Guest Blog: Mel Visser, Great Lakes Scientist And Author, On Great Lakes Pollution

The noted scientist and book author Mel Visser (book plug at the bottom) sent me this, which looked like an ideal guest item about something I don't know enough about. Now I know a bit more. My pleasure to post it:

I do not see much about persistent organic pollutants (POPs,) a Great Lakes subject that deeply concerns me, on your blog.

On retiring in 1995, I searched for an answer to the residual PCBs in Lake Superior. When banned in 1978, concentrations rapidly decreased to 50% of their peak ... and stayed there. This is not what would be expected, there had to be a continuing source.

I could not find the answer through voluntary efforts with the EPA and by serving on the Science Advisory Board of Michigan's Great Lakes Protection Fund.

On hearing of a study finding that Inuit above the Arctic Circle had 8X more breast milk PCBs than women in southern Canada, my search headed north.

From two trips to the Canadian High Arctic and assimilation of research done under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, a multi- nation study, the picture came together.

Continuing megaton global use of PCBs and "banned" pesticides keeps our Great Lakes contaminated and is devastating the Arctic environment.

The 8X PCB level was only 7% of the Inuit toxic load, with the majority coming from chlordane and toxaphene.Toxaphene was virtually banned in 1982.

By 1992, its concentration in Lake Michigan had gone down, but the levels in Lake Superior went up 50% and have stayed there. Lake Trout in Lake Superior have a toxaphene concentration 10X that required to classify them as hazardous waste.

This is also 10X the PCB toxicity in those same trout. Yet ... Michigan's Fish Consumption Advisories warn against consuming large trout because of their PCB content and remain silent about toxaphene.

Before condemning Michigan, check Wisconsin's advisories. Ontario, Michigan and other states dropped toxaphene from advisories sometime before 2004.

Why does Lake Superior attract toxaphene?

The POPs (persistant organic pollutants) circle the globe and concentrate at different latitudes according to their volatility.

Lindane, very volatile, was found at 40X the concentration in the Arctic Ocean as in oceans near its use points.

PCBs spread across the continental US and diminish to the north.

Toxaphene finds the cold mountain lakes, the northern Great Lakes and the Arctic to its liking. What is the EPA doing? Nothing.

At the International Joint Commission meeting in Chicago last week, a glowing progress report was presented ... Lake Superior's toxaphene was not mentioned.

According to the EPA, POPs will exit the lakes in another 10-30 years as they remove contaminated sediments and address virtual elimination.

Good Luck!

This head-in-the-sand approach of ignoring the biggest toxicity problem in the Great Lakes ... and lying through Fish Consumption Advisories published to protect us, will only serve to keep the hard work of truly achieving a global ban on agricultural use of POPs pesticides and industrial use of PCBs from starting.

The 2001 voluntary Stockholm Agreement has done nothing but stirred up a backlash on DDT and cleaned up storehouses in Africa … efforts that the Lake Superior trout will not feel.

My search and conclusions have been published as the book Cold, Clear, and Deadly. See my web site at http://www.coldclearanddeadly.com/ for more information.

Best wishes to you and our Great Lakes.

Mel Visser

Gingrich Comes to Waukesha County, Doesn't Fail To Disappoint The Far Right

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and potential additional rightwing GOP presidential candidate made a speech before a conservative Wisconsin business group in Waukesha County on the 15th - - and surprise, surprise - - postured as another immigration hysteric to drum up support for a possible primary run.

This is the script for the right and the GOP these days, now that overt discrimination against people of color has fallen out of fashion: whip up fear and loathing towards immigrants.

For a politician on the right, this is oh, so easy. "Gratuitous" doesn't even begin to define it.

Gingrich outed himself as a confessed hypocrite not long ago when he admitted to having had a sexual relationship with a member of his House staff - - at the same time he was leading the crucifixion of Pres. Bill Clinton for the same sort of familial and workplace indiscretion with Monica Lewinsky.

Will anyone be shocked if we will learn that Gingrich has employed or benefited from the labor of undocumented immigrant workers on his private payrolls?

By the way, here is the website of the pro-Wisconsin (sic) business organization that brought Gingrich.

Note the sophomoric and partisan nature of its presentation. No wonder Wisconsin has low standing nationally in the eyes of some business leaders: the Wisconsin business community, led by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, is more negative about Wisconsin than any other special interest.

Brookings Institution Focuses On Wisconsin/Great Lakes Importance

John Austin, a senior fellow at the prestigious Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, returned to Wisconsin May 7th to present his major findings about the importance of the Great Lakes to a state Capitol audience.

I attended and found the information among the best I'd seen on several key economic, political, historical and everyday issues in our state and Great Lakes region.

A short video summary of his presentation about the strengths and weaknesses of the Great Lakes region, and how to deal with both halves of that equation, is here. I will later post a link to his entire, hour-long presentation, and to his Power Point.

I'll be writing more about Austin's findings as they relate to the pending Great Lakes Compact and other issues.

Expect to see more of Austin in Wisconsin and Milwaukee because he offers a neutral, non-partisan and credible analysis that supports goals often seen as contradictory: economic development and conservation, for example.

He also has data about racial separation in southeastern Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes region that is deeply disturbing, but, again, offers an opportunity for change that would be good for the entire region's economy - - if leaders here have the political will to break from the past.

Time will tell.

Red Ink Tells The Tale: Milwaukee County Budgeting Is A Farce

Milwaukee County budgets should really be written in pencil. Makes re-budgeting easier when you keep running millions short.

And Scott Walker wanted to use his County Executiveship as a basis for managing the state budget?

Southeastern Wisconsin Air Quality Still Problematic

Though Wisconsin officials are hoping that the air in southeastern Wisconsin will soon meet federal health standards and encourage easier industrial expansion, monitoring in 2007 suggests otherwise.

It's a regional problem, with smokestack pollution from as far south as Gary, IN and Chicago, IL drifting north to the greater Milwaukee area, and as far up the Lake Michigan coastline as Door County.

Two thoughts:

Are Wisconsin and local M-7 officials talking to their counterparts in Illinois and Indiana?

And what will be the impact of the expanded Oak Creek power plants on the region's job outlook and air quality?

Comment Function On This Blog Updated

The "anonymous" function has been enabled. Sorry about that.

I still am moderating comments because of a spate of vicious comments sent sometime ago that I had to delete, one-by-one as they got automatically posted, but feel free to leave anonymous comments.

I do want the blog to encourage dialogue. It is not one of those one-way, no-comment sites.

Isthmus Piece On Schools Worth A Read: Soglin Post, Too

Marc Eisen, my thoughtful former colleague at Isthmus, has a piece suggesting education reforms for Madison that are based on a Milwaukee Public Schools model.

Milwaukee readers will flinch at a stinging adjective in the lede; Madison readers will find much of the entire premise hard to swallow, so in the ongoing Milwaukee-Madison competitive dynamic - - advantage this round to Milwaukee.

Separately, Paul Soglin takes Mark Belling to task for the WISN-AM 1130 squawker's uninformed opinions about kids' performance in school and the buildings in which they attend their classes.

Belling is at his most clueless when he opining and whining about things with which he has little personal experience, whether it's foreign affairs or raising kids.

Detroit Free Press Again Calls For Action On Great Lakes Compact

Twice in six days, the Detroit Free Press has urged adoption of a strong Great Lakes Compact.

The paper's editorials are aimed primarily at Michigan's state legislature, but the message for timely and comprehensive Great Lakes protection is relevant also in Wisconsin.

That's because the state legislative study committee charged with drafting a Compact implementing bill for Wisconsin has not met since December, 2006.

Legislative leaders have said they want the committee to wrap up its work by mid-September.

That means heavy-lifting by the 18-member committee throughout the summer, with resistance from Waukesha County to the Compact's tough diversion rules being among the higher hurdles preventing the committee's drafting a genuine Great Lakes protection bill.

Study Suggests Oil Supply Disappearing

While you're celebrating that fill-up yesterday at a mere $2.99/gallon, ask yourself, what if oil was really beginning to run out?

Scare story, or a dose of reality?

You decide.

MMSD Rain Gardens Initiative Looks Like A Winner

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is announcing a Rain Gardens Initiative - - and it comes with discounts on plantings for your property that will make better use of rainwater than letting it add to system overflows.

Or how about an inexpensive rain barrel to add to your garden?

MMSD will sell you one for a mere $30 - - and they've sold 5,480 to date.

