After all, how could anyone prove anything to the level of charging, then prosecuting?
And if a separate judicial commission probe led to a complaint, the final arbiter is...the State Supreme Court.
Where a record would be set for recusals, or failed recusals.
So this episode melts to history, but I doubt if the internal workings of the Court and its factions will get better.
I think it was Mark Twain who criticized an author, saying "that isn't writing. It's typing."
I felt the same way when I read George Will's victory lap around the Governor's mansion and Capitol Square.
When law enforcement and courts are available to keep constituents and citizens from visiting his home office.
That's when you can't get a government big enough, apparently.
Bad enough that Scott Walker turned back $800 million that could have added modern Amtrak service between Madison and Milwaukee and put these cities on the planned Midwest High-Speed Rail system.
His ideologically-driven, talk radio-inspired assaults on rail service also cost Wisconsin thousands of construction jobs, rail corridor development and permanent operating, maintenance and assembly jobs, too.
But the right in the Legislature also wiped out another rail initiative, the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter line, taking down as well the transit authority that was to manage it, and related services, too.
Lost, as well - - years of organizing by regional business groups and transit advocates, an unusual and refreshing coalition that has been subbed and marginalized.
And, again, there are financial consequences, as Larry Sandler at the Journal Sentinel reports, meaning that federal funds could be lost to the state and region, further setting back cash-strapped bus lines, too.
Walker and his legislative allies use transit and rail as convenient political targets. Their anti-transit, one-note agenda keep the highway lobby happy and the conservative talkers at bay, but communities and states with poor transit fall further down the lists of desirable places in which to open a business, move a family or take a vacation.
Wisconsin can ill afford to keep losing funding to other states with active transit planning that are more free of destructive ideology.
Veteran TV/Radio critic and columnist Tim Cuprisin has posted a primer on interpreting Charlie Sykes and talk radio's confusion of political opinion, fact and entertainment.
The headline is a bit of a spoiler - -
I was in London recently. Let me tell you: They've got this crazy notion about trains.
Like the Right says through its talk radio spokesmen in Wisconsin - - who's going to use something like this?
Plus, in England they've got an inter-connected system of national rail lines that connects further destinations with their Utopian underground - - the above ground system being what Amtrak and US Midwest High-Speed Rail could have become in Wisconsin, but master planner Scott Walker's right - - it's all a bad idea.
They don't get it in England: we saw extensions and upgrades being added.
Imagine!
Good thing Walker and State Rep. Robin Vos just wiped out all the planning for the KRM commuter line to Milwaukee's south, and future, coordinated transit services through a regional authority, too.
I'll post maps of these two failed British systems so you can see what we mercifully avoided in the state:
Walking from Walker? What up?
Update: Walker's former top county administrator, and now State Department of Administration deputy is also taking a leave.
So Walker is already transferring former Democratic State Senator Jeff Plane from his $90.000-a-year DOA position to the semi-useless and over-titled office of state rail commissioner? Also at $90,000 k a year.
Oh, man - - in a state hostile to passenger rail, and certainly from Scott Walker the anti-rail crusader, this is a genuine sidetracking, away from the Capitol and the life of the government.
One former commissioner, Rodney Kruenen loved the job, but he was a rail buff who had pro-Amtrak Tommy Thompson's support. This is a different era.
Wonder whom Walker wants to insert into the DOA post instead? Stay tuned.
Kudos to the Wisconsin League of Women Voters for its decision to file a lawsuit challenging the legality under the Wisconsin Constitution of the Voter ID bill.
The state constitution guarantees eligible citizens their right to vote unfettered by an ID bill - - something the Republicans seem to have overlooked in their hurried, anti-democratic zeal for partisan reasons to tamp down voting in the state.
The League of Women Voters is the perfect plaintiff, as its goal is the furtherance of voting rights and process, not its obstruction.
No doubt this will be expensive litigation, and I assume the organization will need donations to support it.
I'll do my part with a check, blogging and other communications. Let's put Facebook and other platforms to work to advance the suit, as the Voter ID bill is badly motivated bad law and that badly needs to be overturned.
This blog has been a source of information and analysis of the City of Waukesha application for Great Lakes water, but I want to make sure readers understand that these issues are being raised, studied, vetted and pursued by groups across the country - - because the Great Lakes is an international water resource carefully monitored by experts whose views are not Wisconsin-based.
Here is a solid example from the National Resources Defense Council, and it is well worth reading, particularly by supporters of the Waukesha application.
The conclusion, after a long and detailed discussion:
If Wisconsin deems the Waukesha application ready to move to the next level of review (that decision is expected sometime in November, 2011, after more state analysis and an environmental impact statement), it goes to the 7 Great Lakes governors – each of whom can be expected to weigh in on a questionable proposal as strongly as Governor Cuomo (New York) and Governor Snyder (Michigan) did when Ohio Governor Kasich wavered on vetoing a bill that undermined the Compact.
That’s because protection of the Great Lakes is a rallying point for the region – and a nonpartisan one at that. As in Ohio, the other governors are unlikely to pull their punches if Wisconsin approves an application with obvious flaws. The state and the City of Waukesha have a long way to go before it’s even close
Not much news in Walker's preparing for a recall or using to get his base and donors involved. Regardless of the date or the scenario, game on. As it should be.
I wonder if Ron Johnson ran his business this way?
