluter polices are sticking around and being imitated and worsened by design during the Trump years

EPA rule change removes federal protections from large swath of waters and wetlands

Remember the Wisconsin public trust doctrine which predates statehood?

Like the wetlands which the Walker-led Legislature gifted to Foxconn at the public's expense, it's draining away, too.

Foxconn flood muddied Robin Vos' Twitter feed, too

* Mud, flood, water pollution, fake 'blight,' eminent domain and now a second local credit rating downgrade; what else is on the agenda at this Saturday's annual Mount Pleasant Day 2018?