This is the kind of grassroots planning that gets results, one home and property at a time, and puts substance behind the MMSD conservation slogan, "Every Drop Counts."

USA Today Discovers The Disappearing Great Lakes

It is not news to many people in Wisconsin, nor to readers of this blog who follow Great Lakes water and diversion issues, but to USA Today, it's real news: Lake Superior's level is way down.

Dropping lake levels are among the reasons that Wisconsin needs to endorse and implement the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement among the eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces to limit diversions and stimulate widespread water conservation.

The economies of the Great Lakes states depend on reliable supplies of fresh, clean water, yet there is no sense of urgency among many Wisconsin leaders to make water conservation and Great Lakes protection a high priority.

Efforts to draft Gret Lakes Compact enabling legislation for Wisconsin have stalled.

An explanation is here.

Legislator Emerges From The Swamp, Attacks Wetlands

Ok, so it's a bit of a mixed, murky metaphor, but sometimes the state legislature resembles a swampy backwater, and Rep. Frank Lasee's suggestion that Wisconsin is wasting money creating and buying swamp land suggests that maybe Lasee has been drinking that swamp water?

And what's with that graphic on those webnotes, original here?

Is Lasee, (R-Bellevue), an Xboxer, a Dungeons and Dragons dropout, or a state official helping to oversee a $58 billion enterprise?

GOP To Fight Cigarette Tax Hike; More Teen Smoking Ahead

The state GOP announces it will try and block all the tax increases in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

That includes a proposed boost in the per-pack tax on cigarettes from 77 cents to $2.02.

Experts have concluded that the higher the price of a pack of smokes, the fewer teens - - vital 'replacement smokers' the companies need to pick up from the older smokers who have quit or died - - will be able to afford to begin, or keep smoking.

So the Republican position in Wisconsin is to make it easier for kids and others to begin, or keep smoking, knowing that cigarettes are killers that also put a huge tax, if you will, on the public's health care bill.

Nice.

Midwest Environmental Advocates Wins Clean Water Case Against Mining Giant

Score one for MEA - - Midwest Environmental Advocates - - in court against a mining multi-national corporation, and on behalf of a northern Wisconsin tribe.

Also winning: Wisconsin's water resources.

Xoff Notes Essential Difference Between Republicans and Democrats

Writer and political consultant Bill Christofferson gets to the heart of the matter with a posting and headline worthy of The Onion.

Excellent Letter To The Editor About UW-M Research Park

Keep it in Milwaukee.

That's the conclusion of Steve Filmanowicz, a former colleague of mine in Mayor John Norquist's office, and now communications director at the Congress for the New Urbanism, about where UW-M should put its proposed research park.

Here's his June 11, 2007 letter to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

UWM

Put new engineering campus downtown

It's hard to imagine a better kick-off for the Milwaukee 7 partnership's plans to recharge our regional economy around technology-based manufacturing and process design than building the new engineering school and research park proposed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ("UWM to raise money for land," June 7).

But instead of the fields of the County Grounds, imagine the new campus joining Manpower's new headquarters downtown and serving as a gateway to the redeveloping Park East corridor.

With the Milwaukee School of Engineering just blocks away and the neighboring Milwaukee Area Technical College serving as a partner in training workers for highly skilled manufacturing jobs, UWM's new Innovation Park would be the centerpiece of Milwaukee's new "knowledge corridor."

Although there's plenty of available land in the Park East corridor, particularly west of the river, the campus would need to be reconceived in a more vertical form, with incubators and spin-off businesses taking advantage of the neighborhood's impressive talent base by locating in nearby lofts and mixed-use buildings.

Instead of asking "what if?" as we do now after having built Miller Park in a fairly isolated location, let's fully explore the benefits of better integrating UWM's new Innovation Park into the life and economy of the city.

Stephen Filmanowicz
Communications director
Congress for the New Urbanism
Milwaukee

Kedzie Committee Gets A Short Reprieve

State Sen. Neal Kedzie, (R-Elkhorn), had asked legislative leaders to give him until the end of the year to whip his Great Lakes study committee into shape.

Apparently, those bi-partisan leaders have reached something of a compromise:

Kedzie has announced that he's been given until September instead - - which means he and his 18-member committee will have to work hard through the summer to resolve deep divisions and report out a proposed bill relatively quickly.

The committee, stalled over objections from Waukesha political and business interests who want Wisconsin's endorsement of the Great Lakes Compact (a water management agreement) watered-down to permit easy diversions to sprawling Waukesha County, has not met since December.

I posted an extensive analysis of this problem, here.

To sum it up, the extension is a mistake.

Extending Kedzie's committee only guarantees further delay; That is because it is top heavy with Waukesha legislators, local officials and development executives who are putting their interests before those of an international region holding the Great Lakes in common trust.

Kedzie's announcement, reproduced on a blog posted by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on behalf of some legislators, is reproduced below:

"TUESDAY, June 12, 2007, 1:46 p.m.By Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn)

Compact would protect water, allow some diversion

Earlier today, I appeared before the Joint Legislative Council in my role as chair of the Special Committee on the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact to provide a status report on the work of the committee.

The joint council created this special committee in an effort to study the feasibility of Wisconsin joining seven other Great Lakes states to ultimately ratify the compact.

The compact was signed by the eight governors of the Great Lakes basin states in 2005, and provides -- in its simplest of terms -- a procedural mechanism for those states to provide limited diversions and withdrawals of Great Lakes water for communities in need of such water.

Each state Legislature, then, must devise a comprehensive plan to create legislation in order to implement the compact in each respective state.

The goal is to protect the resource as much as possible, while at the same time, create a reasonable process for communities with potential water shortages.

The Wisconsin Legislature is engaged in this issue through the special committee.While the committee has made significant progress over the last several months, more time will be needed to reach finality with this process and find compromise on many unresolved issues.

By their vote of approval, the Joint Legislative Council granted additional meetings for the special committee to work towards that goal, however a deadline of September 15, 2007 was set.

While I felt more time was needed, I will do all I can as chair of this special committee to work within that timeframe and bring this process to an endpoint by that date. "

Note that Kedzie's explanation to his colleagues of what the Compact (see how the Council of Great Lakes Governors describes the matter, for comparison, at the very end of this post) is puts heavy emphasis on how diversions could assist communities seeking them.

The Compact, while rationalizing diversion procedures, also contains provisions about conservation, bottled water, public participation and other coordinated water-management issues.

And it makes clear, through long checklists, that diversions are matters of last resort, because the thrust of the Compact, already in existence with Wisconsin's leadership since 1985, is conservation and stewardship by eight states and two Canadian provinces of what is a unique fresh water resource on the planet.

That is why many environmental and conservation organizations in Wisconsin want the Badger state's version of the compact to have unambiguously strong language on some key points that business and property rights' advocates want trimmed or eliminated.

One committee member, State. Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), has praised calls to send back to the table the negotiators who worked from 2001-2005 to redraft the Compact.

There's no way that should or would happen. The Great Lakes are at too much risk, and too many years have been spent to upgrade the Compact, to justify starting over. And I suspect that Lazich knows that.

And the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce has stated on more than one occasion that all eight states should not be required to approve diversion applications from communities that lie outside the Great Lakes basin - - a central provision of the Compact and in relevant federal law in place since 1986.

That's what having a cooperative Compact means - - it's a joining, not a separating or a delineating - - and it would be shocking if the Chamber doesn't understand or grasp what a Compact is or why you'd want one when you are talking about a resource that touches eight states.

A Compact with equal votes and voices - - even though New York State has more people or other of the states have more acreage - - means that Wisconsin could block harmful diversion applications from any of seven other states in order to protect Wisconsin waters.

And it's why - - and this is a central fact - - that the Kedzie Committee was told early on by Compact negotiators that substantive changes to the agreement could not be made by the eight states considering it, or the Compact's cooperative message and value would collapse.

Without the Compact's uniformity on behalf of Great Lakes preservation, a chaotic rush for withdrawals and other deleterious results could easily follow.

Some of Kedzie's district includes the very acreage in Western Waukesha County that is growing by leaps and bounds, along with other water-hungry territory in southeastern Wisconsin.

Kedzie is known for his interest in the environment, but given the committee's structure and its inevitable inertia, the committee's work is probably going to be only part of an eventual legislative solution for Wisconsin relative to the Compact, not the entire answer.