Visionaries including Wendell Berry, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben and Wes Jackson have joined with indigenous leaders, scientists and others to call on President Barack Obama to refuse a permit for an tar sands pipeline from Alberta to Texas, which poses some serious environmental threats.
They have also called on people from across the country to join them in Washington, D.C., for what could be a historical moment.
From now until Sept. 3, hundreds and perhaps thousands of citizens are participating in nonviolent civil disobedience, in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., to try to convince Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.
A Madison contingent has already answered the call, and one Madisonian is among those arrested.
Read more in this LaCrosse Tribune story.
I trust taxpayers fully grasp that the broke State of Wisconsin under the Walker/Fitzgerald 'budget-repair' regime has found $700,000 - - and growing - - to pay the lawyers to fight for partisan redistricting and other special interest costs, as the Journan Sentinel reports.
You can argue that the worst thing Walker did was wipe out most union rights.
Or arrogate to himself the power to make or break administrative rules.
Or turn the DNR into another Commerce Department.
Or play ping-pong with people facing health crises.
We had a debate on this blog about his worst offense, but in my view, the worst thing he has done, and strongest evidence that he fails the test of character and leadership, is the politics and games he and his party played with everyday people who had been out of work for weeks and months.
If local media produced something similar, I'm sorry I don't remember it, but take a look at these profiles about the unemployed produced by The Washington Post.
When his recall is underway, recall the issue and remind people that the fate of their already-beaten-down neighbors became fodder for talking points and ideological one-upsmanship.
We know that newbie Tea Party US Senator Ron Johnson thinks the Constitution gives him the right to pick federal judicial nominees - - an excellent discussion is here - - thus he's blocked a UW-Madison law school professor's nomination to the US Court of Appeals by President Barack Obama.
Regrettably, Johnson can now block a second nomination, as the President will have to replace the legendary Terence Evans who passed away last week.
This means Johnson has to come up with the names of two candidates with degrees in law and at least a minor in sorcery, and that is no easy task.
An editorial takes him to task for his failure to recuse himself in a key ruling.
The cloud hanging over the Right in the state keeps getting darker, and the state's reputation takes another hit.
George W. Bush and Rick Perry forget Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment.
These were the five most-read item here last week. Thanks for the hits:
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The author, Gus Speth, is a former White House advisor, UN official, co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council, and Yale environmental Dean, among a long list of positions and activities.
I'll reprint his data from the original:
To our great shame, among the 20 major advanced countries America now has
yet accompanied by the highest
- the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;
- the greatest inequality of incomes;
- the lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged;
- the lowest number of paid holiday, annual, and maternity leaves;
- the lowest score on the United Nations’ index of “material well-being of children”;
- the worst score on the United Nations’ gender inequality index;
- the lowest social mobility;
- the highest public and private expenditure on health care as a portion of GDP,
along with the shortest life expectancy at birth (except for Denmark and Portugal);
- infant mortality rate;
- prevalence of mental health problems;
- obesity rate;
- portion of people going without health care due to cost;
- low-birth-weight children per capita (except for Japan);
- consumption of antidepressants per capita;
- the highest carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption per capita;
- the lowest score on the World Economic Forum’s environmental performance index (except for Belgium), and the largest ecological footprint per capita (except for Belgium and Denmark);
- the highest rate of failing to ratify international agreements;
- the lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of GDP;
- the highest military spending as a portion of GDP;
- the largest international arms sales;
- the most negative balance of payments (except New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal);
- the lowest scores for student performance in math (except for Portugal and Italy) (and far from the top in both science and reading);
- the highest high school dropout rate (except for Spain);
- the highest homicide rate;
- and the largest prison population per capita.
This is where you want to be Saturday, at 5 p.m., according to the good folks who are saving butterfly habitat at our very own County Grounds:
Monarch Migration Events 2011.
Monarch butterflies will soon start their 2,000-mile annual migration from Canada to Mexico.
They feed and roost by the hundreds on our very own Milwaukee County Grounds before they head for their winter roosting site.
Best time to visit to witness the roosts is around sunset, from about 10 days before and after Labor Day.
Many butterflies can be seen feeding from sunrise to sunset.
Bring Your Camera! Migration Launch August 20th ~~~~~~~~Saturday, 5 pm start.
All events are free~~meet at the Kiosk—Parks Department Headquarters, 9480 W. Watertown Plank Rd., Wauwatosa.
Guided tour starts at 5:45.
Pack a picnic, food and beverages will also be for sale including Dick’s famous sandwiches. Fly kites (bring yours/borrow one of ours, local acoustic musicians, and don’t miss the butterfly release!
The Friends of the Monarch Trail have saved 11 acres of habitat from all development in the future.
But development will occur on some of the area that is now monarch habitat, so the saved area will need to be improved and enhances by volunteers.
Look for the Monarch flags on the North side of W. Watertown Plank Rd.
I'm sure Walker's insiders know that what the Times is saying is true: Recalls are difficult, and Democrats did not win control of the Senate, but there is deep dissatisfaction with Walker's approach and program even in Republican strongholds - - all suggesting Walker is vulnernable.
Just like nearly all the jobs created in June were created in Wisconsin, no?
Just an observation:
The Right is allowed to put up far-right, fringe Presidential candidates who get front-runner or authenticating treatment - - Michele Bachmann appeared by invitation on five Sunday morning TV shows on the strength of an eked out 'win' in the 'voting' in the Iowa $straw Poll last Saturday.
