In damaged Flint, MI, connecting some dots

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder says he will fix Flint's toxic drinking water supply after the damage was brought about by his arrogance and disregard for thousands of poor and minority Michiganders. 

The ideological seeds of the crisis were sown years ago, and was no accident.

From the Google about and from Snyder himself:

* The Ann Arbor News, Aug. 3, 2010: 

"We need to reform our regulatory environment and realize that the comeback of Michigan is going to be Michiganders creating and growing small businesses," he said...And it's time for bureaucracy to go away."

* Grist, Sep't. 8, 2010: 

Snyder’s TV ads comparing him to other successful “nerds” like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are odd but shrewd. They allow him to run as an outsider (one who’s done well in business) with more to offer than anger at Democrats. “We need to reinvent Michigan,” he says in one of the ads...

Creating clean-energy jobs and protecting natural resources figure prominently in Snyder’s economic-recovery pitch. So does revitalizing urban places — sorely needed in the home state of Detroit and Flint.

* Crain's Detroit, Nov. 2, 2010:

At the Democratic election party at the MGM Grand in Detroit, Democratic candidate for attorney general David Leyton said he would have no problem working with a Republican governor. 

But he was quick to add that just because Snyder has a business background doesn't mean he knows how to run a state government. 

"Government is not a business," he said, adding that a governor does not have the luxury of being able to dictate directions to a loyal board.

Aug. 2, 2012, Gov. Rick Snyder - - 

Why Michigan Needs Its Emergency Manager Law. 

"Across the country, cities and school districts are facing financial crises that are bringing them to their knees. Michigan is no exception, but there's one thing that makes us different - instead of waiting until our local governments are past the point of no return, we have adopted a law that allows us to take early action to prevent total fiscal meltdowns. This tool is known as the emergency manager law, and it creates an early-warning system that alerts us to potential fiscal problems in cities, villages and school districts. In a worst-case scenario, the law empowers the governor to appoint a manager to take actions to help get that local government get back on its feet."

USA Today, Jan. 20, 2016: How Flint, Mich. water crisis became federal state of emergency:

1. When did the water become contaminated?  

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager.

More months, years of I-94 congestion arriving in light-rail-free zone

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has posted a fresh set of maps, timelines and other material documenting the transportation chaos and congestion known as The Zoo Interchange Project.

For the record, let's note that we are entering the 10th year after which a starter light rail system could have served the area, and elsewhere, but was killed for ideological, anti-urban politics:

Had plans unfolded on schedule, the starter light rail, with an estimated 21,000 riders on weekdays, would have opened in 2006 and run about 10 miles from the Third Ward to Summerfest, downtown, Miller Park, the Milwaukee County Zoo and the County Grounds... 

Extensions to Milwaukee's north side and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee would have generated support, and light rail could have assisted Waukesha County commuters because years of Zoo Interchange and I-94 reconstruction are planned west of Milwaukee.

WI DNR recommends more bear hunting licenses

Call it another win for the state's influential Wisconsin bear-hunting lobby and its hound-driven 'harvesting.'

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board will take up a DNR recommendation at its January 29th meeting to increase by 830 the number of bear killing licenses the department can issue to more than 11,500.

A DNR-designated hunting zone covering roughly the southern two-thirds of the state would get most of the added permits.

The 'harvest' quota statewide of 4,750 would remain the same under the recommendation; Wisconsin leads the nation in bear kills (4,198 in 2015), though the quota of 4,750 was not met in 2015, the department says.

More information from department communications, here: 

The complete January board agenda is available by searching the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for keyword "NRB" and clicking on the button for "view agendas." 

The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27, in Room G09, State Natural Resources Building (GEF 2), 101 South Webster St., Madison.

Bear photo from a DNR webpage for kids, in part:

Bears have been an important part of history in Wisconsin. The Native Americans honored the bear as a supernatural being and treated the bear hunt with great ceremony and respect. They prized bear skins for robes and the meat and oil for cooking, fuel and medicines. The settlers also placed great value on bear meat and especially sought the bearskins with which they made clothing and bedding. As more settlers moved into Wisconsin, however, there was conflict between people and bears. Bounty systems were set up to encourage killing of the "noxious pests" and fur traders paid high prices for bearskins. This large-scale killing caused the numbers of bears to decrease. Logging and settlement also reduced the bear's habitat and numbers. In 1930, people began to protect the bear and limit hunting. Today, wildlife biologists study bear populations and their habitat. Management plans are developed to ensure that nuisance bears are relocated and that population levels remain healthy.