(From the Council of Great Lakes Governors, emphasis added)

Great Lakes Water Management Overview

"Through the Great Lakes Water Management Initiative, the Council of Great Lakes Governors is taking the lead in protecting the Great Lakes. We recognize that the Great Lakes are one of the most important natural resources in North America and that we must work together to protect them.

The Council assists the Governors and Premiers in coordinating activities under the Great Lakes Charter of 1985, a voluntary agreement through which the Great Lakes States and Provinces cooperatively manage the waters of the Great Lakes.

The Council also coordinates the authority granted to the Governors under the U.S. Federal Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1986.

This Act requires the Governors’ unanimous approval on any proposed out-of-basin diversion or export of water from the Great Lakes Basin.
Despite these important tools, the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers of Ontario and Québec recognize that:

o There are threats to the Great Lakes Basin now, and they promise to increase in the future. We are looking ahead and taking protective steps to avoid conflicts and shortages in the future.

o The Great Lakes are critical to our economy. We must use the water wisely to help ensure that it remains at healthy levels and to maintain our region’s competitive economic advantage.

o We must preserve and protect these waters now and for future generations. That will be our legacy for our children and grandchildren.
Therefore, in order to update the regional water management system and ensure that the Great Lakes are protected, the Governors and Premiers signed the Great Lakes Charter Annex in 2001.

Since that time, the Council of Great Lakes Governors has been working to put the Charter Annex into action. The staffs of the Governors and Premiers have been working closely with representatives of local governments, as well as agricultural, business and environmental interests.

The States and Provinces also engaged in consultation and continuing dialogue with the Tribes and First Nations.

On December 13, 2005 the Annex Implementing Agreements were signed by the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers. Once enacted, the signed agreements will provide the necessary framework to help the States and Provinces to protect the Great Lakes Basin. The Great Lakes Governors and Premiers continue to work together to ensure the sustainable use of the waters of the Great Lakes."

Presidential Campaign Shake-Out Coming

This is a little easier than it was predicting plot twists in The Sopranos, but I'd put money on these scenarios:

John McCain, out. Fred Thompson, in, on the GOP side.

John Edwards out, Al Gore in, on the Democratic side.

For the same reasons.

Those departing can't keep up financially, and have supporters looking for candidates with a better chance of winning. Or at least competing at a level high enough to have their issues and positions front-and-center.

Footnote: Tommy drops out, too.

Participate in On-Line Chat With A. Carl Leopold

Thanks to the Internet, you have until 2 p.m. Central time Wednesday (today) to participate in an on-line chat with A. Carl Leopold, son of famed Wisconsin preservationist Aldo Leopold, using the site here.

Like his famous father, A. Carl Leopold is also a scientist and writer - - and is also, in his own right, a UW-Madison grad, ex-Marine, college teacher and board member of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, in Baraboo.

Wisconsin Top Ranking in Health Care

I swear that when I first saw this story today, I thought I read the word "cost" in the headline.

Planning Troubles Still On Tap At Pabst Farms

You have to ask: Did anyone have a checklist out there in Oconomowoc when that city in Waukesha County approved the signature shopping mall planned - - and I use that term advisedly - - for Pabst Farms?

That's the 1,500 acres that was once cropland in Western Waukesha County that's morphing into a mixed-use site for a hospital, shopping areas, commercial properties, an elementary school, a YMCA and 1,200 units of upscale, single-family residences.

But as planned communities go, contradictions abound.

There was a flurry of publicity recently when it was discovered that the project's one-million square-foot, high-end shopping mall would require a major interstate highway interchange, lest shoppers be forced to wend their way to mall parking lots through local roads.

The interchange would cost $20 million, a tidy sum not included in state highway budgets; local officials piped up quickly to say their budgets didn't project that kind of spending.

In April, a different planning glitch had surfaced about the mall's future - - and that misstep has also been confirmed:

Oconomowoc doesn't have enough liquor licenses for about a dozen restaurants and bars set to become mall tenants.

Now there's a planning problem!

The wheels are already spinning to change some transportation budget schedules and get the Pabst Farms shopping mall the interchange that someone forgot to pencil in.

And if you think legislators dance to the tune of the road-builders, wait until you see how fast they jitterbug across the Capitol with their lobbying partners to get that liquor license shortfall fixed.

Developers and politicians in exurbia bristle at the term "sprawl." They say the term suggests development that's without a big picture in mind, that overlooks details and consequences.

It's hard to disassociate "sprawl" from Pabst Farms the more we hear about the planning flubs surrounding its so-called commercial centerpiece - - its Town Centre regional shopping mall.

Being More Strategic About Preservation

A half-mile from where I live on Milwaukee's east side, an intense debate has raged for at least a year about a commercial and residential project to revitalize the aging Downer Ave. business district.

I'm in favor of this classic, New Urbanist plan (full disclosure: my son works for Ald. Michael D'Amato, key Common Council sponsor of the project) because it is exactly the kind of in-fill development that a land-locked city like Milwaukee must carry out to hold its own against suburbs with more available open space.

The project is moving forward: the council has approved it, but there is still resistance to folding a small city-owned surface parking lot into the plan.

Whitney Gould, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's architecture and design columnist, has written a tough piece about this misguided effort in to 'preserve' the parking as open space.

Gould's column has significance far beyond this one neighborhood squabble over a small piece of asphalt by arguing that when preservationists go overboard they loose the political clout and credibility.

Some preservationists' almost routine opposition to many developments is understandable.

Much has been lost in Milwaukee to the bulldozer, and preservationists right to bring their special energy and analysis to situations when bad process and wacky proposals threaten to do lasting environmental or cultural harm.

But there is a difference between saving structures and open space that are historic, or otherwise deeply valuable, and fighting to save properties that are genuinely dispensable.

Not saving the historic train station on the lakefront decades ago in Milwaukee? A huge preservation failure.

Selling off pieces of the Milwaukee County Parks system, again being batted around with regard to Bender Park, in Oak Creek? Don't even think about it.

Stopping the mooring of a battleship within sight of the Milwaukee Art Museum's Calatrava addition? A great preservationists' victory against a truly inappropriate plan.

Failing to make better use of a small parking lot by integrating it into a $55 mixed-use development - - that includes more parking - - on a commercial strip that couldn't even support an Einstein's Bagel store?

Suicide.

Clarity And Action To Preserve Great Lakes Water

With the state legislative drafting committee on pending changes to the Great Lakes Compact unwilling to meet since December - - details here - - and thus unable to firmly make Wisconsin the leader it needs to be on Great Lakes protections, two simple things need to happen.

First - - again, discussed here - - Gov. Jim Doyle should put together a new group of public and private members who will expeditiously draft a bill as advocates for the Great Lakes.

Second - - environmental organizations and opinion-makers can assist by pressing a simple message promoting the improved, amended Great Lakes Compact for Wisconsin:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.

Why?

Because the improved Great Lakes Compact sets up conservation standards and tough rules to better manage the water we have; to prevent water being shipped or piped away from the Great Lakes; and to maintain our state's water-based economy and lifestyle.

Those standards and rules will also apply to seven other Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces because those areas, like Wisconsin, also depend heavily on the Great Lakes for recreation, tourism, and manufacturing employment.

That's why all these states and provinces adopted the Great Lakes Compact in 1985.

They recognized that, as stewards of this resources unique to the planet, we had a shared responsibility, that we were all in this together.

This cooperative spirit is needed again, in Wisconsin and regionally, to ensure that the Compact continues to protect, preserve and improve the irreplaceable waters that make up the Great Lakes basin.

For Wisconsin's economy, for the region's success, and for the waters themselves, the message from our leader has to be:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.

Water Park, Hotel Complex Under Fire In New Berlin

City Hall in New Berlin is moving forward with approvals for a hotel and water park complex, but a lawsuit is challenging the project.

And a New Berlin blogger is not happy about the project or the process that the city has followed to approve it.

It's important to remember that at the grassroots, sometimes the labels "conservative" and "liberal" lose some of their meaning.

New Berlin is seeking a diversion of water from Lake Michigan to the very portion of the city in which the hotel and water park are to be built, raising questions about the ultimate usage of Great Lakes water.

Many conservationists have lined up against the diversion application.

Apparently, some conservatives are against the hotel and water park, too - - perhaps there is some overlap in this case between conservatives and conservationists?

Early Clue This Season To Tonight's Sopranos' Conclusion

Fellow Sopranophiles:

To help figure out the ending tonight, when the sound went dead, remember :

In the first episode this season, Bobby tells Tony out on the boat in a moment of wise-guy speculating:

"You probably don't even hear it when it happens."