How many zany this has she said relatively recently - - Barack Obama is a socialist or "unAmerican," for example.
Now the instant legitimization is conferred on Rick Perry, the Secessionist.
Look at the fawning over Perry on the 15th in The New York Times after the Texas Governor swooped into Iowa:
The introduction of Mr. Perry as an aspiring presidential candidate unfolded in bite-size pieces, with fresh details emerging as he sauntered across the fairgrounds on the third day of his announcement tour. The path had already been well worn by his Republican rivals who camped out in the state last week, but he breezed in like a long-lost visitor, so confident that he blew kisses into a camera when asked about Mr. Romney. “Give him my love,” Mr. Perry said.
The addition of Mr. Perry to the presidential campaign has changed the landscape of the Republican field — particularly for Mr. Romney and Mrs. Bachmann — while injecting a shot of vigor into the contest.But if a candidate from the genuine Left ran for President, such as Bernie Sanders - - and please, no references at this mention of the consensus-seeking Pres. Obama, who, on taxes, the War in Afghanistan, Arctic oil drilling, for example, indicate he's really a moderate - - that candidate would be excoriated, mocked, threatened and/or ruined.
From a columnist in The Washington Times:
Governor Scott Walker has still been too patient for my tastes. He has not had his police force or security detail use rubber bullets or fire hoses on the Moveon and SEIU protesters in his state...
Governor Scott Walker may be the next Ronald Reagan because he understands what to do with people sworn to his destruction. He crushes them. More importantly, he bankrupts them...
The only way to deal with unions is to bankrupt them. The only way to deal with leftist protesters is to bankrupt them. When their choices are eating hot food and sleeping indoors or freezing to death outside while protesting, some of them may decide that starvation is not worth the cause.
Governor Walker may never be willing to break out the batons and crack skulls like SEIU would, but at least he is willing to keep enacting policies designed to let leftists spend every last dollar in their bleeding wallets.
This is why there is hope for Wisconsin while much of the rest of America and the world is on fire.
May liberals keep destroying themselves until they stop smoking the crack pipe of their own self-righteousness. Since they will never stop, may their drug habit of rage deplete their life savings until they either enter detox or become walking zombie lunatics less coherent than Al Gore and Howard Dean.
As Republicans debate in Iowa, I will support any candidate who vows to imitate Scott Walker on a national level. Leftist protesters will learn how to assemble calmly and peaceably, or a law and order crackdown that will make Kent State seem like a Tea Party walk in the park should take place.
To dream the impossible dream...where leftists learn human behavior, either voluntarily or by force.
Eric Golub is an independent writer for the Communities.
News of falling water usage in the City of Waukesha just as its application for a Lake Michigan diversion begins a review that starts with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and may end with a similar vetting by companion regulators in the seven other Great Lakes states.
Water usage in the city is down because of mandated conservation measures, slow growth and wet weather; the amount sought in the diversion application would drop further if the roughly one million gallons daily that could be allocated via the diversion to the Town of Waukesha were withdrawn.
That would remove from the application the issue of water-for-growth, as well as the political matter of the Town's inclusion in the application without it having asked to be there.
These are not insignificant issues, as the Town and City have broad ares of disagreement over water and border questions, and as a document and plan, the Great Lakes Compact is first and foremost about water management and preservation, not water dispersal.
The disclosure of the City's reduced usage puts a different yet helpful light on the application, which must be approved by all eight Great Lakes to be implemented.
It does not eliminate Waukesha's need for a cleaner water source, but it does not strengthen the city's case for an exception to the no-reasonable-alternative standard in the Great Lakes Compact, under which the city is seeking this precedent-setting diversion.
GOP candidates are ginning up the base by bashing the Environmental Protection Agency.
And while that may play well with the Chamber of Commerce, or the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, or the people who want to run a tar sands crude oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, it is a slap at everyday Americans who dislike asthma air, assume clean tap water, or expect their kids to be able to swim at a safe beach and haul in an edible fish.
And like having an ally to make sure these are priorities, not accidents or privileges available to the wealthy.
Tearing apart environmental protections that benefit the common good, whether at the EPA, or Wisconsin's DNR, make please special interests - - oil drillers, strip miners, utility executives, land speculators - - but they degrade everyday life and the landscape for the other 99% of us.
Candidates who use the EPA and "regulation" as straw men may win straw polls, but the do nothing good for the rest of us.
So Tommy the T is going to announce that Jim Klauser and J. B. Van Hollen will be co-chairs of his "prospective" Senate campaign.
How long can he drag this out? And how long will the news media keep lapping it up?
He could give lessons to Bret Favre, whoever he is.
The last we heard Tommy was waiting to see what Russ Feingold was going to do. That's they key. Tommy doesn't think he can beat him, but no doubt is beginning to think Russ isn't running.
Here is the non-story.
Call it one for the good guys.
It was refreshing to see Bob Wirch and Jim Holperin returned to their Senate seats, as neither veteran Democrat did anything wrong except help block immediate passage of a bogus "budget repair bill."
Talk radio whipped up their temporary departure into a political sin - - "flee bagging" - - but in the end, voters, as they had done earlier with Dave Hansen - - returned the Dems to office.
Voters, however, did boot two Republican Senators, leaving them with a wobbly majority in the Senate.
