DNR's Weekly news update leaves out the newsy stuff

As per usual, the Wisconsin DNR's weekly emailed news update is full of soft hunting and fishing updates, but doesn't mention any of the agency's environmental preservation work, scientific analyses, clean air and water efforts or scheduled hearings. Glad, however, to see the agency is still touting its magazine that Gov. Walker intends to kill.

(And by the way, you can access this: https://twitter.com/roguewidnr)

April 4, 2017 2017 Spring Fisheries and Wildlife rules hearing set for April 10  MADISON - Hearings that offer citizens and stakeholders the opportunity to help guide natural resource management in Wisconsin get underway in all 72 Wisconsin counties at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 10. - Read Full Article   County Deer Advisory Councils to finalize 2017 deer season recommendations at April meetings  MADISON -- Preliminary recommendations developed by each County Deer Advisory Council at their March meetings are now available for public review and comment. - Read Full Article Make final preparations now to ensure a great spring turkey hunt MADISON -- The 2017 spring turkey hunt is almost here, and hunters are reminded to check out the regulations and other helpful information on the Department of Natural Resources website to make sure they are ready for another year in the woods. - Read Full Article Skamania steelhead will add to diverse fishery in Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan MADISON -- As they begin to swim up and gulp down their first few meals after hatching, the young Skamania steelhead at Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery are making important progress toward Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources goals of ensuring a diverse Lake Michigan fishery. - Read Full Article Keep Wildlife Wild, enjoy view of wildlife from afar  MADISON -- Get out the binoculars! There's excitement in Wisconsin's woods, fields and backyards as young wild animals emerge, making spring a fun time to observe wildlife from a distance. - Read Full Article First bald eagle nest documented in Kenosha County   MADISON -- Kenosha County has its first documented active bald eagle nest in 45 years of surveying, bringing to 70 the number of Wisconsin counties where the nation's symbol has made a comeback. - Read Full Article Natural Resources Board to meet April 12 in Madison MADISON - A proposed emergency board order to set the 2017 Wisconsin waterfowl season structure and bag limits is among the items the state Natural Resources Board will address when it meets April 12 in Madison. - Read Full Article Three new members inducted into Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame   STEVENS POINT, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Dean of the College of Natural Resources who served for 11 years on the state Natural Resources Board is among three new members who will be inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame this year. - Read Full Article Foundation Field Trips are front and center in April issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine  MADISON - Just in time for spring, the latest issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine is packed with information about the state's beautiful outdoors areas - and great ways to enjoy them. - - Read Full Article

Resignation letter at EPA offers lens into WI, DNR

Experts are fleeing the US EPA which Donald Trump pledged to disintegrate, and their resignation letters are being aired.

Here's one from the agency's former chief environmental justice official.

And I'm reprinting another floating around on Twitter and elsewhere:

1 hour ago

Low EPA staff morale undermines agency. A retiring Region 10 Superfund mgr wrote this letter calling out Mr. Pruitt. https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.documentcloud.org%2Fdocuments%2F3535130%2FLetter-to-EPA-Administrator-Scott-Pruitt-From.pdf …

And here's what I'm going to do with his letter:

I will annotate it by adding highlighted references and links to make this point:

You can substitute Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for US EPA, or Cathy Stepp 

for Scott Pruitt, or Scott Walker for Donald Trump and see that the lamentable, discouraging and menacing similarities I've noted before are pretty accurate.

Remember, the links and highlights are mine.

March 31st, 2017

Dear Administrator Pruitt,

My name is Michael Cox. 

Today is my last day after working at EPA for over 25 years. I am writing this note because I, along with many EPA staff, are becoming increasing alarmed about the direction of EPA under your leadership. I understand there are people in the country who distrust EPA, and think we are overreaching our mission. I believe we need to listen to those voices and try to make changes where warranted.

However, I, and many staff, firmly believe the policies this Administration is advancing are contrary to what the majority of the American people, who pay our salaries, want EPA to accomplish, which are to ensure the air their children breath is safe; the land they live, play, and hunt on to be free of toxic chemicals; and the water they drink, the lakes they swim in, and the rivers they fish in to be clean.