The sound also went dead in a later episode when a man is assassinated in a restaurant, witnessed by Sil.

Gotta figure that was true for Tony, too, and maybe - - more speculating - - for Tony's family, too.

Or not, but I've convinced myself.

OK. Enough. Back to politics and the environment tomorrow.

Tommy As Serious National Leader Still Too Big A Leap

Forget for a moment his insensitive remarks about Judaism. Or about gay rights.

Tommy is out there yet, sounding like a credible figure, even criticizing Pres. Bush's Iraq war.

Can he produce any evidence that he raised objections when he was in the Bush cabinet. Did he speak up, or was he a good, silent soldier?


It's easier to be against the war now than it was at the beginning.

Imagine the impact nationally if there had been a cabinet resignation over the policy, especially by another former Governor

Democrats Failing To Lead Nationally

First the Democrats in Congress failed to put together a reasonable plan to end the Iraq war.

Now it is apparent that they are dropping the ball on environmental protections, too, as The New York Times Sunday editorial spells out the particular weaknesses in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives.

Democrats are going to have to regroup and get focused for the '08 elections, or voters will see insufficient reasons to expand the Democrats' already-slim majorities or give them the White House.

State Water Committee Has Not Met Since December: Chairman Asks For More Time

In a memo and status report dated Tuesday, June 12, 2007, State Sen. Neal Kedzie, (R-Elkhorn), the chair of the legislature's study committee on the Great Lakes Compact, has asked legislative leaders to extend his committee's incomplete work to include at least four more meetings.

That request should be turned down.

The committee was supposed to write a bill so Wisconsin could adopt and implement the Compact with several new amendments - - a drafting process that took negotiators from the US and Canada nearly five years to draft.

The problem is that the committee has not met to hammer out the Wisconsin bill since December - - Kedzie's memo says because of scheduling difficulties.

So keeping the committee alive on an uncertain schedule throughout the year will simply extend Wisconsin's tardiness in adopting the Compact's vital new water conservation standards and diversion procedures that make up the proposed amendments.

Formed in 2006, Kedzie's Committee began reviewing Compact materials in August, 2006 and first met in September. It had hoped to present the legislature with a bill by the end of 2006.

Acknowledging that the matter is a complex one, and that there were disagreements among the members - - both legislators and citizens - - the committee broke into several sub-committees.

But the sub-committees could not agree on much key language, including how diversions from the Great Lakes to communities outside the Great Lakes basin (Waukesha and New Berlin are the most likely current candidates in Wisconsin) should be handled in concert with the other Great Lakes states.

This is at the heart of the Compact's proposed amendments, along with conservation requirements, too.

Powerful business and political interests in Waukesha County are primarily responsible for the impasse.

And that's no surprise: The committee was established at a time when Republicans ran both houses of the legislature, and is top-heavy with Waukesha County representation.

That imbalance - - an awkward reality since the Democrats won the State Senate in November, 2006, and are thus under-represented on the committee - - has given the GOP and other anti-Compact voices too much sway on the committee and authorship of water policy statewide.

The committee's tilt to the GOP in its heartland county emboldened those in Waukesha County that want easy access to Lake Michigan diversions think out loud about making substantive changes in the Compact, or even sending US and Canadian negotiators back to the table - - 'solutions' that could blow the Compact into pieces and set off a regional, chaotic rush to grab Great Lakes water without rules or standards.

The stalled committee in Madison has been a fact for months - - with other states making more progress. Minnesota has adopted the measure and the Province of Ontario also adopted a bill that endorses the Compact in an advisory capacity only.

Kedzie posted an earlier memo on the Committee website dated February 6th - - more than four months ago - - enumerating nearly 20 issues the committee had yet to address, or on which the members and subcomittees could not reach a consensus.

The points of disagreement are across-the-board, and go to the heart of whether Wisconsin will be a willing partner in a mutual, cooperative eight-state Compact with the health of the Great Lakes as the primary goal.

The Compact, as it exists today, was created in 1985 with the strong leadership of Wisconsin and then-Gov. Tony Earl.

Stewardship of water as a public trust is a core Wisconsin value, predating statehood, that was incorporated into the state constitution directly from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

There are many hard-working, well-meaning people on the committee; its difficulty as a committee in agreeing on language, and even on acceptable meeting dates, indicates that larger political and economic forces which put their special interests above those of well-managed, shared water resources are not in a cooperative, Compact frame-of-mind.

The amended Compact (the states must adopt similar bills that do not diverge from the agreement signed in December, 2005, in a Milwaukee ceremony by all eight states and two provincial chief executives) is the best chance that the states and provinces have to manage the Great Lakes with conservation and water quality - - the public interest - - as primary goals.

Twenty percent of the world's fresh surface water supply depends on this two-country, eight-state, two-province, shared stewardship responsibility.

It's a goal and effort much broader than the narrow agenda of the state builder's association and other allied political and business interests in Waukesha County, Wisconsin - - the home base of the Republican Party in the state.

Those forces keep pushing annexations, farmland conversion and sprawl development - - subdivisions, water parks, industrial parks, malls - - that bring with it a demand for water they think Lake Michigan should provide .

And who cannot grasp that if Waukesha County gets easier access to Lake Michigan, so do counterpart counties in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and the stressed Great Lakes, where some levels are approaching historic lows, are not infinite.

Kedzie's documents indicate that he'll either produce a bill by the end of 2007, or notify the legislature that the impasse cannot be resolved.

That's too long to wait, because it pushes legislative action into 2008.

Legislative leaders of goodwill in both parties, and the Doyle administration, would be best advised to thank Kedzie and his committee for its preliminary, but unfinished work.

And then to move quickly into another collaboration to get legislation drafted and adopted just as soon as work on the 2007-'09 state budget is completed.

Wisconsin organizations pressing for uniform diversion standards and greater conservation efforts across the Great Lakes region also need to articulate a simpler, focused message on behalf of the state, region and 20% of the world's fresh surface waters:

Adopt the Compact, now.

Additional thoughts in a later blog entry, here.

"The Sopranos" Fades Out

I'll miss The Sopranos as much as the next fan, and I think the Bush administration is the worst ever, but a critic at Salon.com overreaches when he tries to link perceived fact and fiction in David Chase's landmark series.

Chase's work stands on its own. It doesn't need a political prop.

As Tony said at the end of a very recent, seminal episode, "I get it!"

Fuzzy Math, Fuzzier Philosophy Plagues GOP Latino Outreach

Bill Christofferson, blogging as Xoff, examines some recent punditry by Perfecto Rivera, a GOP figure in Milwaukee and Wisconsin Republican circles.


Rivera said that Mark Green would have beaten Jim Doyle in the 2006 gubernatorial election if only a small number of additional Latinos had voted Republican.


Christofferson points out the statistical problems with Rivera's analysis.


And then explains that with its Draconian approach to immigration reform, the GOP's ability to win elections with Latino support won't improve if a handful of additional voters become Republicans.

Newt Is Coming To Southeast Wisconsin

The conservative Waukesha blogger James Widgerson tells us that former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich is coming to the Country Springs Hotel next Friday afternoon.

I've never met Widgerson, but I read his blog because he can be funny when he wants to be, and because he takes comments.

And he's gone on Eric Von's AM-1290 talk radio show to defend his views.

Apparently, Newt is warning Republicans that they face more losses at the polls unless they nominate an exciting candidate - - presumably Gingrich.

You want to see the GOP drop another 25-50 seats? And give up the White House, too? Go ahead and put Mr. Contract With/On America on the ticket.

Please.

Pair him up with Tom Tancredo or Duncan Hunter if Michael Savage isn't available.

And if you head out to NewtFest, check out the hotel's water park. It's a big user of water supplied by the Waukesha Water Utility - - the one with all those supply problems.

New Berlin wants to build a water frolic destination, too.

Is this why Lake Michigan water should be diverted? Why the other Great Lakes states and Wisconsin's DNR should tie themselves up in nasty state politics and regulatory knots?

You think all this is a digression? Hardly.

Let's make sure Newt is asked about the Great Lakes Compact.

He likes to present himself as a science guy. Let's see what he has to say about the health of the Great Lakes, invasive species, water pollution, falling lake levels and return flow if water is diverted out of the Great Lakes basin.

Michigan Shows Great Lakes Leadership, Again: Wisconsin Does Not

The Detroit Free Press urges Michigan to show leadership by passing the Great Lakes Compact as has Minnesota and the Province of Ontario.