Blocking the Senate vote on Walker's proposal, and forcing him to recraft the bill, was a public service that never fairly computed or conflated as equal to the sneakiness in Walker's approach to collective bargaining or the legitimacy of the bill in the first place.
So give the Dems credit, and the voters, too, for returning good legislators to the Senate and proving that talk radio is insubstantial and insincere.
Why build your rule-free libertarian colony out in the ocean when Koch-inspired conservatives are busy creating a de-regulated paradise Right here in the former Wisconsin?
More race-baiting from the guy who is still hoping Obama fails:
The true leader of the Republican Party predicted Obama would seize property in the US the way Mugabe did to whites in Zimbabwe, Limbaugh said.
This is how the country's Talk-Radio-Fear-Monger-In-Chief does his dirty work.
And when he needs a guest host, Mark Belling is in the rotation. Nice.
Didn't notice then, but thanks to all the people who wade through all this.
If you are interested, Google says the following are the ten most accessed items since it began keeping score about two years ago:
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The Voter ID law erects barriers to registration and voting beginning in 2012, so any plan to circulate recall petitions to get Walker on a recall ballot have to be preceded by strong Voter ID and registration education and assistance activities in cities and on campuses where the new law's intent to suppress turnout is aimed.
Recall strategies, schedules, tactics and budgets can be debated and honed - -even delayed or canceled - - but the first order of business after the conclusion of Tuesday's final State Senate recall elections is to begin a formal, detailed and broad public education campaign about the new law's registration and voting requirements and procedures:
* A systematic effort to let people know what they need to do to get an official, valid voting ID, and where and when to get it.
* What they need to do about their ID and their registration if they move prior to an election.
* What to do of they forget or lose their ID.
* Development of simple, ubiquitous bullet-point posters, leaflets, and advertising rack cards for bus interiors, bus stops, newspaper boxes, community bulletin boards, libraries, service agencies, hospital waiting rooms, television, radio and Internet public service ads, and other outlets.
In language that is standardized as much as possible, and that is translated into Spanish and Hmong.
First things first.
So newly-minted frontrunner and post-Civil War secessionist Rick Perry is one of those Tea Party conservatives with a Michael Savage talk radio mentality who goes Right for the jugular, reports The Washington Post.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, making his maiden campaign swing in Iowa after jumping into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, suggested Monday night that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be committing an act of treason by printing more money between now and November 2012.
Responding to a question about the Federal Reserve at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Perry said: “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous, or treasonous, in my opinion.”No doubt Michele Bachmann, vying for the soul of the GOP/Tea Party/Conservative base, will have to meet Perry's craziness by calling for Bernanke to be burned at the stake.
Environmental and conservation groups have sent the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources detailed questions and suggestions in response to the agency's call for guidance as it reviews Waukesha's precedent-setting and controversial application under the Great Lakes Compact for a diversion of water from Lake Michigan.
It's a thoughtful, scientific and forward-looking response, which I reprinted in its entirety, Monday.
Additionally, the City of Milwaukee also weighed in. The DNR will sift through all these comments. It's part of the way the agency is going about setting in motion a full study, called an Environmental Impact Statement, and will take months to write before the public again will be asked to comment.
You can follow the DNR's processes, and access a trove of records, at a web page it has created for the Waukesha proposal, here.
But here is the amazing thing: One of the groups, and a local one at that - - the Waukesha Environmental Action League, or WEAL - - has been making formal submissions on these matters, often covering the same territory, since February, 2006 - - 66 months ago!
What is there about the City of Waukesha water planning process that is so insular, so resistant to input and so impervious to change that the same local advocates would be raising some of the same issues, over and over again after five-and-a-half years?
For the record - - in April, 2010, I posted an item about a round of public comments on the Waukesha water plan, (more, here), and among the statements from WEAL 16 months earlier are their concerns, including how much time had already elapsed in this Kabuki drama:
In November 2008, the City of Waukesha and Waukesha Water Utility (WWU) officials called upon WEAL and other [Compact Implementation Coalition] CIC member organizations to help them develop an application (and application process) that would be precedent-setting in its excellence, thoroughness and transparency--and use best available science and practices to support its case that Waukesha needs another water source.
The CIC response was seven pages of thoughtful, thorough questions, and expertise provided courtesy of attorneys, biologists, health providers, scientists, and activists, representing experts and average citizens of the SE Wisconsin and the state...
The Great Lakes Compact counts on states to honor public input as decisions are being about whether diversions like the one Waukesha wants are desirable or necessary - - and as we speak, there are indications that Waukesha may not need all the water it wants, and would need less if the Town of Waukesha decides it does not want to be roped into the bargain; it would be hard to imagine Wisconsin officials being able to make the case to the other seven Great Lakes states (each has a veto) that between 2006 and today, public input has been sought and truly respected.When responses to the CIC questions were finally received in June 2009, many answers were incomplete, vague or confusing, evaded the intent of the question or were not directed to the question asked...In many respects, our concerns and comments have changed little since WEAL first formulated a series of questions for the City of Waukesha Common Council in February of 2006.
Hat's off to the organizers, home-grown and visiting, who are working like demons today to help Jim Holperin, Conover, and Bob Wirch, Kenosha, hold their seats against a Tea Party talk radio host and Chicago-based corporate attorney, respectively.