I assume you are aware of the current low morale of EPA career staff. I have worked under six Administrations with political appointees leading EPA from both parties. This is the first time I remember staff openly dismissing and mocking the environmental policies of an Administration and by extension you, the individual selected to implement the policies. The message we are hearing is that this Administration is working to dismantle EPA and its staff as quickly aspossible. I have highlighted several areas below which are emblematic of why morale at EPA is the lowest since I started in 1987.

1. Denying Fundamental Climate Science: This strikes at the core of the concerns from EPA staff. It was surprising, no shocking, when you stated on National television that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to climate change. This is settled science and we have too many other important scientific issues to investigate related to climate change to waste our time debating this issue. I am reminded of a Congressional hearing several years ago when Congressman Henry Waxman asked the CEOs of the major tobacco companies if smoking caused lung cancer. All of the CEOs categorically denied that smoking caused lung cancer. We know, of course, that was not true. You will continue to undermine your credibility and integrity with EPA staff, and the majority of the public, if you continue to question this basic science of climate change.

We are seeing the effects of climate change on the landscape right now. If you do not believe me, travel to Alaska during your tenure and talk with the Alaskans whose way of life is being fundamentally changed because of climate change; visit the Pacific Northwest and see where the streams are too warm for our salmon to survive in the summer; visit the oyster farmers in Puget Sound whose stocks are being altered from the oceans becoming more acidic; talk to the ski area operators who are seeing less snowpack and worrying about their future; and talk to the farmers in Eastern Washington who are struggling to have enough water to grow their crops and water their cattle. The changes I am referencing are not impacts projected for the future, but are happening now.

It was encouraging that the President did not withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the message from the President’s other actions sends the signal to the rest of the world that the USA is no longer a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving to a clean energy economy. You are correct that we do not need to choose between jobs and environmental projection. The question is what jobs? Are they jobs to move us forward to a cleaner energy economy or backwards to a dirtier fossil fuel economy?

Your statement that “we got a bad deal” in the Paris Climate Agreement highlights another case where you have not done your homework. The Paris Agreement, while not perfect, was a huge step forward in battling climate change and moving the world in the direction of newer cleaner energy technology.

Fortunately, there are other global leaders, including China and India, who understand the urgency of the problem and are taking action. Domestically we have Governors, Mayors, CEOs, and Tribal leaders who will fill the void created by the lack of Federal leadership. They will take on the task of reducing greenhouse gases that are causing warming and put in place actions that will make their communities more resilient from climate change. And they will do this while their communities continue to prosper.

2. “Our Big Day Today”: The email headline that greeted EPA staff on Tuesday March 28th was “Our Big Day Today”. The question many of us had was who is “our” referring too? Was it the many EPA career staff that worked for years developing the work that was rescinded or revoked? Was it the EPA career staff that should be jubilant the President came to EPA to poke a finger in our eye (or as many people indicated to give us the finger)? Was it the fossil fuel industry that will benefit most from the President’s action? Or was it the coal miners present at the event who are being given false hope their jobs are coming back?

We were frankly insulted that the President would come to EPA to announce that he is overturning the work to battle the most urgent environmental problem of our generation – climate change. It was beyond comprehension that an Administration could be so arrogant and callous.

3. Giving False Hope: The President is right that we need to help the coal miners who have been displaced and help retrain them for the future. The President is, however, wrong that coal jobs will be coming back after the repeal of the climate change actions. To state otherwise is false and misleading. It is amazing that an Administration that touts itself as business savvy has not done its homework on the market forces at play with coal.

The number of people employed in coal production in the USA has been declining since the high point in 1925 when over 860,000 people were employed to the current low point in 2017 with about 77,000 people are employed (US Department of Labor). The steady decline in employment in the coal industry happened, in general, as coal production increased. The cause of the decline was simple: automation, not job killing regulations.

According to coal companies themselves, the decline in production of coal in the USA will not be reversed to any great extent. There are no major new coal plants coming on line and the price of the most common replacement fuel, natural gas, will continue to decline with the advent of new production. Even if there is an increase in coal production, the number of jobs associated with the increased production will be small due to the automation of the industry.

4. Indefensible Budget Cuts: We were told that you tried to advocate for a smaller reduction in the EPA budget, yet in the end, the budget passed back to OMB had even deeper cuts. The clear message to EPA staff was either you supported the additional cuts or you have little to no influence with the Administration.