At least Michigan has a bill to work with.

Wisconsin's study committee set up to draft a similar bill for our state hasn't met since December.

And this is the second time in a few weeks that Michigan has shown the way: in April, it sought to organize action against ocean-going ships bringing invasive species into the Great Lakes.

Gov. Doyle is chairman of the Great Lakes Council of Governors. He'll be more effective as the leader of this organization by taking more firmer control of water policy in Wisconsin.

If the state's legislative study committee cannot or will not meet, with the stalemate principally traceable to obstructionism from Waukesha County business leaders and partisan Republicans, then Doyle should take what the committee has managed to do and fold it into a new, more focused policy-making group.

Wisconsin needs to adopt the Compact. Now.

Rush To Build Huge UW-M Complex In Wauwatosa

Is there a city/County in America that would put what is essentially a new campus in an area - - the County Grounds - - that is not served by light rail?

And announce a location without any public input?

While there is available property in the Menomonee Valley that is closer to major businesses, the airport and dozens of commercial, retail, residential and entertainment destinations?

If you let Scott Walker call the shots, this is the kind of public policy non-planning you get.

After the County Grounds plan collapses of its own fiscal and planning shortfalls, UW-M should bring this idea down to the grassroots for input and the city should get its land packaging expertise on the front burner.

State Senator Reveals Capitol Secret

State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin) discloses something shocking about state government:

Putting a state budget together is...really, really hard.

Stewardship Funding Advancing: Excellent News

Gov. Jim Doyle's strategy to place long-term financing into the state budget for an expansion of the popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that acquires public lands passed the Joint Committee on Finance today.

Details below from the Journal Sentinel's newswatch blog.

Most interesting tidbit therein: State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), cast a crucial supporting vote with the Democrats on the committee.

You think she isn't hearing the challenging footsteps of State. Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee)?

Story text:

FRIDAY, June 8, 2007, 12:17 p.m.By Patrick Marley and Stacy Forster
Expansion of stewardship program advances

Madison - The Legislature's budget committee today let stand an expansion of a popular state land purchase program that will cost taxpayers an estimated $1.6 billion over 10 years.Gov. Jim Doyle has called for an expansion of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund program because values for forest and recreation land are rising fast and because timber companies are putting large tracts of land on the market.

The program, in place since 1990, is set to expire in 2010 unless reauthorized.

Republicans on the committee said lawmakers should wait before reauthorizing the program because of questions about the ability to pay for it.

Their move to hold off on reauthorization was defeated 9-7, with Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) joining Democrats."Let's take a time out here, take a look back and see where we're at," said Rep. Dan Meyer (R-Eagle River).

He said the state has to balance buying land with other duties, such as fighting invasive species, the emerald ash borer and a new fish virus that has cropped up.

He also said the state can't properly manage the 1.4 million acres it already owns."Why don't we take care of the natural resources we have, rather than purchasing more and more land?" he asked.

But Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) said legislators should expand the program in honor of former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day.

The stewardship program has helped protect over 477,000 acres in the last 17 years.The plan would increase the size of the program by 75%, from $60 million a year to $105 million a year, starting in 2011.

With principal and interest, the program would cost $1.6 billion over 10 years.

Boosting The Milwaukee Central Park

I think it's a solid idea, and used my monthly shot in the Capital Times to advance it.

Kudos to Ald. Mike D'Amato, the Milwaukee County Conservation Coalition, and others I am sure I'm missing, for making this a priority for the city and the region.

Is There A More Moderate, More Mellow Belling?

The usually-conservative AM-radio talker Mark Belling lined up yesterday with Al Sharpton.

I nearly drove off the highway when I heard Belling say that Sharpton was right in condemning the double-standards surrounding Paris Hilton's early release from the Los Angeles County jail.

And Belling had earlier praised Joanne Weintraub's long Tuesday feature in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about "The Sopranos."

He read most of the story and then engaged callers in a reflective discussion of why the show has been so popular.

Talk radio can reach a broader audience when it shelves partisan or hard-edged politics in favor of entertainment, family, sports or other common-ground matters.

I'm not saying there is a left/right analysis of The Sopranos. People watch it for great writing and character development to which they can relate, regardless of the contradictions between everyday lives and those of fictional mobsters.

What I found interesting was Belling's fair treatment of an erudite piece in a publication he often mocks as "The Sentinel Journal," and rips for what he perceives as left-leaning editorials and columns.

Maybe we're hearing the emergence of mellower Mark who is beginning to see the light?

Warming In Waukesha Caused By Cold Women

Or at least that's what some Waukesha County officials there think.

A story in The Freeman contained these administrative and linguistic details from a recent County Finance Committee meeting:

"Committee members said they believed the [heating cost] problem stems from female county employees who are the predominant users of the electric heaters because of thin clothing they wear during the colder months.

“There used to be so many uncontrollable factors out there with this because women had to wear dresses and skirts to work, but that time is now gone,” committee member Jean Tortomasi said.

“They can wear pants, put on a sweater or whatever nowadays. I just don’t know why [Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas] hasn’t already taken this on.”

Your move, Mr. County Executive.

You're going to have to better manage those uncontrollable factors out there and order female County workers to wear warmer whatevers to work.

We'll check your website come January for photos.

Sprawl...I Mean, Development...Runs Up Public Costs

Remember when the Waukesha City Council rejected a developer's request that 300+ acres it owned at the edge of the city near the Vernon Marsh be annexed?

Sure there were concerns about the impact that a couple of hundred new residences would have on the Marsh, and its water supply - - and those fears are back as the City has moved to condemn some of the same land for new well sites - - but the big annexation fell through also because Council members knew that pushing city services to an expanding perimeter would jack up local taxes.

Which is a sure way to lose your office really fast in the heart of TABOR country.

Rising costs for expanding public services has always been the less-well-publicized downside of growth - - a lesson that Laurel Walker, the Waukesha County columnist for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says is becoming more repetitive in the wake of the county's explosive growth.

Whether it's new roads, bigger highway interchanges, or the need for more bureaucrats, the impact on taxpayers is nicely catalogued by Walker, here.

Glenn Grothman's One-Man, One-Note, Anti-Affirmative Action Committee Mercifully Shuts Down

The right thinks state government is too big.

The left thinks some conservatives trash affirmative action as a partisan ploy to stir up the GOP's right-wing base.

So both sides will hail the planned ending of State Sen. Glenn Grothman's (R-West Bend) study committee from which he launched racially-insensitive proposals to end affirmative action.

One Wisconsin Now Seeks Executive Director: Application Information Below

One Wisconsin Now is seeking an executive director. In pdf format, here is the relevant information.

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, I am on OWN's board.

Railophobia Spreads Throughout Milwaukee County Government

Fear of rail transit in Milwaukee has now spread to the office of the chairman of the county board, as Supervisor Lee Holloway has proposed spending all $91.5 million of frozen federal transportation dollars on buses.

And, worse, to build a commuter bus station, even though the new AMTRAK station in downtown Milwaukee is designed as a multi-modal transportation hub.

So the warped transportation planning for the region continues, sort of a Six Degrees of Separation that started with the late George Watts, a curmudgeonly downtown Milwaukee tea and gift shop owner who opposed light rail because it might move "strangers" to the suburbs.

From Watts, railophobia spread to conservtive AM talk radio host Mark Belling to County Executive Scott Walker, and now, regrettably, to Holloway, whose work is best when it counter-balances Walker.

That's because Walker's motivation in the transportation debate is to reflexively oppose anything progressive put up by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett - - whose proposals included a downtown trolley loop along with bus system additions.

We'll probably see Republican State Rep. Jeff Stone get back into the railophobic circle.

He's the mild-mannered Milwaukee County Executive-in-waiting from Greendale, and a force behind regional transportation schemes that exclude light rail or trolleys.

Holloway's plan, tossed into the mix, has the support of some County Board members, but an element of that backing is procedural and diplomatic, inside baseball.

Supervisors give Holloway leeway (that was not a pun) because he is their chairman; that doesn't mean that they will push his plan very far.

A transportation plan for the region that does not include urban rail will hurt the city and harm the region.

If the plan coordinates buses, commuter trains, and city trolleys or light rail, then the city and the region have a better chance of competing with other similar regions that offer a modern transportation mix that businesses, new residents, universities and tourist venues have come to expect.