Let's not water down last week's gain of two Democratics in the State Senate, or give the forces of Karl Rove and Grover Norquist anything to celebrate.
The elections of the 9th were not a knockout, but the GOP took a major body blow. Momentum is on the Democrats' side, with much work left to do.
Dan Egan is correct to call our attention to an environmental catastrophe that tells us more than we'd really want to know about humankind's trashing of Lake Michigan.
More good news about the State Fair and the people who support it.
Unlike our agenda-driven conservative talkers.
Here we go, again:
Kay McConnell
DNR Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater
PO Box 7921
Madison, WI 53707-7921
Dear Ms. McConnell,
The Compact Implementation Coalition appreciates the Wisconsin DNR’s taking comments on the Scope of the Environmental Impact Statement and Technical Review Criteria for the City of Waukesha’s proposed Water Diversion Application under the Great Lakes Compact. Our coalition, the Compact Implementation Coalition, is a group of conservation organizations committed to the effective implementation of the Great Lakes Compact in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has rightly determined a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement is necessary to fully evaluate the proposed diversion of Great Lakes water to the City of Waukesha. With the protection of our Great Lakes at stake, it is absolutely critical that Wisconsin get this right. Waukesha’s application will set the precedent by which all other diversion requests in the Great Lakes Basin will be judged. As such, the importance of having a comprehensive review in an open and transparent process for all of the citizens of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Basin is fundamental to protecting this world class environmental, economic and cultural resource.
Our specific comments follow and we also are incorporating by reference our earlier letter to the Department on the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement dated April 12, 2010 and comments from Professor William Holahan, Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, dated May 7, 2010 (see attached comment letters). The Compact Implementation Coalition also agrees with and references the recent comments submitted to the Wisconsin DNR by Milwaukee Riverkeeper and comments submitted by the regional Great Lakes organizations, National Wildlife Federation, Alliance for the Great Lakes, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Great Lakes United.
Comments on the Environmental Impact Statement Scoping
Water Supply Demand
Clarification of Need and Reasonableness
Both Wisconsin’s Environmental Impact Statement process and the Great Lakes Compact include requirements for assessing the need for and reasonableness of the proposed action. Specifically, NR 150.22. 5(c) requires an Environmental Impact Statement to include a description of the purpose of the proposal and an evaluation of the need for the proposal. The DNR should focus its attention first on clearly assessing Waukesha’s need for a Lake Michigan water supply, as required by state law and the Great Lakes Compact. This is especially important in light of recent SEWRPC Regional Water Supply and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Socioeconomic Impacts studies1 concluding that Waukesha’s water supplies, if appropriately managed, are sufficient through 2035 even at projected population growth rates and with planned land development patterns.
To further clarify the need for the proposal, the Environmental Impact Statement should include consideration of a no-diversion alternative. The no-diversion alternative would consider the environmental, social and economic impacts (costs, and benefits) of: maximizing effective water use management; implementing required water conservation measures, including using water recycling technologies as used for example in Oxnard, California and other places where water is in short supply (i.e. recycling waste water to potable quality and using it directly in homes or grey water for industry and business, parks and golf courses.); and consideration of some supplemental water supply alternatives drawn from sources west of the sub-continental divide (i.e. riverbank inducement, additional shallow wells, including potentially using water drawn from the unconfined aquifer to the west of Waukesha, and radium treatment.) This analysis will inform the Department’s assessment of the Great Lakes Compact requirement that there is no reasonable water supply alternative within the basin in which the community is located, including conservation of existing supplies.
Justification for Amount of Water to be Diverted
The full justification of the need for the proposal must include a thorough analysis of the amount of water needed and consequences associated with the requested amount of water. The DNR must consider what appears to be a discrepancy between what the City of Waukesha is projecting as its long term water needs (10.9mgd) and the fact that the City’s water use has declined in each of the past five years. The overall amount of water that Waukesha has been using has declined to 6.6mgd and serious analysis needs to be undertaken to understand what is contributing to overall reductions in water use, since apparently populations and development continue to increase. This has significant implications, not only for future water use, but also peak demands and the environmental and economic impacts related to infrastructure when considering whether a diversion is actually needed.
Of great importance to the Department’s analysis of the overall amount of water that is requested, is the inclusion of the Towns of Genesee and Waukesha2 in the City of Waukesha’s diversion application. Both towns have adequate water supplies and have not identified a need for Lake Michigan water at present or in the foreseeable future. The Department must evaluate whether this is consistent with the Great Lakes Compact requirement that a community requesting an exception from the Compact’s general ban on diversions outside the Basin must be without adequate supplies of potable water. The amount of water needed by Waukesha if the towns are not to be part of the service area must also be clarified.
Repercussions for the City of Waukesha and the towns of extending service to the towns must also be analyzed. If the Towns of Genesee and Waukesha remain part of the requested diversion, then those communities would have to agree to connect to the City of Waukesha’s sewer system or develop their own treatment and return flow systems; otherwise, the Great Lakes water diverted to them would not be appropriately “returned” to the Great Lakes. The environmental, social and economic costs of new water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure to address these issues must be fully developed in the Department’s Environmental Impact Statement.