We would appreciate a more detailed description of why you are recommending that certain EPA programs be reduced or eliminated. We would love to know, for example, why resources for Alaska Native Villages are being reduced when they are presented with some of the most difficult conditions in the country; why you would eliminate funds for the protection and restoration of the Puget Sound ecosystem which provides thousands of jobs and revenue for Washington State; and why you would reduce funds for a program that retrofits school buses to reduce diesel emission exhaust inhaled by our most vulnerable population - children. To be credible you need to provide details why you believe these programs should be reduced or
cut.

5. Appointing Political Staff Who Are Openly Hostile to EPA: 
We were surprised and dismayed when it was announced that the new EPA Chief of Staff, and several other staff, had worked for Senator Inhofe. As you know, Senator Inhofe is one of the harshest critics of EPA and the most vocal climate change denier in Congress. This sends an unmistakable and disturbing message to EPA staff that you have no intention of engaging with EPA staff and working together to accomplish what Congress and the American people have entrusted us to do.

6. Continuing to Demonize EPA: You have had several speeches and interviews over the past several weeks where you continue to demonize EPA, and by association EPA career staff. This has to stop. Criticizing the organization you lead is not the type of leadership that will produce results. As a leader, you need to motivate and inspire your staff. The course you are on will continue to alienate EPA career staff; the same people whom you need to accomplish your agenda and fulfill the expectations of the American people.

7. Lack of Understanding of What We Do at EPA (especially in the Regions): In the Regions, we work very closely with our states and Tribes. When you talk about “cooperative Federalism” it implies that this is some new concept and that we are not currently working with our states and Tribes. This is contrary to my experience and that of many others in the

Region. It leaves the impression that you do not understand how closely we work with our states and Tribes now. Also, we have not heard you talk specifically about working with tribes and fulfilling our tribal treaty obligations. Working with Tribes is a high priority for us and one we take very seriously.

You have talked about paying attention to process and rule-making. You are right. However, your remarks that EPA has not been paying attention to process or rule-making are not consistent with the experiences of many EPA staff, me included. I can provide you with dozens of examples, in Region 10 alone, where we have participated in extensive public engagement with states, Tribes, communities, and industry. These types of statements indicate to us that you and your staff do not understand the fundamental work we do at EPA.

8. Please Step Back and Listen to EPA Career Staff

If, by some miracle you or your staff actually read this note, I can only hope you take a step back and realize that you are the leader of an organization of very hard working, dedicated professionals who believe deeply in their work. America is a world leader in protecting our citizen’s human health and our environment. Do you really want your legacy to be the person who led the rollback and reversal of the amazing gains we have made over the past 40 years?

I understand the challenges you face when going up against ideologues that appear to cherish fulfilling campaign promises more than doing the analysis and evaluation of what makes sense. But, we are counting on you to advocate for EPA. Unfortunately, up to this point, we have no evidence of this.

Good luck and just remember that EPA staff will respond to leadership that takes into account the science and the opinions of individuals who have devoted their entire lives to fulfilling the mission of EPA – to protect human health and the environment. We understand that our positions may not always prevail, but please take the time to listen to expert voices that might differ from yours and your immediate staff. You may be surprised that you can find common ground on many issues. The health of the American people and our country depends on you.

Michael Cox 

Walker's budget would lock in early brain drain

So we could soon have a Wisconsin-only Reverse Head Start program, the nation's only statewide educational equivalent of making marathon runners begin and finish races with five-pound weights on their ankles.

Look who wants to make the dunce cap our new state symbol:

Scott Walker's K-12 budget drops hours of instruction mandate

Maybe it's because our right-wing GOP Gov. and ideological robotized Scott Walker made something of himself after dropping out of Marquette University short of junior year status and thinks less-is-better when it comes to time in the classroom.

Maybe he thinks the way to stem the documented brain drain out of Wisconsin and keep young people here is by continuously pinching off their learning to better track kids straight into the low-wage jobs his slow-growth policies are creating.

Maybe he believes that young parents deciding about moving to a new state start the search with 'where can we make sure our children will by law get less stupid book learning?'

Or maybe it's Walker's next logical move after diminishing the teaching profession through Act 10, chopping public education funding and drastically slashing the UW system. 

Teachers, demonized. 

School budgets starved.

Now to teaching itself, and making sure teachers have less opportunity to turn the kids into little liberals.