UW-Milwaukee, if it is to become a major university, needs a light rail connection. Same thing for other institutions and destinations underserved by modern transit: Mitchell International Airport...Miller Park, the County Zoo...the research park...the Third Ward...the Menomonee Valley, etc.

So put Holloway's plan on a siding, and keep pressing county and regional officials to think modern and follow the city's lead - - whether trolleys pushed by Barrett, or the guided tram known as "The Connector," promoted by leading members of the Common Council - - because city officials know best what the city needs to complement and energize the region.

(Disclosure: my son Sam works for Ald. Michael D'Amato, a leading Council supporter of Milwaukee rail transit, and The Connector.)

When Farms Become Subdivisions, This Is What Is Lost

An elegant few paragraphs and quotes about farming in the Waukesha County community of Wales, from the Kettle Moraine Index, tells the story, here.

And remember: these are the people who feed us, along with a big share of the world, too.

Maybe Some Good News For Tommy in Iowa

News that two of the top GOP presidential candidates - - Rudy Giuliani and John McCain - - have dropped out of the semi-meaningless Iowa "straw poll" in August might actually help our Badger boy Tommy get a little semi-meaningful publicity there - - if he's still in the race.

That's because with two better-known names bailing out, Tommy moves up in the party's straw poll standings based merely on a smaller field.

Call it Success By Default.

Though the straw poll doesn't necessarily predict eventual caucus winners and actual awarding of delegates in Iowa, Tommy can grab a few minutes of air time on Straw Poll Day, August 11th, if he gets, say, 20% of the party faithful's votes and finishes third or a close fourth.

If he were to get 30-35%, which is unlikely, he could claim victory even if Mitt Romney got all the rest.

If Tommy finishes something like 5th in an eight-person field, or if other candidates drop out and diminish the event even further, then he really should just come home.

MMSD Collecting Medications For Proper Disposal on June 9th

Too many folks flush pharmaceuticals down the drain, and these medications end up in the water we drink.

That's because water treatment systems cannot eliminate 100% of these drugs. It's a growing problem, and who wants traces of painkillers, veterinary meds, birth control hormones, anti-depressants or other prescription drugs in our eight glasses of water a day?

So the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is collecting medications for proper disposal, as a public service, this Saturday, June 9th, at Miller Park, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Details here.

Waukesha Leader Had Suggested Tolls for I-94 Expansion: Try It Out On The Unfunded Pabst Farms Mall Off-Ramp

Then-State Sen. Margaret Farrow, (R-Elm Grove), suggested in 1995 levying tolls to pay for rebuilding I-94.

There were few takers, but that was then and this is now, and with the regional freeway expansion plan short $20 million needed to put a new, high-traffic interchange at the Pabst Farms' mall off I-94 in Western Waukesha County, new thinking is needed so the public doesn't have to find the dough.

So what better time could there be than right now for Farrow to step up and resurrect the idea as a timely, problem-solving approach?

Coincidentally, Darryl Enriquez's blog from Waukesha for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us that Farrow, now working in economic development in Waukesha County, thinks the proposed commuter rail service linking Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee and perhaps Waukesha is too expensive to build.

Not that things get cheaper in the future - - the need for the Pabst Farms mall interchange is a perfect example - - so this could be the right moment for Farrow to re-introduce her thinking on tolls to finance targeted highway construction.

Tolling roads would have more credibility if it was promoted in Waukesha County, home to the push for TABOR and other taxation-and-spending controls.

Farrow has the standing to make the case, and what better place to begin the concept as a demonstration than at the interchange-to-be to handle more traffic to what has been described as a high-end, one-million-square ft. mall complex?

Final thought: tolling the interchange - - either with electronic scanning, or through parking lot fees - - with shoppers paying the freight (mall employers could rebate costs to employees, or even pay for much of it upfront) would solve the funding shortfall.

And keep this highly-dedicated interchange off the state taxpayers' backs - - certainly a reasonable and politically-sensitive approach - - especially since local officials in the area have already said they don't want to be sent the bill.

(UPDATE: Waukesha area officials are in mega-meeting mode, pressing the case that state funding is reasonable because the mall will assist regional economic development.

This means a full-court press for altered state highway building schedules, rearranged financing priorities, and increase local taxes, too.

When business expansion demands subsidies, and it involves highway spending, public officials fall all over themselves to find the money - - the public's money.

But notice that when other transportation projects are suggested - - including urban rail that also creates jobs - - the same officials pull out different language and behaviors:

Too expensive. Not enough study. No city/county/regional/planetary consensus.

These policy-makers can't be troubled with the trifles of rail planning, urban growth, cleaner air and genuine regional competition with more forward-looking areas of the Midwest.

Hey: there's a new mall on the books and people need it so they don't have to drive all the way into Milwaukee to get to Mayfair. Clear these officials' calendars: they have an important interstate highway interchange meeting to attend.

Walking The Walk: Obama's Campaign Plants Trees

One progressive national political group wanted to know what the presidential candidates planned to do about global warming and environment.

The Obama campaign responded by planting trees in Iowa - - 3,000 of them, by 500 volunteers, on Earth Day.

That's walking the walk.

The YouTube audio is not the greatest, but you get the message, and it's savvy on all levels.

China Opposes Capping Greenhouse Emissions: Sound Familiar?

Those selfish Chinese capitalists, putting growth and production over climate protection and clean air!

Who do they think they are?

Journal Sentinel Blames Walker for Region's Rail Failure: Now What?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's lead editorial lays the blame for Milwaukee's no-rail transit system at the doorstep of County Executive Scott Walker, and it's a fair conclusion.

The newspaper puts it in blodface:

"What Milwaukee needs is a local consensus on rapid transit. But until the county executive sees the value of rail or streetcars, both compromise and progress will be elusive."

This blog has said much the same thing.

Unfortunately, the newspaper is appealing to reason, while Walker disregards the city for his talk radio base and some anti-city suburbanites, so he's unlikely to change on this issue.

The result is a stalemate and an uncompetitive city and region.

Federal dollars set aside for Milwaukee transit improvements are dwindling through inaction and inflation, and crucial planning time is lost as gas prices continue their irreversible climb.

There is a solution.

The newspaper editorially endorsed Walker for re-election in 2004.

If it really wants rail added to Milwaukee's transportation mix, The Journal Sentinel can throw its editorial weight behind a different candidate in 2008.

(Side note: Madison and Dane County are having some of the same problems, too.)

Water War Or Breakthrough Opportunity?

It is a move with implications that extend far beyond a local border skirmish:

The Town of Waukesha is firming up a strategy that could block its larger neighbor - - the City of Waukesha - - from taking water that may effect the Town's residential wells and one of the region's signature nature preserves, the Vernon Marsh Wildlife Area.

The City has preliminarily approved condemning and taking 43 acres of privately-held land in the Town that is near the marsh so the City can sink new, heavy-pumping wells.

That is a ploy the neighboring Town is resisting, fearing harm to both Town water supplies and the marsh.

So the the Town has begun receiving advice from UW-M Prof. Douglas Cherkauer, a scientist who is among the state's leading experts in underground water.

The City already has its own private consultants and water utility staff to plan its strategy, and the entire matter is likely to end up in court from a number of angles.

The City's wants a new water supply due to two factors: poor quality in some of its existing wells that state and federal officials say must be improved, and rapid growth that brings in more city water customers every year.

Blocking the wells at the edge of the marsh could force the City to seek a diversion from Lake Michigan - - a strategy with a separate set of legal and procedural roadblocks.

And the City may end up in court if the owner of the targeted land fights over the price.

Making a wrong move could send one or more of these matters into court and cost millions in fees, for years - - with even long-standing federal water management law or a US-Canada agreement pushed into litigation should the City feel it is out of options and has to force its way to a new water supply.

(Waukesha has apparently ruled out, due to costs, the installation of filtration equipment on existing wells to remove troublesome, naturally-occuring radium.)

An archive of many of the political and legal roadblocks relevant to the City's water supply issues, is here.

But here is the good news: Cherkauer is also a member of the regional planning commission's advisory committee on water supply issues, so he is immersed, so to speak, in the latest information and planning options influencing policy-making in southeastern Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes.

Furthermore, Cherkauer has used his scientific background to have suggested, on a number of occasions, that the City could resolve its water needs with neither a Lake Michigan pipeline or well water under the acreage near the Vernon Marsh, because those approaches simply transfer a supply problem from one area to another.

He suggests that the City study removing water upstream from the Fox River and then returning it, after treatment, back into the Fox River.