C. Water Conservation: Impacts on Amount of Water Needed
Another important element in determining the amount of water a community “needs” are the provisions of the Great Lakes Compact requiring that all requisite water conservation measures be considered as a component of reasonable water supply alternatives and establishing the applicant’s need for the proposed diversion in the first place. The DNR must now evaluate whether the City of Waukesha and the other jurisdictions currently included in the planned service area have implemented all of the water conservation practices required by Wisconsin administrative rules. The Department must ensure that demonstrated savings from the implementation of all required practices (Tiers 1-3 for a diversion) have been factored into Waukesha’s projected need. As noted above, significant recycling of water must be considered as part of these measures.
At present, the information supplied by Waukesha has not included a thorough analysis of the use of pricing to affect the overall water use—the DNR must examine this potential water conservation and efficiency measure in more detail. In an earlier letter to DNR, dated May 7, 2010, Professor William Holahan, Chair of the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Department of Economics, noted that employing elasticity of demand analysis and pricing programs could result in significant reductions in water use. The savings from reductions in water use would be beneficial to both residents and businesses. Over the long term, Holahan comments, the reduction in water use would also minimize public expenditures on new infrastructure and maintenance costs. We urge the DNR to consider all of these issues in the Environmental Impact Analysis and technical review.
II. Return flow Considerations and Impacts
As part of the Environmental Impact Statement process there are a number of factors involving return flow issues that need to be fully analyzed. Under the Compact and 2007 Wisconsin Act 227’s Exception Standard, “an amount of water equal to the amount diverted, less an allowance for consumptive use, will be returned to the watershed from which it was withdrawn.” Further, under the same Act, if the water is returned through a stream tributary to Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, “the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the stream must be protected and sustained… considering the state of the receiving water before the proposal is implemented, and both high and low flow conditions and potential adverse impacts due to changes in temperature and nutrient loadings caused by this return flow.”
If water is returned through Underwood Creek or the Root River, it is unclear whether the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of these waters would be protected, particularly from increased flooding and phosphorus, mercury, bacteria, and chloride loading. Additionally, public health impacts need to be fully addressed for persons who may come into contact with the Creek or Rivers. Waukesha claims that the additional water will improve the waters and water dependent natural resources of the stream and river. The DNR must fully evaluate and refute or verify this claim. The DNR must also evaluate the costs and environmental impacts of necessary upgrades to Waukesha’s treatment plant to properly manage the above-mentioned pollutants and any others likely to be the subject of a new WPDES permit for a discharge to Underwood Creek. This analysis should consider whether the variances granted the City’s treatment plant in its current Fox River discharge permit for mercury and chloride would remain in a new permit for discharge to Underwood Creek or not.
Notwithstanding Waukesha’s primary and almost exclusive focus to date on Underwood Creek as its preferred alternative, the Department’s Environmental Impact Statement must include a thorough analysis of all available return flow alternatives and their respective environmental and economic impacts. Waukesha’s past analysis for other return flow options such as to the Root River has equated environmental impacts completely with land based impacts from length of pipeline construction, and has not looked in detail at impacts on public health, water quality, wildlife, habitat and commercial, industrial and residential property impacts, such as flooding.
This Environmental Impact Statement should also include an option that evaluates closing the Waukesha Wastewater Treatment Plant and sending effluent to Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for processing (and including options for temporary storage during wet weather events).
More detailed comments from our Coalition on return flow are included in the Milwaukee Riverkeeper’s comment letter on the Scope of the Environmental Impact Statement and are incorporated by reference to this letter. The necessity of the detailed analysis that Riverkeeper has included in its letter should be applied to all return flow options.
III. The Environmental Impact Statement Must Provide Clear, Equivalent, Side-by-Side Comparison of Alternatives
In order to facilitate an informed review process and assessment of the viability of the various water supply and return flow alternatives—for the people of Wisconsin and throughout the Great Lakes states—the volumes of information submitted by the City of Waukesha to date must be organized and presented in a manner that allows for side-by-side comparisons of the various identified alternatives and their respective environmental, social and economic impacts. Furthermore, while we recognize that applications of this nature are likely to be changed, the public is seriously hampered in its ability to comment intelligently on an application that is continuously under major revision, and subject to additions and changes by both the DNR and the City of Waukesha. Review and comment periods need to be adjusted accordingly.
The Environmental Impact Statement must also examine realistic combinations of the water supply alternatives available to the city, in addition to looking at each identified alternative in isolation, as has been done in Waukesha’s application. DNR’s preparation of a fair and balanced “apples-to-apples” comparison of the alternatives, and combinations of alternatives, is essential for meaningful public participation and review.
Currently Waukesha’s documents refer to various water supply alternatives for different time periods; at a minimum the Environmental Impact Statement needs to consider what is viable now for water supply and for what time period in the future.
Environmental Justice and Socioeconomic Impact Requirements
The Great Lakes Compact and 2007 Wisconsin Act 227 provide that a “diversion will be in compliance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws and interstate and international agreements.” Waukesha, in public comments and forums, has indicated that it will be seeking federal monies for its diversion infrastructure, it should be noted that EPA policies3 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 19644 and its implementing regulations, and federal executive orders, will require examination of environmental justice requirements, including addressing whether the benefits and burdens of the proposed diversion would result in disproportionately adverse impacts on minorities and low-income populations. As part of this Environmental Impact Statement process, the historical and continuing interrelationship between water and development in southeastern Wisconsin, the long history of racial and economic segregation in the region, and the limited transportation links between Milwaukee’s inner city and Waukesha’s proposed water service area needs to be fully addressed.