Michigan's crime against humanity

Updated 11:30 a.m. 1/19/16: Now comes just the beginning of civil litigation after Michigan public officials attacked the city of Flint.

To allegedly save a few bucks, and guided by punitive, racist, power-playing ideology, the state of Michigan will end up paying untold billions of dollars to manage the long-term health needs of thousands of citizens it poisoned. 

And more to fix the infrastructure so the people of Flint may, in the year 2016, in the United States of America, have safe and healthy water to drink.

Update - - Data shows that exposures to lead can depress IQ multi-generationally.

A shameful crime against humanity.

Will Wisconsin learn anything from the horror across the lake?

And will the Canadians?

...consider that Canadian officials were OK with the construction of an underground nuclear waste storage facility close to Lake Huron - - one of the five, interconnected Great Lakes providing drinking water and economic livelihoods to tens of millions of people in the US and Canada.  

And here is an update to the troubling Lake Huron situation.

Lake Huron radioactive waste dump site still on the table

This blog noted the other day that the Wisconsin Assembly's sudden embrace of nuclear power generation could put the Badger state on top of a list of possible radioactive nuclear waste dump sites.

And before you say, 'who would use the Great Lakes region for such a crazy notion,' consider that Canadian officials were OK with the construction of an underground nuclear waste storage facility close to Lake Huron - - one of the five, interconnected Great Lakes providing drinking water and economic livelihoods to tens of millions of people in the US and Canada. 

And here is an update to the troubling Lake Huron situation:

Opposition to the proposed nuclear waste facility by Lake Huron continues to grow. By the end of 2015, at least 182 communities (representing more than 22 million people) on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border have adopted resolutions opposing the plan by Ontario Power Generation to build a deep geological repository (DGR) for storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive nuclear waste.

A Canadian federal panel approved the nuclear waste dump in May 2015, accepting testimony that Lake Huron would be large enough to dilute any radioactive pollution that might leak from the DGR.

The immediate outcry on both sides of the border prompted the Conservative government of Stephen Harper to postpone any decision until Dec. 1, 2015... The new government of Liberal Justin Trudeau then pushed that decision to March 1, 2016, after a dozen members of Michigan’s congressional delegation urged the new prime minister to deny the construction permits necessary for the storage facility to be built....

...a final decision on the DGR may reside with a small First Nations community.

WI needs authentic conservatives at the State Capitol

The Wisconsin State Capitol needs genuine conservatives who respect the root of the word "conservative" (as has been said before, Bucky), when applied to the land and water the state still concedes it holds for all of us in trust - - "Wisconsin's Waters Belong To Everyone" - -

instead of shallow cartoon characters and their enablers who, in the name of 'conservative' ideology, special interests and favoritism, would:

*  deliberately refuse to follow and implement clean water law.

*  intentionally undermine Wisconsin forestry, recreation, and tourism;

*  sell 10,000 acres of public land because they like the round number.

*  fill wetlands.

*  load hazardous sand dust into the air.

*  expand groundwater pollution.

*  cut down forests.

*  dig and trample native burial grounds.

*  trophy-hunt wildlife, and

*  degrade, sell or wall off access to the public's streams, rivers and lakes:

"Selling prime shoreland on a northern Wisconsin lake is a terrible precedent," said former Natural Resources Secretary George Meyer, now executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

*  Or, if you're not convinced:

The state Department of Natural Resources has identified more than 1,000 acres of state-owned land in Langlade County that could go on the auction block — a move that has angered trout anglers because the properties contain a cache of ecologically significant spring ponds with native brook trout populations. 

The ponds, gouged by glaciers thousands of years ago, are fed by rich sources of groundwater that sustain the fish and neighboring streams, rivers and lakes. 

The DNR recently posted 13 properties in Langlade County on its website that contain the small ponds. They are among 118 parcels, covering approximately 8,300 acres, the DNR could sell to private parties or other units of government.

Another day, another Joel Kleefisch legislative misfire

He wants to end the state's minimum hunting age restriction.

The GOP assemblyman from Oconomowoc has had some wacky hunting ideas before - - like the sandhill crane 'ribeye-in-the-sky' hunt he really, really wanted - - but hey, combine the kindergarteners' hunting permission with fellow Waukesha County GOP legislator Mary Lazich's Take Your Gun To School Senate bill and the transformation of open-carry-concealed-carry-stand your-ground Wisconsin into an NRA colony is complete.

Except for maybe universal, mandatory carry?