On, Wisconsin

Walker '18.
 

Terrific interactive map of WI CAFOs, impaired waters

The mapping service - -  arcGIS - - has provided this great Wisconsin water map resource, here.

Check it out. 

Complete a DNR advisory questionnaire by 4/10

I posted an appeal last week from conservation activists in Northwest Wisconsin who urged participation in the 4/10 in the annual Wisconsin Conservation Congress, including completing an 88-item questionnaire on numerous Wisconsin conservation and policy issues which advises the DNR on numerous policy and program issues.

In addition to questions on hunting, fishing and trapping matters, the questionnaire addresses statewide policy matters such as CAFO permitting, controls on groundwater withdrawals, a repeal of the iron mining law, the creation of a sandhill crane hunting season, the establishment of a moratorium on frac sand mining, among other high-profile issues.

You can access the advisory questionnaire on a DNR website where Congress procedures are explained, or you can go to one of the DNR's offices - - known as "service centers" - - listed here, pick up this booklet - - 

- - which includes a paper copy of the advisory questionnaire, fill it in and either have the local DNR officials record your answers for you, or mail it yourself to:  

Department of Natural Resources 

Scott Loomans, FH/4 

101 South Webster Street 

Madison, WI 53707-7921 

Despite Sec. Stepp's spin, DNR prints many publications

Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp has said in support of WI Gov. Scott Walker's surprise decision to kill the agency's popular, self-supporting magazine that people these days get their DNR-related information online: 

Stepp said the decision grew out of an analysis of the DNR's workload and the belief that the agency was able to communicate more effectively online and with use of social media like Facebook and Twitter. 

"We are stewards of our resources and not magazine publishers,” Stepp said.

Well, you'd never know it from the more than 40 hard-copy and glossy DNR publications you can pick up for free, as I did today, at your local agency office. 

Here's are photos of 4 of 5 magazine-length publications and three dozen miscellaneous others:

3M, in WI - - too big and wealthy to fine?

I'd noted last week that right-wing WI GOP Attorney General and corporate tool Brad Schimel had let the 3M corporation off without any financial penalty for air pollution violations during 2014 and 2015 at its Wausau manufacturing facilities.

According to Schimel: 

“For me, this is an easy call,” Schimel said. “We didn’t think that a forfeiture going into the school fund was as significant as getting them to permanently improve the environment and save jobs in Wausau.”

A few words about this latest episode of pollution tolerance in Scott Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' state, plus a few paragraphs of 'follow the money,' below.

* Improving the environment and saving jobs are not mutually exclusive. It's not an either-or proposition, and Schimel knows it.

* That "school fund" Schimel sniffed at goes all the way back to the state's founding, is part of the State Constitution Schimel is sworn to uphold, and adds revenue for books and materials for school districts statewide where funds are often short and teachers commonly spend their own money for classroom items.

Read more about the fund, here.

Records indicate that 3M could have easily paid whatever forfeiture Schimel had sought, and should not have been treated by Schimel as it it were a little startup business unfamiliar with Wisconsin rules, procedures and expectations.

According to the company, 3M, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in St. Paul,. MN, has owned its Wausau properties since 1929 and, importantly: 

It was the first 3M manufacturing facility purchased outside of Minnesota and is the oldest, currently operating, manufacturing facility for 3M in the world.

There's plenty of data in company financial documents indicating it could have absorbed any judgement sought by Schimel, including 2016 sales of $30,109,000,000, new income of $5,050,000,000, dividends paid to shareholders of $2,678,000,000 (including an increase for the 59th consecutive year, and fiscal year compensation for the board chairman and CEO of $14,500,000.

Final point: 3M and Wisconsin elected officials, principally Republicans, are no strangers when it comes to campaign donations, according to records posted by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

*  Gov. Walker, with $29,500 collected since 2010, is the largest recipient of all 131 political contributions totaling $114,613 made by the 3M Political Action Committee.

*  Walker also received the largest single donation - - $10,000 - - when the average donation by the PAC over the years is $870.

*  Schimel has received a single $1,000 donations last year.

This is not the first time that a senior Wisconsin official has declined tough treatment for a polluter who has donated to the official's campaign committee.