In that way, the Fox River is kept flowing through the marsh towards the Mississippi River, the route that Waukesha wastewater currently takes.

The City of Waukesha is in the Mississippi River watershed, so its needs and solutions remain there, without being transferred to the Great Lakes watershed, and also with protections for the Vernon Marsh.

Avoided are the costly financial and legal issues associated with diverting water from Lake Michigan, then finding a feasible way to return it into a tributary flowing towards the lake without damaging the tributary and its banks, especially during storms.

Using the Fox River in a sustainable way, combined with Waukesha's 2006 conservative initiatives, just could defuse the Town/City water war before it starts and offer a regional and national model.

Bringing in Cherkauer at this very moment is akin to calling for a team's best relief pitcher - - but in the 8th inning and not in the 9th with the bases loaded, and the game completely on the line.

Taxing Big Oil A Political Plus: Goal Could Be Better

Gov. Jim Doyle deserves praise for putting a tax on big oil into his 2007-'09 proposed state budget.

It's important to press the case that the major oil companies are making large profits when retail prices are at record levels.

Let the oil companies explain their profit margins, their transfer of numbers across ledgers to subsidiaries and out-of-state operations.

Making them explain how they are making super-profits when motorists are feeling the pinch is political win for Doyle and an education for consumers.

Furthermore, Doyle's plan has split the business community, which works to the Democrats' advantage because in nine case out of ten, big business is united against Doyle or Democrats' priorities.

On the one hand the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, with rightwing bloggers and talk show hosts in lock-step, have blasted Doyle's plan, showing that anti-tax ideology, not consumerism, rules much of the Right.

On the other hand, the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, applauds the new tax on big oil because without a fresh source of revenue, Wisconsin's hyperactive road-building binge will come up billions short.

The demands of the unfunded southeastern Wisconsin freeway expansion project alone will drain most of the state's highway-building budgets for decades - - a situation made worse if rising gas prices dampen demand and send per-gallon gas tax receipts into the tank.

There are many unknowns in Doyle's plan. The constitutionality of assessing the tax is open to question. So is whether the tax can be kept off the consumer's back, or collected easily.

But to make sure that the new revenue stream isn't just more gravy for road-builders, legislators from cities with transit needs should argue that most of the tax on big oil is funneled into fuel-saving, cleaner mass transit.

And into health-care programs that deal with asthma and other illnesses prevalent in central cities near major highways, where years of fuel emissions have added to added social and medical costs.

Keeping The Real Great Lakes Water Story Bottled Up

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today offers a front-page story about booming sales of bottled water in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region, but does not mention that bottling these waters is among the most contentious issues surrounding the stalled US-Canada Great Lakes Compact.

This blog contained that context just a few days ago.

Dave Dempsey, Midwestern water expert, author, and former environmental policy-maker in Michigan state government, more completely laid out the history and significance of the regional and international bottling debate last year in a Minnesota newspaper column, here.

As written, and pending before the Wisconsin legislature and six of the seven other Great Lakes states (Minnesota has already approved it), the Compact permits unlimited diversions of water in containers and bottles smaller than 5.7 gallons.

So while pipeline diversions are regulated with relatively strong provisions, and other conservation standards would be applied throughout the Great Lakes region if and when the Compact is approved by all the states, the bottled water loophole stands out as a serious flaw that needs attention and repair.

The Journal Sentinel story discloses facts and trends that make the story a good read: I just wish it had connected with Great Lakes regional policies, politics and the Compact debate.

The Great Lakes make up 20% of the planet's fresh surface water supply, and their management has extremely broad consequences.

It's a story worth telling with equally comprehensive coverage.

Sifting, Winnowing - - Spinning and Polluting

Sifting and winnowing are the hallmarks of the University of Wisconsin system, but UW spokesman and facilities major domo Alan Fish adds something new - - spinning - - to the UW's definition when he explains to the Wisconsin State Journal how and why the Madison campus Charter St. power plant could continue to be such a severe polluter.

The plant needs all sorts of permits and permissions to operate, yet its plume rises above and falls on to the capital city, where government regulators are busy telling the rest of the state and the power industry to keep the air and waters clean.

Yet the plant is in the heart of a campus where faculty and students study climate change and pollution abatement, and where global warming rightfully's a cause celebre.

Sorta contradictory, wouldn't you say, for the UW's power plant to be such an offense to the environment?

Even the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is aggravated, because it seems that the UW - - an arm of the state - - hasn't been communicating with the DNR - - another arm of the state - - which means as the bureaucrats miscommunicate, the public's air and water are being toxified.

Here's part of what Fish tells the State Journal:

"We know that, at this time, we meet all of the state and federal environmental emissions."

Ok...Then Fish adds:

"We also know we can do better So our tradeoff here is we are trying to find a way that an investment in dollars works for the business plan and the utility plan and also improves the air quality of the region ... If it's just about the money, then we're not being good stewards in our community. If it's just about the environment, we're not being good stewards of the taxpayers' investment. We have to find a balance of both."

Trade-off? Balance?

The way I read that, the UW isn't being a good steward of either the public's money or the environment (read: health), so is "balance" the problem.

The environment is being polluted, the DNR says things were being done at the plant without it being notified and the paper says the plant is more polluting than ever.

Measured in extra tons. Annually.

While you're trying figure out all this - - there's some clearer background here.

And here, too.

Eating, Drinking Contests Are A Blight

In a country and world in which there are still people without enough to eat or drink, binging contests are immoral.

You'd think that last year's death of a young mom in a water-drinking contest - - the prize was a high-end video game system: Oh, Goody! - - would have shamed both sponsors and contestants into the contests' cancellation.

Apparently not.

Piggery and bad taste rules.

Too bad.

Eugene Kane On Guns: Must Read

Eugene Kane explains why Wisconsin needs tougher controls on handguns to get illegal firearms off the streets.

The gun lobby will again stop any progress on this sort of legislation because it has sway in the GOP-controlled State Assembly.

And that's too bad, because handguns find their way into criminal hands through a variety of methods, some of which could be stemmed by better laws.

Side note: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has put himself in the gun lobby's cross hairs with a very strong pro-urban, anti-gun stand.

Great Lakes Conservation Comment Direct Link

I had posted the other day about the urgency surrounding public comment on the Great Lakes Compact's conservation standard-setting.

Here is a nice, direct link.

Or go here for an email address - - comments@cglg.org

Just do it before June 8th.

Great Lakes Cities Need Dependable Water Levels

It has been argued for years in the Great Lakes region that conserving water levels is crucial to the water-dependent economies of the cities, states and Canadian provinces that are on the water.

And that is why adopting the pending Great Lakes Compact now is so important.

The longer that the Compact's implementation is delayed - - as is happening in several of the Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin - - the longer the lakes remain vulnerable to a number of stresses.

Declining lake levels is among the leading problems that can undermine economies from Minnesota to Quebec to New York state.

Dan Egan, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's resident Great Lakes expert, offers a timely example - - the City of Waukegan, IL, on Lake Michigan just to the south of the Illinois-Wisconsin border, has decided, for economic reasons, to re-define its port from industrial to an all-recreational, smaller boating destination.

Waukegan wants upscale boaters, and the retail expansion that will follow, to boost its local economy.

Makes sense, so long as the water levels remain stable.The worst thing that could hit Waukegan, and for that matter, Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee - - communities up and down Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes - - would be falling lake levels preventing boats from getting to piers, and in and out of harbors.

That's not fantasy or conservationist propaganda.

It's happening right now in some Lake Superior ports, chronicled here, as water levels have dipped there to their lowest level in 80 years.

It's an under-covered and under-appreciated story in southeastern Wisconsin because it's happening far away, Up North, but it's real.

So when you read that Waukesha wants to divert water from Lake Michigan, and has not agreed to return that water to the lake, it's time for citizens and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to strongly object.

Likewise to any other out-of-basin community in the entire Great Lakes basin, particularly those that have no history and commitment to conserving the water they have.

It's no surprise that political and business leaders in Waukesha County are leading the charge in Wisconsin against adopting the Great Lakes Compact, because the Compact (first passed in 1985) has amendments pending that set first-ever conservation standards and diversion procedures.

And defines the kind of diversion Waukesha wants - - even with a guarantee of so-called "return-flow" - - as a last resort. That's a standard that Waukesha and many other water-hungry communities would have a tough time meeting.

Where sprawl builders hold political sway, (think Western Waukesha County, think Pabst Farms and more), Lake Michigan water will lead to more annexations of open land and greater profits for developers - - and the levels of the Great Lakes are a secondary concern.