Learn about bad water in Flint, MI - - and in WI

National attention and law enforcement are now focused on the poisoned drinking inflicted by local and state officials on Flint, Michigan, population 99,000.

And without minimizing that outrage, it's important to understand that drinking water in Wisconsin which contains harmful nitrate contamination is routinely permitted for about the same number of state residents in rural areas through lax, inefficient and thoughtless state action.

Kevin Masarik, a Wisconsin groundwater expert, puts the number of rural wells providing nitrate-contaminated water at one in 10. He is speaking Monday evening in Madison about these issues:

“Nitrates in Wisconsin’s Groundwater: What, Why, and Where?”
January 20 - 7:00PM - 8:15PM  

UW Biotechnology Center, 425 Henry Mall, Room 1111,  Madison, WI 53706 

Some more data and information:

*  A recent, comprehensive report put the number of Wisconsin people exposed to unsafe levels of nitrates in their drinking water at 94,000, with trends going in the wrong direction:

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

“Nitrate that approaches and exceeds unsafe levels in drinking water is one of the top drinking water contaminants in Wisconsin, posing an acute risk to infants and women who are pregnant, a possible risk to the developing fetus during very early stages of pregnancy, and a chronic risk of serious disease in adults,” according to the 2015 Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council report to the Legislature. 

The multi-agency council also reported that nitrate — one of the most pervasive groundwater contaminants in Wisconsin — is “increasing in extent and severity.”

*  Adding to the problem: lax regulatory efforts and dairy state loopholes: 

Despite these dangers, the law carves out a regulatory loophole so that private well owners with nitrate levels that could kill infants cannot qualify for financial assistance to get their wells replaced — unless the wells are used to water livestock.

DATCP photo

*  Water contamination in Wisconsin is state-enabled, as this October news story explained: 

An 87-page petition filed Tuesday by Madison-based Midwest Environmental Advocates asks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action four years after the EPA put the state on notice that it needed to make immediate changes...

One of the petitioners, small farm operator Lynn Utesch, said 30 percent of private wells tested in Kewaunee County are tainted by E. coli, nitrates and other pollutants...

“The DNR has known about our problems for years, but they choose not to budget anything to actually look at our current situation here,” Utesch said. “They say they care about us, but they haven’t put one penny toward our drinking water...”

*  The Walker administration and its legislative allies have systematically cut back DNR staff, science, environmental inspections and enforcement.

Vos steps away from Lazich's Take Your Gun To School bill

Maybe the Assembly Speaker just wants to slow down this runaway train, or maybe he doesn't want to provide a legal shield for people who forget they are packing heat.

UW science links Greenland melt to cloud cover

Breakthrough UW-Madison science advances our understanding of a changing climate and its implications, as reported by the College of Letters and Science:

“Over the next of 80 years, we could be dealing with another foot of sea level rise around the world,” says Tristan L’Ecuyer, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the study. “Parts of Miami and New York City are less than two feet above sea level; another foot of sea level rise and suddenly you have water in the city.” 

The study, published today in Nature Communications and led by the University of Leuven in Belgium, shows that clouds are raising the temperature of the Greenland Ice Sheet by 2 to 3 degrees compared to cloudless skies and accounting for as much 30 percent of the ice sheet melt.

It's a big story in The Washington Post:

Clouds have the effect of trapping heat on Earth; they can cause local temperatures to be warmer, so one would imagine that clouds might increase the amount of ice that actually melts during the day. 

But it turns out that the influence of cloud cover is strongest after the sun goes down. At night, the clouds actually prevent temperatures from cooling as much as they would on clear nights and keep already-melted ice from refreezing. This liquid water then pools on the surface of the ice and can be lost as runoff.

How much more proof do we need that it was crazy for the state to severely cut UW budgets and drive away faculty with unprovoked attacks on tenure? 

Polluted WI-MI trickle-down

Another installment of When Tea Partiers Attack, or:

*  What happened to you, Michigan, and your great water protection legacy in the heart of the Great Lakes?

Responding to calls that his administration has not done enough to help this city and its lead-poisoned water supply, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) dispatched his state’s National Guard on Tuesday to help distribute clean water. 

More than 30 National Guard troops are expected to be on the ground by Friday, where they will go door to door to hand out water bottles, filters and testing kits to residents in this city of nearly 100,000. 

The move comes amid rising anger here after it took 19 months for state officials to address a health crisis caused by the government itself, when it changed the source of its water to save money. Evidence has emerged that suggests state officials knew of the enormity of the problem and appeared to ignore or even downplay it. 