In 2012, a top Wisconsin DNR official had recommended against referring a polluter to the Department of Justice who had donated $750 to the official's campaign committee when he had served in the Legislature before joining the DNR: 

Scott Gunderson, executive assistant to DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, “made an extra effort” to deal with the complaint internally last year even though the agency’s enforcement staff urged that the case be referred to DOJ, which could have imposed fines of tens of thousands of dollars. 

Instead, Gunderson decided to ask district attorneys in Waukesha and Jefferson counties to issue five citations against Herr Environmental and fine the company $4,338 — the minimum forfeiture for the permit violations, which the lead DNR investigator called “among the worst” he’d seen. 

Gunderson, a former Republican state representative, received $750 in campaign contributions from the owner of the company, Richard Herr, and Herr’s wife in 2006 and 2008. 

Last week, Gunderson said he forgot when he agreed to oversee the case that he accepted political contributions from the Herrs, major supporters of Republican campaigns as well as some Democratic candidates. Gunderson said even if he had been aware of the contributions, it would not have influenced his decision.

Interesting, though, that the Herrs did end up paying forfeitures, while 3M did not, and overall, pollution enforcement actions in Wisconsin are down since Walker, and then Schimel, took office.

Noted and documented on this blog, by media and Wisconsin watchdog groups often, for years.

And years.

And years: 

Fines paid by Wisconsin polluters fell to a 30-year low in 2015 in the latest sign that enforcement of laws protecting the environment has been on the wane in recent years, according to data released Wednesday by a statewide conservation group.  

The downward trend means businesses that pollute have gained a competitive edge over those that spend money to avoid discharging harmful chemicals into air and water, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation said.

DNR officials didn't violate ethical code, state says

Two top officials at the state Department of Natural Resources did not violate the state's ethics code in their handling of a case against an Oconomowoc waste hauler, according to a state ethics administrator.

Herr's company was targeted by DNR, DOJ for violations in 2008

Richard Herr has been in the DNR’s sights before. In 2008, the state Department of Justice b…

Wash Post discovers Walker cruelty we flagged last week

Last week I wrote about how right-wing WI Gov. Scott Walker was gearing up for his 2018 re-election campaign by taking his six-year-long war against the poor to a new level through the humiliation and punitive power of mandatory drug testing:

Walker continues to try and obtain more state power over life-preserving public services to humiliate, punish and otherwise strong arm lower-income people into the workforce he has not expanded through mandatory drug-testing and other coercive measures.

A sample as reported by the Journal Sentinel:

Screen these Medicaid applicants [some single adults, 18-49] with questions about illegal drug use and actually test some of them for it. Refusing the test will mean the applicants go at least six months without state coverage. If they test positive, the individuals could receive treatment.

And then extend these practices and others to food stamp recipients - - despite known proof of their costly failure - - along with lifetime benefit limits reduced to adults four years - - all aimed at getting people off public assistance in Wisconsin job markets that have been stalled during Walker's tenure and are principally creating work at the lowest end of the wage scale.

Now The Washington Post lets the country in on Walker's cruelty: 

Now that House Republicans have squandered their shot at reordering Medicaid, governors who want conservative changes in the health program for ­low-income Americans must get special permission from the Trump administration.

Near the front of the line is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who not only supports work requirements and premium payments but also a new additional condition: to make applicants undergo a drug test if they’re suspected of substance abuse.

If Walker gets his way, Wisconsin would be the first state in the country with mandatory drug screening for Medicaid enrollees. The governor plans to release his proposal in mid-April and submit it to the Department of Health and Human Services by the end of May.

On, Wisconsin. 

WI could OK giant hog feedlot near WI-touted bay, bird sanctuary

Hold your nose with one hand and raise the other if you see any contradiction between these official State of Wisconsin activities:

a) The ongoing permit application review by Gov. Scott Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' Department of Natural Resources for a 26,000-hog farm and manure production operation near Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior:

A proposed hog "megafarm" in northern Wisconsin is raising concerns among some residents that millions of gallons of pig manure will eventually wash off the land and pollute Lake Superior.

An Iowa business plans to produce thousands of pigs annually a few miles from Ashland and the shore of Chequamegon Bay... 

The Bayfield County farm, which the owners are calling Badgerwood, also would become the largest concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, in far northern Wisconsin, according to state officials.