It should be noted, the Socioeconomic Impacts study prepared as part of SEWRPC’s Regional Water Supply Study by UWM’s Center for Economic Development is of only limited utility in evaluating these issues, as its analysis was premised on the conclusion, which it pointed out was supported by the available scientific studies, that existing groundwater sources of water, if properly managed, were of sufficient quantity and quality to support all projected development needs through 2035.5 The Socioeconomic Impacts study did not address impacts beyond the year 2035. The Department needs to evaluate and consider the apparent conflict between the study’s conclusion that existing groundwater sources are adequate through 2035, and Waukesha’s assertion in its application that it has no reasonable alternative water sources other than a Lake Michigan diversion.
IV. Other Important Considerations
A. Impacts and Adaptation to Climate Change
Over the past several years some of Wisconsin’s top scientists and resource managers drawn from a wide spectrum of institutions, including the DNR, have been collecting and analyzing extensive amounts of information and data on climate change and its potential impacts to citizens, businesses, agriculture, government and the natural and built environment. Early this year, the scientists released their report Wisconsin’s Changing Climate Impacts and Adaptation.6
Some of the major findings and proposed actions by these scientists need to be woven in to the alternatives analysis in the DNR’s Environmental Impact Statement in at least two important aspects. First, based on a wealth of temperature and precipitation data the scientists are predicting “Wisconsin’s warming trend will continue and increase considerably in the decades ahead.” The frequency and intensity of storms and precipitation patterns have and will be changing in different parts of the state, yet much of the data and precipitation used in the current documents submitted by Waukesha do not reflect this more up to date information. These documents should be revised accordingly especially in regards to such factors as precipitation patterns (amount, timing and intensity) and potential flooding, stormwater runoff, recharge and temperature.
Second, the scientists who authored the report promote certain actions be taken now to prepare and adjust to the changes that are already upon us or will be shortly. If their principles for adaptation (ie. “no regrets strategy” and follow a “precautionary principle” where vulnerability is high) were adopted it would necessarily lead to re-evaluation of many of the underlying assumptions used in the Waukesha application and that would be the prudent choice.
B. Public Participation Process
The DNR is commended for starting its review process in an open and transparent manner. The Department is urged to continue its commitment to a robust public engagement throughout the Environmental Impact Statement and Technical Review processes and the Department needs to codify its practices in rulemaking as called for in state legislation.
Finally, all constituencies that will be affected by the water diversion must be considered: those along the route of the proposed pipelines, in wastewater discharge areas, and those included in the water service area plans. Public hearings should be held in all these affected communities, including the Cities of Milwaukee, Racine and Oak Creek.
Technical Review Criteria
The Compact Implementation Coalition, along with other Great Lakes regional group commentators, has pointed out that the final Environmental Impact Statement should be completed prior to the conclusion of the technical review. One of the significant objectives of conducting a comprehensive and thorough Environmental Impact Statement is to inform the public and public decision-makers of the potential social, economic and environmental impacts of a proposed alternative prior to a final decision on whether an application for the diversion is approvable. To do otherwise would undercut one of the substantial values of conducting a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement process in the first place.
In the DNR’s outline of Technical Review Criteria to be used in reviewing applications for a diversion from communities within a straddling county, a distinction is made between the Great Lakes Compact provisions versus Wisconsin’s statutory implementing language. All of the language in both the Compact and implementation legislation is part of Wisconsin law. However, we would underscore two points that are also made in other organizations’ comments. Wisconsin should make every effort to minimize differences in its interpretation between the provisions to avoid direct conflict, since the Great Lakes Compact is federal law and would preempt state law where such conflicts occur. Moreover, it should be emphasized that the Compact language was adopted by the other Great Lakes States and they need not follow or agree with Wisconsin interpretation of the Compact provisions or its implementing language.
Finally, under WS-3 “the proposal is consistent with an approved water supply service area plan under s.281.348 that covers the public water supply system” we have questions about when and how the Department intends to meet the statutory requirements of the water supply service area plan, including section 281.348 (3(b)2) that requires the approval of a water supply service area plan by each city, village or town whose public water supply is addressed by the plan before (emphasis added) the plan is submitted to the Department. Additionally, we would like to know a timeline for when the Department will formally review and approve this plan, as well as adopt the necessary rules that Act 227 call for under these provisions.
Conclusion
Thank you for your consideration of our comments on the scope of the Department’s Environmental Impact Statement and technical review. Please contact us with any questions.
Sincerely,
The Compact Implementation Coalition
Jodi Habush Sinykin
Dennis Grzezinski
Midwest Environmental Advocates
Ezra Meyer
Clean Wisconsin
Cheryl Nenn
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
Denny Caneff
River Alliance of Wisconsin
Peter McAvoy
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
Steve Schmuki
Waukesha County Environmental Action League
George Meyer
Wisconsin Wildlife Federation
Cc: Secretary Cathy Stepp, Department of Natural Resources
Eric Ebersberger, Department of Natural Resources
And, by the way, where's that DNR hearing on the issue that should be scheduled in Milwaukee? Also: environmental and conservation groups have weighed in to help guide the DNR's review.
August 12, 2011
Kay McConnell
DNR Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater
PO Box 7921
Madison, WI 53707-7921
Submitted by e-mail to DNR
WaukeshaDiversionApp@wisconsin.gov
Dear Ms. McConnell:
SUBJECT: Comments of City of Waukesha Diversion Application
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments regarding the City of Waukesha Diversion Application.