*  Same question to you, water-rich Wisconsin: 

Wisconsin is in the midst of a water crisis with its roots in politics, policy and profits.

Look no further than Kewaunee County, WI, in the year 2015:

One-third of wells in Kewaunee County unsafe for drinking water

*  Oh, and there's that ancient Enbridge oil pipeline running under the Mackinac Strait.

WI Assembly endorses nuclear power. Do you?

The Wisconsin Assembly voted today to upend state obstacles to nuclear power plant construction and make nuclear the state's preferred method of new electrical power generation.

In doing so, the Assembly diminished investment opportunities offered by cleaner alternatives and dismissed data and arguments supplied by a coalition of opponents this week showing that nuclear power construction is prohibitively expensive to build and produces dangerous radioactive waste for which there is no long-range, national storage solution.

Legislators were also reminded by the coalition that Wisconsin is the #2 recommended national nuclear waste storage site, perhaps now at the top of the list because the leading option- -  a Nevada site - - has been rejected by President Obama.

Are legislators signaling that the nation's nuclear waste be moved here, en masse, even though 89% voters overwhelmingly rejected more nuclear waste storage here in a 1983 referendum.

Is this the way we want these issues 'debated,' and are we willing to turn the heart of our state into American's nuclear waste dumping site?

The proposed area would be located somewhere within a 1,000 square mile watershed that extends over seven counties, including Langlade, Shawano, Waupaca, Menominee, Portage, Marathon and Oconto counties, and the land of three tribes (Stockbridge- Munsee, Menominee and Ho-Chunk).

For the record, the coalition's contact information and full statement to legislators is below. If I find a link to the statement, I'll post that, too:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carbon Free, Nuclear Free Wisconsin Coalition

Via Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter
754 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703 (608) 445-4489 Elizabeth.ward@sierraclub.org
http://wnpj.org/cfnf

Dear Wisconsin State Legislators,

January 12, 2016

We are writing to ask you to please oppose bills moving forward that would remove Wisconsin’s commonsense protections against the high cost of constructing nuclear reactors, and the costs and risks of permanent storage of radioactive waste in Wisconsin. The Assembly is expected to vote on AB384/SB288 on Tuesday, January 12. Our organizations collectively represent tens of thousands of Wisconsinites from across the state. Our members are increasingly concerned with our energy choices and the risks associated with the potential for a nuclear waste storage site in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s Chapter 196.493 is NOT a moratorium on nuclear power. Rather, it simply states that before a nuclear plant can be built, a utility must prove:
“A federally-licensed facility ... with adequate capacity to dispose of high-level nuclear waste from all nuclear power plants operating in this state will be available, as necessary, for disposal of the waste;” and

“the proposed nuclear plant, in comparison with feasible alternatives, is economically advantageous to ratepayers” in terms of fuel supply, costs for construction, operation, decommissioning, nuclear waste disposal, and any other economic factor.”
These commonsense standards protect Wisconsin ratepayers from excessive electricity costs and the risk of having indefinite nuclear waste storage sited in our communities. 

Removing these protections will put Wisconsin communities at risk and negatively impact all Wisconsin taxpayers.

Nuclear power has benefited from over $140 billion in federal subsidies over the last 50 years, from liability protection to loan guarantees.1  New nuclear plants are extremely expensive and cost overruns are frequent. The most recently approved nuclear plants are a perfect example. The Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 reactors under construction at Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle in Georgia and SCANA’s VC Summer plant in South Carolina prove this. Each have 2 new reactors under construction. Both are at least 39 months delayed (first units were to be online in April 2016) and are billions of dollars over budget. Plant Vogtle was originally estimated to cost approximately

$14.1 billion for the two reactors and is now on track to cost nearly $21 billion.

1 Environment America Research and Policy Center, "The Nuclear Bailout: President Obama's High Risk Gamble on New Nuclear Reactors Undermines the Fight Against Global Warming," 2010, page 45.

Even John Rowe, former CEO of Exelon, which owns and operates the largest nuclear fleet in the country, has repeatedly stated that nuclear is not a good choice for future electricity generation, due to the high cost of new reactors.2

Some support for this idea has been resurrected out of the need to find a low- or carbon-free fuel source to reduce Wisconsin’s carbon emissions in order to comply with the Clean Power Plan and address the serious threat of climate change. Nuclear power will not address these concerns in a timely matter. New plants take at least 10-15 years for construction and licensing,3 and are still years from completion and operation, making the technology too slow to play a significant role in compliance with the Clean Power Plan. Even if the process could be sped up, there are far less expensive ways to meet Wisconsin’s carbon reduction goals.