There are currently no such operations in the Lake Superior basin...

b)  This invitation by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism:

CHEQUAMEGON BAY BIRDING & NATURE FESTIVAL

May 18, 2017 - May 20, 2017

c) And this promotion by same Wisconsin Department of Tourism of the same destination, which would have a hard time selling that if 26,000 hogs every six month and their manure by the tens of millions of gallons repetitively moved in and out of the area:

CHEQUAMEGON BAY

Located on the south shore of Lake Superior near Ashland, Chequamegon Bay's varied habitat is home to waterfowl, warblers and shorebirds in spring; snowy owls and bohemian waxwings in winter. The Chequamegon Bay area is among the best birding destinations in the Midwest, with a wide variety of habitats hosting nearly 300 bird species. Abundant public lands and extraordinary natural beauty provide visitors with unparalleled nature watching opportunities in this exceptional area of northern Wisconsin. 

Walker: Trump's water program cuts harmful. But look who's talking

Right-wing WI Gov. and long-time pollution enabler Scott Walker has finally found a cut to environmental protection he can't stomach: the full elimination of Great Lakes restoration funding proposed by the not-so-savvy businessman Walker endorsed for President at this summer's GOP convention: Donald Trump.

"The Great Lakes are an incredible asset," Walker told reporters in Milwaukee this week. "It’s an asset from a commercial standpoint in terms of fishing and tourism, but also in general in terms of quality of life."

Walker said he would be contacting the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress to "protect funding that’s prudent" for the Great Lakes. 

"Funding that's prudent?"

Which means Walker is open to a big cut, since his definition of what's prudent for the Wisconsin's waters has led to a frontal assault the Wisconsin environment, it's inter-connected waters and the Department of Natural Resources for the last six years.

In fact, Trump might respond to Walker with a 'look who's talking.'

A few examples of what's been prudent in Walker's Wisconsin:

*  Walker's 2015-'17 budget:

The Legislature’s budget committee voted Friday to slow down conservation land purchases and eliminate half of the state Department of Natural Resources senior science staff as part of an overall reduction of 80 DNR positions.

With their plan to reduce annual borrowing for purchases of natural areas, Republican lawmakers bucked Gov. Scott Walker, who wanted a 13-year moratorium to reduce debt payments that ballooned in 2012 because the state postponed payments during the recession...

They also said they would follow Walker’s proposal for the 2015-17 state budget to continue a historic reduction in DNR staff.

*  Walker's 2011-'13 budget:

State officials plan to chop recycling aid to local governments throughout Wisconsin faster than expected, with a 40% cut that could lead to deep reductions in recycling programs by summer.

That's separate from Gov. Scott Walker's 2011-'13 budget proposal to eliminate all recycling grants to local governments, starting next year.

*  Walker's undoing of phosphorous discharge controls, which lead to polluted waterways: 

In 2010 Wisconsin was the first state in the U.S. to adopt rules imposing numeric limits on phosphorus pollution, which impairs hundreds of Wisconsin waterways and can harm aquatic life and human health. When Walker took office in 2011, he argued that the rules would be too expensive for manufacturers and communities to follow and proposed to delay implementing them for two years. In 2014 he signed a law allowing polluters to postpone meeting the phosphorus restrictions if they could demonstrate that complying with the rules would pose a financial hardship.

* Which contributes to 'dead zones' in Lake Michigan, one of the very Great Lakes which Trump is willing to expose to even more pollution: 

"We call that the dead zone because fish cannot survive. Nothing can survive in an oxygen-depleted water body," said Michael Kraft, a professor emeritus of political science and public and environmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay...

"Agriculture contributes about 46 percent of the phosphorus load. The biggest part of the problem is essentially the way we use land. In Wisconsin, we’re talking about dairy farms," he said. "There are very large dairy farms where manure, fertilizer treatments and other agricultural treatments … enter the streams and eventually find their way into the Bay of Green Bay in Lake Michigan..."

If the science staff of the DNR is being reduced and if the enforcement budget is not adequate, I think it is hard to move ahead as quickly as we’d like on some of these solutions," said Kraft.

"We have an additional problem because there are some budget cuts in the governor’s proposal this year for the two-year budget. It’s about $5.7 million from runoff pollution remedies... we’ll be doing even less than we’ve done before, even as the problem is growing," he said.

More, here.

The current official and lamentably partisan disdain for good science, established law and principled public water policy emerged in the early hours of Governor Walker's administration.