Regarding the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the review criteria, the City of Milwaukee offers the following comments:
In the July 12, 2011 “Waukesha Water Diversion Projects EIS List of Topics”, there are 14 characteristics that are to be considered with respect to the diversion. This list begins with “Surface water resources (including Lake Michigan)” and ends with “Geographically scarce resources”. It is essential that EACH aspect of the proposed diversion (the source water alternatives, the groundwater source alternatives, water conservation measures, wastewater treatment measures, wastewater discharge alternatives, supply pipeline route alternatives, wastewater return pipeline route alternatives) be evaluated against EACH of the 14 characteristics.
The issue of return flow is significant. Wisconsin Act 227 [2007] is clear that the place which the water is returned to the Great Lakes basin must be as close as practicable to the place at which the water is withdrawn, unless that would not be cost effective, environmentally sound, or in the best interest of public health.
To date, there has been no DNR hearing within the City of Milwaukee to offer information or hear City of Milwaukee resident concerns regarding the return flow option offered by the City of Waukesha. This must occur.
The DNR must take in account and document the rationale and impacts of the Underwood Creek/Menomonee River return flow option on impacted communities and must expect that each of the impacted communities shall submit a formal resolution approving the return flow option.
The DNR must carefully weigh and thoroughly explain the “close as practicable” standard for the City of Waukesha’s preferred return flow option as it [the standard] applies to each of the three potential “sellers”: Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Racine. Clearly, should Racine or Oak Creek be selected as the vendor, there may be return flow costs, environmental impacts and associated liabilities [flooding, sewerage, private/public property damage] that will have to be accounted for so that the communities and residents on, and impacted by, the return flow will be financially protected.
Finally, and it is imperative that the impacts of return flow to both the Lake Michigan watershed AND the Fox River watershed be considered. Wisconsin’s statutory criteria regarding wastewater return flow must be strictly adhered to. These impacts must be considered for each of the ecological segments along the return flow route: Underwood Creek, the Menomonee River, Milwaukee Harbor and Lake Michigan.
Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Compact Law [2007 Wisconsin Act 227] states:
“The diversion will be in compliance with all applicable local, state and federal laws and Interstate and international agreements, including the boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, [emphasis added].”
The DNR must review and reference all applicable City of Milwaukee ordinances and resolutions as well as all the applicable ordinances and resolutions of all other impacted communities, including those communities within the proposed service area and along the preferred flow route.
Thank you for your consideration.
Very truly yours,
Carrie Lewis, Superintendent
Milwaukee Water Works
As reflected in Texan Perry's campaign fund-raiser categories, according to the Washington Post column, "The Fix:"
“Patriots” are tasked with collecting $500,000 and promised a co-chairmanship of Perry’s national finance committee and a “VIP Republican National Convention Package” that includes a hospitality suite and a VIP reception at the national party convention.Can you say, "George W. Bush, The Sequel?"
“Entrepreneurs,”who must raise $250,000, are promised membership on the national finance committee and “regular reports from campaign leadership.”
“Explorers” must raise $100,000 and are promised invitations to “special events at the Republican National Convention.”
And “Pilots” must bring in $50,000 and are invited to host committee receptions when events are held in their respective states.
The station says it's The Truth, Below is the website, spell check to the contrary:
John D. Rockefeller would have been proud of these forced layoffs.
"Budget-repair," indeed.
It was and is all political, with GOP power and conservative policy implementation writ large.
When the Tea Party and other conservatives rail against Big Government, they forget that their neighbors, perhaps friends and even families need public help, as the economy is poor and so are a lot of people, we learn.
I have a friend who tells me he wishes there were a way for these anti-government people to have to do without all they take for granted - - road-building, winter plowing, restaurant kitchen inspections, fire-fighting and policing and who knows what else - - but that would also cut out a lot of others who understand the basic role for government, honor and even use it intentionally.
E. J. Dionne at The Washington Post says, along the same line, that Tea Party Republican Rick Perry will he haunted for his remark that his goal is to make the federal government "inconsequential."
[Posted this a bit early today, Sunday, for Monday] A few days ago I posted an analysis of the recall elections in which I said Scott Walker was implementing, at great danger to Wisconsin and nation, the arch-conservative Grover Norquist's 'drown a shrunken government in the bathtub' action plan.
I will repost it below.
The item resonated with readers: it is the sixth most-read item among the more than 8,000 postings on this blog since January, 2007, and we will know by the end of the recall voting tomorrow if the reins Wisconsin voters began to apply last Tuesday when two Walkerites were removed from the State Senate are still being pulled back, or are they are being released.
Here's hoping that Wisconsin Democrats Jim Holperin and Bob Wirch - - both solid representatives for their districts - - survive their recalls against unworthy Republican/Tea Party drones. Evidence here, and here.
From a week ago:
Back, back, back they go: On healthcare. On climate change. On clean energy. On voting rights. On clean water. On the Union, as we know it. On women's reproductive rights. Get the picture?
Good attendance numbers prove that the public supports the event, that State Fair and law enforcement responded well to what could have been a crisis, and that people were not panicked by talk radio and other doomsayers.
Even in a bad economy.
I hope the final numbers after the close of the Fair today show an overall attendance bump.