A recent report by Dr. Arjun Makhijani4 explains:

An objective assessment of the facts leads to the clear conclusion that nuclear power is already economically obsolete, quite apart from a number of other considerations. The same amount of money can produce far greater CO2 reductions with wind and solar energy than with nuclear. The time-related financial and climate risks (delayed, costly, and cancelled plants) of nuclear power also point in the same direction.

Removing Wisconsin’s ratepayer protections from the exorbitant cost of nuclear reactors could have much more severe unintended consequences. If passed, this could send a strong message to the Department of Energy (DOE) that Wisconsin is open to hosting a nuclear waste repository. 

In the 1980s the DOE ranked Wisconsin’s Wolf River Batholith as Number Two for a second high-level nuclear waste repository.5 

A 2008 DOE Study on the Need for a Second Repository6 listed Wisconsin as one of the top potential states based on our granite geology. 

After the cancellation of the potential Yucca Mountain repository, the DOE is desperate to find an alternative. Further, even if Yucca Mountain had opened, it is not large enough to store the nuclear waste generated by the current fleet of nuclear reactors, let alone any new reactors.

The Wolf River Batholith has long been talked about as a possibility for this alternative. The proposed area would be located somewhere within a 1,000 square mile watershed that extends over seven counties, including Langlade, Shawano, Waupaca, Menominee, Portage, Marathon and Oconto counties, and the land of three tribes (Stockbridge- Munsee, Menominee and Ho-Chunk).

Groundwater movement in the granite could carry harmful radioactive contaminants into drinking water. This contaminated water could then flow from the Wolf River into the Fox River, which connects to Lake Winnebago and into Lake Michigan near Green Bay, putting many people in this area at risk.

3 Arjun Makhijani, PhD, "Assessing Nuclear Plant Capital Costs for the Two Proposed NRG Reactors at the South Texas Project Site," Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, March 24, 2008.
4 See http://ieer.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Nuclear-Power-and-Low-Carbon-Alternatives-Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle-Royal- Commission-1-Oct-2015.pdf
5 Quincy Dadisman, “3 areas in state cited as likely A-waste sites,” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 9, 1984; Dames and Moore, Crystalline Intrusions in the U.S. and Regional Geologic Characteristics Important for Storage of Radioactive Waste. Cincinnati, OH, December, 1979.
6 See http://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/edg/media/Second_Repository_Rpt_120908.pdf.

2 World Nuclear News, “Economics hinder US new build”, August 16, 2011. Mr. Rowe also stated this in his keynote speech at the UW-Nelson Institute Earth Day event in Madison, on April 20, 2011.

Page 2

This proposal has been opposed historically in Wisconsin. 

In a 1983 statewide referendum, 89% voted against a nuclear waste disposal site in Wisconsin.7 Part of the reason for the cancellation of the Yucca Mountain site was the opposition from the State of Nevada. States across the country have passed laws banning the construction of new reactors and others are quickly moving into a clean energy economy that does not include nuclear. It may not bode well to have Wisconsin, already Number Two on the list for a repository, send a strong pro-nuclear message to the Department of Energy.

Wisconsin has an opportunity to be a leader in the truly clean energy economy. We know that you care about creating family-supporting jobs, protecting the health of our citizens, and sustaining our natural resources. We do as well. We urge you to oppose any bills that weaken or eliminate Wisconsin's cost and waste safeguards for nuclear reactors, and support energy policies that help us realize our clean energy potential.

Sincerely,

Katie Nekola, General Counsel
Clean Wisconsin
Amy Schulz, President
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
Elizabeth Ward, Conservation Programs Coordinator
Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter
Peter Skopec, Director
Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WisPIRG)
Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Chuck Baynton Judy Miner

7 Wisconsin Blue Book, 1983-1984, p. 875. Ballot Question: “Do you support the construction of a national or regional high-level radioactive waste disposal site in Wisconsin?”

Two Whooping Cranes shot dead in Texas

Shameful.

Texas – Texas Parks and Wildlife officials have confirmed that two Endangered Whooping Cranes were shot in Harden County, Texas on Sunday, January 10. One individual has been identified as the suspect. The International Crane Foundation commends the quick action of authorities, while also expressing anger and outrage at the news of another shooting. 