If Waukesha can put its pipe into Lake Michigan, other communities in Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Ohio and elsewhere will get their straw into the lakes, too.

It is in the greater public interest for Wisconsin and the rest of the Great Lakes states (Minnesota has already approved it) to adopt the amended Great Lakes Compact now.

And to orient water management towards conservation, so that the state's water-based industrial and recreational economies and Great Lakes levels can be sustained far into the future.

Daily Kos Post About Our Region's Water Surfaces Texas Interest In The Great Lakes

I put up a diary today on "Daily Kos" about the June 8th deadline for comments on Great Lakes conservation standards.

Check out the comment entitled "critically important !" on the diary about the Texas guy who thinks that when they run out of water in the Lonestar State, they'll come for the Great Lakes.

This is the interesting paragraph:

"And then, just last week, I was talking with an acquaintance from Texas. He was saying that where he was from (Ft. Worth area), the future of the aquifers is very problematic, but he's found it hard to get anyone to take water supply and conservation issues seriously. He recounted a conversation in which -- honestly! -- he was told, "Hey, we don't have to worry. If we run out, we'll just tap into those great big lakes up north.'"

Florida needs water. Arizona. Texas, too. We have it. Don't think that politically powerful lobbyists, members of Congress and businesses there won't work hard to bring the Great Lakes south.

CNN Documentary To Leave Gas-Guzzlers Queasy

Calling SUV/sport truck/V-6 engine-and-up owners: CNN is airing a documentary tonight about where gas supplies and prices are headed.

Here's the program information:

CNN: Special Investigations Unit – "We Were Warned, Out of Gas" airs Saturday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET.

Illegal Munitions and Weapons Cached in Wisconsin: An Undercovered Criminal Scandal

You'd think that this story about military weaponry turning up for sale in Wisconsin would be stirring up public outrage, but so far, I haven't heard or seen much of that.

Major World Banks Fund Global Warming, Environmental Programs

It's hard to say just what the tipping point had been in the push to bring awareness of global warming and climate change to the fore.

Was it The Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's epic, Oscar-winning documentary, the film that conservative know-nothings love to hate?

That Time magazine's cover shot of a Polar Bear stranded on an ice floe?

Hurricane Katrina's rampage across the US Gulf of Mexico region in 2005?

Hard to say, and even though Rush Limbaugh and some of his local mini-microphonic clones still ridicule the consensus science behind climate change, it's good to see that world banking institutions, and maybe even George W. Bush, are getting on board.

Bush's sincerity is more than merely open to question, but insurance companies had taken the lead in the private sector when raising the alarm about climate change because they are the ones paying out storm-related claims.

And now banks are putting money into climate change projects and environmental programs, which is more than Bush has done.

Glass-half-full-folks will take these private sector initiatives, cautiously, as good signs.

As to Bush's 'conversion' on global warming: actions would speak much louder than politically-time words.

DNR Publication Touts The Great Lakes Compact

A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources publication lauds the pending Great Lakes Compact - - the same draft agreement stalled for six months in a legislative study committee because of objections from Waukesha County business and political leaders.

Those private and elected interests want carte blanche access to Lake Michigan water - - undermining the spirit and substance of an eight-state, two nation agreement to manage the Great Lakes as a common resource.

Not surprisingly, an organization like Clean Wisconsin shows up in the piece supporting the multi-state, pro-conservation agreement, while the Wisconsin Paper Council puts the agreement's approval at only 50-50.

No surprise there.

The solution: The DNR comes out much more forcefully on behalf of the agreement.

An article in one of its publications is certainly better than nothing, but a sustained campaign on behalf of Great Lakes sustainability by the DNR would be far more desirable, and in the long tradition of Wisconsin environmental protection.

What Causes Job Creation Far From Where Job-Seekers Live

A little while ago, I suggested that people check in with bloggers Rick Esenberg and Paul Soglin as they debate urban issues.

Rick, my colleague and the durable, conservative punching bag on Eric Von's "Backstory" Thursday afternoon drive-time roundtable on AM 1290 in Milwaukee, blogs here.

The liberal Paul, for whom I worked in his first incarnation as Madison Mayor, blogs here.


I tend to stay out of much of the bloggers' back-and-forth: a great deal of it is goofy-talk among journalist wannabees, but the Soglin-Esenberg discussion is worth reading because they both have something to say.

On Rick's blog today, where he tackies something wonky-sounding called "spatial mismatch" - - the physical distance between where jobs are being created (the burbs, generally) and where the job seekers live (central cities, principally) - - I inserted a comment that I'll post below, since I think it belongs in the discussion.

The comment text is at the bottom of this post, set of by quotation marks.

I probably should have simply made an item out of it for my own blog, and not helped drive up Rick's traffic count, but, hey - - I'm a generous and tolerant guy - - so why not?


Comment text:

"Let's not forget that the "spatial mismatch" is also being exacerbated by highway spending, which helps open up land in exurbia to commercial, retail and residential development.


And those are public funds, too - - a mix of local, state and federal dollars - - so several public policies intersect and add to the separation of jobs from the most-available pool."


Rick and Paul: Take it away.





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Tolerating Air Pollution Is Another Fumble By The DNR

Madison attorney David Bender takes the state's power industries and the Department of Natural Resources to task for failing to install the best technologies abating coal-burning pollutants.

I addressed these management and enforcement issues two weeks ago, here, regarding the pollution caused by the Charter St. power plant in the center of the UW-Madison campus.

At the heart of this matter is the weak performance of the DNR. It is not the strong advocate for public health and resource protection that it could be.

There are dozens of posts on this blog documenting the DNR's passivity on Great Lakes water management, and that gap in performance and intensity on behalf of the public interest is evident on power plant rule-making and air pollution, too.

This is bad news for Wisconsin's air and water quality.

And it continues to be a baffling denial of the state's long history as a leader in environmental protection.

When it comes to clean air and protected water resources - - streams, lakes and underground supplies - - half-measures are not enough.

And are certainly not the Wisconsin Way.

Great Lakes Conservation Plans Need Public Comment: An Easy Guide Is Here

If a reliable water supply is important to you - - and why wouldn't it be? - - then here's how you can tell policy-makers across the Great Lakes region what kind of water conservation requirements and standards they should work into a joint US-Canada Great Lakes management agreement, known as a Compact.

Citizens and organizations can send opinions into a formal comment process, ending June 8th, that will determine whether there will be effective conservation programs in that Compact.

It covers an eight-state, two-Canadian province Great Lakes region, including Wisconsin, which borders Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

This is important because the stresses that plague the Great Lakes - - invasive species, toxic fish viruses, dropping lake levels, pollution - - will be exacerbated by ever-growing demands for more water.

But how comprehensive will the conservation component be in Compact, which is undergoing its first overhaul since 1985?

And how strong?

Great Lakes United, an authoritative conservation organization with offices in Buffalo, NY and Montreal, Quebec, has posted an explanation of the comment process, along with other important and relevant information, here, and is urging that people participate.

It is important that Wisconsin interests get into this process.

Why?

First - - the Great Lakes make up 20% of the planet's fresh surface waters. We all need to take responsibility and help wisely manage a worldwide resource that happens to be on our doorstep.

Secondly - - is in our state, specifically in Waukesha County, where communities outside of the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin are already seeking (New Berlin) or are planning to seek (Waukesha) diversions of Lake Michigan water.

Both communities are touting their local conservation ordinances as they spiff up their plans to remove water from Lake Michigan.

Take the Waukesha sprinkling ordinance, for instance, said to be one the toughest anywhere.

It does limit lawn sprinkling for property owners to alternate days only - - but the first $50 ticket to a violator is issued only after three warnings.

Is that the best that Waukesha can do on behalf of regional water conservation - - levy fines against four-time losers?

Is that a model ordinance, or a barely-visible baby step that needs toughening - - something that could be accomplished if rule-makers in all the Great Lakes states heard through the comment process that the public wanted teeth in local water conservation regulations in order for Great Lakes states and their communities to be in compliance with the Compact.

And in state regulation and enforcement, too, by natural resource departments across the region, on behalf of the public interest and the commonly-held water resources in the Great Lakes basin.

So comments from Wisconsin residents are crucial to the fine-tuning of the Compact's water conservation standards, goals and implementation.

Residents, organizations and elected officials need to get their oars into the comment process before June 8th.

(Note: An archive of related materials is here.)