That's when, in the name of job-creation, Walker pushed the Legislature to adopt a bill short-circuiting the formal, routine review of a wetland filling permit application from a Green Bay-area developer (and Walker campaign contributor) to facilitate the construction of a national fishing equipment mega-store...

Not even a subsequent 2011 letter from federal officials citing a jaw-dropping 75 "omissions and deviations" in Wisconsin's management of the US Clean Water Act has slowed the flow of [negative] proposals or actions by the Governor, state agencies and the Legislature...

Now producing waterway dead zones, groundwater use permit favoritism and other breakdowns of resource stewardship statewide? 

Yes, dead zones, as described in this 2015 story:

The tide of nutrients from the Fox River and other tributaries will help create the latest, and most likely, longest-lasting dead zone in Lake Michigan's Green Bay this summer.  

The problem is caused by vast amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients that wash from farms and urban landscapes and produce conditions that create oxygen-deprived stretches on the bay.

*  And, Walker notably evaded multiple Federal clean water directives to help industry and donors.

Some background and a list of the consequences of Walker's record were laid out in this December 7, 2015 statement released by Midwest Environmental Advocates, a Wisconsin public interest law firm:

Today, 45 former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff and division chiefs sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expressing their concerns about the status of Clean Water Act regulations and enforcement in Wisconsin. 

A cover letter by Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and retired DNR Secretary George Meyer and Midwest Environmental Advocates Executive Director Kimberlee Wright explains why the Petition for Corrective Action to the EPA is an important prompt for the federal agency to step in and clarify how Wisconsin is out of step with the Clean Water Act. 

The Petition outlines very specific concerns about inadequate state rules, laws and allowances for the public to access their rights in access to clean, safe water... and expresses deep concerns about political and anti-science pressures on agency staff, a greater leniency toward polluters, and cuts to staff and budgets for adequate permitting and enforcement....

Among the most serious problems with the "new DNR" are the following:

1) The current DNR top management, the Governor, and the Legislature exhibit anti-science behavior including: drastic cuts in science budgets; orders to cease discussion of climate change and its effects on the environment; gag orders on DNR employees commenting on science issues (only DNR administrators may speak to the press); and exclusion of science professionals from negotiating sessions with entities seeking DNR permits or approvals. Because effective government is essential to the protection of Wisconsin’s waters, CWA non-compliance will persist and worsen if the State continues to cut DNR staffing and funding.

2) The "Wisconsin is Open for Business" slogan clearly applies to DNR environmental permitting. Although DNR has historically balanced its decision-making using social, economic, and environmental factors, the clear bias is now in favor of keeping business happy at the expense of CWA goals and protecting natural resources for the common good.

3) Structural reorganizations have placed much greater authority for final permit conditions in the hands of political appointees rather than DNR biologists, engineers, lawyers, and other Department experts. Bypassing scientific and legal expertise conveys to permit applicants an almost limitless potential for negotiation with DNR upper management. This potential is realized as the number of permittees increase without a corresponding increase in Department staffing or funding. Increasing pressure from DNR top managers to review permit applications, nutrient management plans and related documentation also leads to technically and legally deficient permits.

4) The "value" of aquatic resources to the top management of the "new DNR" has nothing to do with balanced aquatic communities, the intrinsic value of the resource, or the moral obligation to manage Wisconsin’s waters in the name of public interest. Water is now a commodity to be sold and traded in the marketplace.

5) Environmental enforcement effort and results have declined significantly in the past five years. Inadequate permit review and enforcement unacceptably shifts the financial and technical burden of industry review to citizens. One example, also set forth in the Petition, is the exponential increase in dairy CAFOs with stagnant enforcement numbers and staffing levels.

The EPA must seriously consider the recent assault on the basic principles of the CWA by the Legislature, the Governor, and DNR political appointees when examining the need to correct deficiencies in the DNR’s exercise of its CWA permitting authority. If EPA does not require a prompt and robust fix of WPDES Program deficiencies, absent rescission of the DNR’s permitting authority the general quality of aquatic resources in Wisconsin will decline for the first time since the passage of the CWA in 1972. Allowing this decline would have financial implications for all Wisconsinites: prior and significant public investment in water clean-up would be mooted; water pollution would pose greater and greater threat to public health.