“This is devastating and unacceptable. Of just 600 Whooping Cranes in the world, two are gone in an instant because of what appears to be a cowardly act of violence. Whooping Cranes face enough challenges to survival without senseless vandalism,” said Dr. Elizabeth Smith, Texas Program Director...

In the 1940s, there were fewer than 20 Whooping Cranes left in the wild. The two cranes shot in Texas were members of the Louisiana flock which numbers just about 30.

The International Crane Foundation plays a leading role in the conservation of Whooping Cranes, from captive breeding and release programs, habitat protection, citizen education and engagement, and threat reduction along their flyways. Learn more about the International Crane Foundation and our work to protect Endangered Whooping Cranes at www.savingcranes.org. 

And before you go and say, 'Well, that's Texas!,' remember that a Whooping Crane was illegally killed in Waupaca County, WI in 2013, federal officials noted:

The case in question dates back to July 21, 2013, when researchers with the International Crane Foundation based in Baraboo, Wisconsin found the radio-tagged whooping crane dead in a Waupaca County wheat field. Our forensics specialists conducted a necropsy at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory and confirmed that the crane had been shot and killed with a .22-caliber bullet.

Matthew Kent Larsen, 28, of New London, Wisconsin pleaded guilty and was sentenced in United States Magistrate Court in Green Bay, Wisconsin for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by killing a protected whooping crane in Waupaca County, Wisconsin.

Cleaner fuels lead to decline in mercury emissions worldwide, but...

The good news is that substantially less mercury is being released into the air worldwide, principally over North American and European, though the levels are increasing in Asian environments, according to a report by government and academic experts.

Milwaukee activists honor Lake Park native effigy mound

Bless these hearty souls

standing in the cold Tuesday evening against a disgraceful effort by worse-than-insensitive Wisconsin lawmakers proposing to permit property owners and developers to excavate and even demolish historic Native American effigy and burial mounds like this 2,000-year-old structure surviving in Milwaukee's Lake Park.

Update: Assembly Majority leader Robin Vos says the bill is unlikely to advance this session because it needs more study.

No: it doesn't need more study. It's a bad idea and needs its own burial.

Lake Park native effigy mound vigil opportunity today

Glad to see UWM scholars and others implementing the Wisconsin Idea by leading a public learning session at a Native American effigy mound late Tuesday afternoon in Lake Park near the East side Milwaukee campus.

The Tuesday schedule:

• 4:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Gathering begins as the sun is setting. Brief talks and readings about what the mounds are and their cultural and historical significance from American Indian Studies faculty members.
• 4:50 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. as darkness falls, LED tea lights will be places around and on the mound followed by a couple of messages from the Overpass Light Brigade.

Location of Prehistoric Burial Mound in Lake Park: https://foursquare.com/v/prehistoric-burial-mound/4e5136f2483bb7704927f88e

The event is to coincide with a rally in Madison Tuesday over a jaw-dropping legislative bid by the ruling party to permit excavation, even destruction of these religious and cultural sites built hundreds of years ago.

Wisconsin is said to be home to 90% of these structures worldwide; the Ho-Chunk nation considers the sites sacred.

New MI mine in UP could harm nearby WI waters, tribal lands

An open-pit metals mine close to the Menominee River just inside the Michigan side of the Upper Peninsula's border with Wisconsin could have a major impact on Menominee tribal lands, Wisconsin water quality and ongoing efforts to use the Menominee River to boost the sturgeon population in Lake Michigan, according to solid reporting by the Journal Sentinel's Lee Bergquist.

WI should pay attention to W. VA water poisoning expose

[10:39 p.m. update. The water works in West Bend, WI is on the list, according to this source.]

You will want to read the stunning Sunday magazine cover story in Sunday's New York Times about, the Dupont company's "exposing thousands of West Virginians to a chemical its scientists knew to be toxic." 

The chemical, known as PFOA, was used in the production of Teflon since 1951. 

Said a box quote in big bold lettering accompanying the story:

In total, 70,000 people were drinking poisoned water. Some had been doing so for decades.

Please note three more things as you consider the story and the bigger water pollution picture here:

*  Don't say to yourself that PFOA in the water is someone else's problem far from Wisconsin, because the story includes a chart listing 27 other states with water systems known to also carry PFOA above what is scientifically called an "approximate safe level"  - -and Wisconsin is on the list, with an estimated 30,100 people thusly exposed. 

Who and where are they? 

UPDATE: West Bend.

Who has known about this in Wisconsin, and for how long, and, most importantly, who's addressing it?

*  Again - - don't say to yourself, well, that's Dupont and West Virginia after all. Remember this recent disclosure about Wisconsin waters with chemical pollution that effects an estimated 94,000 state households: 

Nitrate in Wisconsin Water Widespread, Current Rules No Match For It

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

“Nitrate that approaches and exceeds unsafe levels in drinking water is one of the top drinking water contaminants in Wisconsin, posing an acute risk to infants and women who are pregnant, a possible risk to the developing fetus during very early stages of pregnancy, and a chronic risk of serious disease in adults,” according to the 2015 Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council report to the Legislature. 

The multi-agency council also reported that nitrate — one of the most widespread groundwater contaminants in Wisconsin — is “increasing in extent and severity.” 

*  Final thought. Flint, MI is not an isolated crisis.

Milwaukee lawyers want tougher EPA civil rights work

The US Environmental Protection Agency is holding a public comment and listening session Monday in Chicago on its plan to change the way it handles civil rights complaints, but critics are saying the agency's proposed changes can lessen the likelihood for timely and strong equal rights outcomes and needs an overhaul.

There hasn't been a lot of publicity about the EPA's public session or the issues involved - - much of which involves investigative deadlines - - though I did find this account online:

Environmental and community groups from five states that sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July over the agency’s failure to take action on civil rights complaints are calling for the agency to significantly strengthen a rule it proposed last month to revise the way the agency handles civil rights complaints. 

On Dec. 14, the federal register published the proposed rule that was intended to improve the way the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights responds to civil rights complaints it receives. The proposed revision, however, actually weakens existing protections by removing deadlines for the agency to respond and investigate complaints, according to the groups that filed suit.

Two Milwaukee civil rights attorneys - - Dennis Grzezinski, and Karyn Rotker from the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin - - will attend the hearing and are pointing interested parties to the Chicago session's registration attendance and comment website.

The session begins at 3 p.m Monday afternoon in the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building, Room 311, 77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604.

Grzezinski is also offering to bring comments from others to the Chicago hearing if they call his office at 414-455-0739 by noon on Monday. 

He also offered this background:

In addition to EPA's history of failing to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, concerns include:

• Removing deadlines for responding to complaints is a step backward.  These deadlines have provided the only clear legal basis on which to hold EPA accountable for its failure to move forward.
• While we understand that some complaints are more complex than others, EPA should retain the 180 day deadline for making a preliminary finding of discrimination.  This is a “preliminary” finding, and rather than rejecting the deadline, EPA should modify its approach in order to meet the deadline.  Communities have no other recourse when faced with new or expanded facilities in their communities, a lack of language access or other procedural violations of their rights, or other Title VI violations.  Unreasonable delay takes a toll on the communities and undermines EPA’s credibility.
• EPA argues that some of the cases at EPA are scientifically complex and thus can’t be evaluated in 180 days.  This is a false argument.  EPA has been importing analyses and standards from environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act to evaluate whether a toxic source will have an “impact” under the civil rights law.  EPA should, instead, look to best practices at other agencies, such as the Federal Highway Administration and the Department of Education, and reform how it evaluates disparate impact claims.
• And EPA is not going to be able to build a “model” civil rights enforcement program until it takes a number of other steps that aren’t addressed in the Case Resolution Manual and the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. These include clarifying the legal standards and getting rid of the presumption that a recipient’s compliance with a standard established under an environmental law (such as the Clean Air Act) is a defense to the civil rights law.  The civil rights law must finally be enforced independent of any violation of other laws.
• Given that communities have no other recourse if their rights are violated, EPA should not be given additional discretion to reject complaints.

Rock River contamination found near Janesville, WI

The authorities say no health threat. Reassured?  

The City of Janesville released a notice on their website that elevated levels of contaminants in the sediment of the Rock River were found near the former General Motors assembly plant. The contaminants were found during the city's routine exploration of river sediment while evaluating the future of the Monterey Dam... 

The DNR says there is no health risk to the public, either from river fish consumption or direct contact. GM says they are reviewing the report and will evaluate river sediment near the plant which it plans to share with the city and DNR.

Another day in WI, another day of crazy water giveaway proposals

Among the items on today's giveaway list to get a 'hearing' by GOP legislators in thrall to developers and other big water users: giving the Joint Finance on Committee, with its 12-4 GOP gerrymandered long-term lockdown, the authority to decide what constitutes a waterway with special characteristics that need to be protected from encroachment.

That power currently rests with the Department of Natural Resources, and yes, Walker and his legislative allies have cut science staffers and other positions there, but giving this technical and crucial authority over waters that belong to everyone (see Article IX, Wisconsin State Constitution), to elected officials who remain in office through fund-raising is another level of madness.

Remember when Glenn Grothman played scientist, back in the day?

Does Wisconsin always have to be the capital of Nutty Nation?

Do we have to keep showing disinterest in the public interest, and our best waters?

This was and could still be the state of John Muir, Aldo Leopold and the forward-thinking, bi-partisan team of ex-Governors Gaylord Nelson and Warren Knowles who partnered to create the state's forest-and wetland-purchase Stewardship Fund, also under attack.

Special interest WI bulldozer finds more real estate targets

The Journal Sentinel gives page one coverage today to a move in the Wisconsin Legislature to allow property owners to tear up Native American effigy mounds:

Landowners could excavate and possibly develop some of the surviving Indian mounds of Wisconsin — many dating back more than a millennium — under legislation by two lawmakers. 

The bill from Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) and Rep. Robert Brooks (R-Saukville) would shift the balance of state law more toward private property rights and away from the preservation of one of the state's unusual features.

I noted this breathtaking and arrogant outrage in mid-December, and added cultural context, here, with a reminder that Walker & Co. were eager to excavate the Bad River tribal watershed for 35 years of open-pit, mountain-top-acid-runoff producing iron ore mining while also using state power to make it easier for local schools to retain mascots and nicknames Native Americans found offensive.

That GOP legislators - - and, of course, the builders and WMC have already signed on - - would even broach the bulldozing of effigy, burial grounds should take no one by surprise, given the ruling party's inclination to sell off, deregulate or diminish public and common assets - - groundwater, shorelines, wetlands, lake and stream access, clean air, and state lands.

Next up: permanent awards of groundwater to big users like mega-daries and other large agricultural outfits, regardless of the cumulative impacts downstream, all the while with a Walker-directed Department of Natural Resources, (DNR) that has cut back on staff, science, inspections and pollution enforcement.

Even routine, safe and clean tap water is now denied to thousands of Wisconsin citizens while 'regulators' and other policy-makers look in the opposite, corporatized direction.

Real estate interests and private-property ideologues in the last few years wielded considerable judicial ethics code writing power at the State Supreme Court, had Gov. Walker sign a bill weakening wetlands protections in front of their cheering conventioneers, and benefit continuously as Wisconsin wetlands are filled a record pace during the ongoing five-year tenure of ex-builder Cathy Stepp as Walker's appointed "chamber of commerce mentality" DNR Secretary.

Walker and his legislative water-carriers made their priorities and agendas crystal-clear during his first few weeks in office  by short-circuiting an environmental review to allow a developer/Walker donor to build on a wetland near Lambeau field, setting the tone for the next five years of environmental disregard.

Remember also that the 247-acre nature preserve adjacent to Kohler-Andrae State Park ticketed for tree-cutting and groundwater-pumping high-end golf course development by yet an even bigger Walker donor contains one burial mound, as the Journal Sentinel has reported and critics have repeatedly noted:

A local citizens group, Friends of the Black River Forest, has formed to voice concerns about the potential for this development to destroy native forest, sand dunes, and Indian mounds.  They are also concerned about increased runoff from fertilizer and pesticides impacting water quality of the Black River (already impaired due to excess phosphorus) and Lake Michigan.  

The effigy mound destruction bill - - subject of a Jan. 12 State Capitol protest, according to this website - - takes Wisconsin's far-right agenda to a depressing new depth, combining a fresh offense against historic lands and cultural practices with yet another attack on the environment - - all so someone can make a buck with the assistance of clueless 'conservative' legislators who, once upon a time, warned about big government trampling people's religious practices and freedoms.

Consider for a moment what would happen if, say, Wisconsin tribes wanted to level mainstream religious properties - - even cemeteries.

Right. I thought so.

The WI GOP one-party take over gets more blatant

Wisconsin's gerrymandering and authoritarian GOP isn't satisfied with lawmaking that laid down onerous ID and absentee ballot restrictions for purely partisan purposes, so it's getting ready to throw another legal roadblock in front of citizens looking to exercise their constitutional access to the ballot box: disallowing local governments from issuing photo identification cards that provide several purposes for citizens, including legslly getting a ballot.

Anything to tamp down the 2016 vote in Wisconsin. Anything to diminish local control in favor of harsh, centralized state power. All to tilt Wisconsin's electoral votes to the GOP, no matter how blatant the manipulation.

And, you know, just to mess with people. Such fun for the ruling party.