In Walker's dirtied-up, donor-driven WI, an end to coindence

You can say this certainty about the banal privatizing of Wisconsin public resources and nationally-noted environmental degradation during Walker's rule.

It isn't complicated: there aren't any coincidences anymore.

*  If this is the question: Why did Walker recently appoint an actual former Executive Director of the Eagle River chamber of commerce as the new DNR Secretary? 

The answer is what sort of appointee could one-up Walker's first appointed DNR Secretary - - developer-builder and former McDonald's manager Cathy Stepp - - now a regional administrator in Trump's business-obeisant US EPA - - whose "chamber of commerce mentality" caught Walker's eye in 2010 and led to her seven years of ruinous, corporatized DNR 'management.

And why are so many business favors dispensed by Walker and his DNR for groundwater control, sand mining, grabs for primo state land, and the enabling of permit-free wetland filling statewide by and for businesses like Foxconn statewide across Walker's entire tenure long before anyone around here heard of Foxconn.

Well, before we had the scandal-plagued public piggy-bank known as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation from whose chairmanship Walker punted, there was a Wisconsin Department of Commerce that Walker threw out, so let's put it this way:

The WI DNR is the new Department of Commerce

*  Another question: Why there is such widespread and persistent manure contamination of residential wells in Kewaunee County?

This all-purpose story pretty much explains it, though the headline would have been stronger if '94+% of the time' could have been squeezed in: 

State audit finds DNR ignoring own rules on water pollution

And throw in this one for good measure, too:

Walker Donors Got DNR Well Permits

*  Or this one:

Waterway pollution in Wisconsin is spiking in Wisconsin on Walker's watch, according to data that the DNR forwards to the federal government and which I gathered and posted, here - - and the major culprit is known to be phosphorous, according to the DNR: 

*  More lopsided data on the DNR list for 2016 in favor of pollution: 

In the proposed 2016 list update, DNR proposes to add 225 new waters. A majority of the listing additions were waters that exceed total phosphorus criteria. A significant number of new listings were also based on poor biological condition. Ten waterbodies are proposed to be delisted.

So how did that happen, since you may recall that in 2010, after years of collaborative work among stakeholders statewide, a new rule was implemented to finally address phosphorous dumping and runoff.

Enter GOP legislators and their somewhat Orwellian-titled "Healthy Waters, Strong Economy Act" - - which the Journal Sentinel noted last year:

The GOP-controlled Legislature in 2014 passed legislation that would give the option to factories and sewage treatment plants to put off fully meeting stricter phosphorus limits for up to 20 years. 

The DNR muddies the issues on this March 17, 2017 web page with a blend of bureaucratic and chamber-of-commercy-jargon that further affirms why there no coincidences anymore in our intentionally, ideologically-dirtied-up state environment:

The multi-discharger variance (MDV) for phosphorus extends the timeline for complying with low-level phosphorus limits. In exchange, point sources commit to step-wise reductions of phosphorus within their effluent as well as helping to address nonpoint sources of phosphorus from farm fields, cities or natural areas to implement projects designed to improve water quality.

And so how has all that "step-wise reductions of phosphorous" or "Healthy Waters..." legislating worked out for people and the water in Walker's "chamber of commerce"-run environment?

Back to the DNR web page about the state of Wisconsin's waterways:

*  Same story in the 2018 list: 

In the proposed 2018 list update, DNR proposes to add 240 new water segments. A majority of the listing additions were waters that exceed total phosphorus criteria. Thirty-five waterbodies are proposed to be delisted. 

Get used to more corporate control of WI, US environment

[Updated from 3/6 and 3/7/17] Here are a few points of context for the preliminary state approval of a Wisconsin frac sand mine that will destroy a Jackson County pristine wooded wetland, and also require huge amounts of groundwater for its operation:

1. This is just the latest example of Wisconsin right-wing GOP Gov. and corporate tool Scott Walker and his party helping the private sector absorb public resources in a loop of mutual self-interest across multiple business interests:

...the Walkerites have used law and policy and political power in Wisconsin - - this GOP/corporate control has been an under-covered, carefully crafted take-over operation - - to tilt benefits and access in a heavenly way towards big business and the executives who own them.

2. There are records of $10,300 in campaign donations from the land owner and people associated with it to Walker's campaign, according to this report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

3. Projects like this will probably accelerate in Wisconsin and elsewhere because Walker is lobbying Donald Trump to give states more control over environmental policy-and-decision making, and because Trump has named former pro-business Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Walker had Wisconsin join Pruitt as an anti-EPA litigant fighting federal clean air rules.

3/8 Update: Trump is adding more enemies of climate science and EPA mission to senior EPA positions, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Pruitt has drawn heavily from the staff of his friend and fellow Oklahoma Republican, Senator James Inhofe, long known as Congress’s most prominent skeptic of climate science. 

A former Inhofe chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, will be Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff. Another former Inhofe staff member, Byron Brown, will serve as Mr. Jackson’s deputy. 

Andrew Wheeler, a fossil fuel lobbyist and a former Inhofe chief of staff, is a finalist to be Mr. Pruitt’s deputy, although he requires confirmation to the position by the Senate.

And as Trump and his budget slashers take aim at climate change science, staff and expertise at the EPA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and even the Centers for Disease Control, remember that Walker and his DNR did it first.

And let's look at some of the earlier record and precedents:

* Scott Pruitt, meet Cathy Stepp.

In a burst of uncharacteristic transparency days before becoming Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker said he was nominating developer and outspoken Department of Natural Resources critic Cathy Stepp as agency Secretary because he wanted this critical Wisconsin environmental and management department with an open government/public health/clean water and air mission run with "a chamber of commerce mentality."

[Update] Other division-level and senior managers have come from the forestry industry, the builders organizations, transportation and the statewide chamber of commerce, summarized here. In fact, the Wisconsin Builders Association bragged about how closely their staff worked with key DNR insiders to get the bill written.

And here are the consequences: an agency with a severely damaged mentality, and reputation, according to insiders.

* Jackson County wetland, meet one in Brown County.

Walker was sworn in as Wisconsin Governor on January 3, 2011 - - five days after announcing his selection of Steps to run the DNR - - and nine days later he suspended the review of a wetland filling permit application so one of his campaign donors could more quickly begin building a project near Lambeau Field.

A companion bill introduced at Walker's request sped through the Legislature his party controlled.

[Update] A year later, Walker signed in front of cheering Realtors at their convention a bill which weakened environmental protections for wetlands.

As to campaign donations and environmental issues?

* Major Walker campaign donor Herb Kohler is working with the DNR on a plan to allow Kohler to turn a 247-acre wooded/wetland/artifact-rich nature preserve into a golf course along Lake Michigan. 

The plan would even require four acres of an adjoining, popular state park to be included in the privately-owned, high end golf course project.

The agency is being so helpful to the golf course proponent that it hasn't yet required the submission of a formal permit application that would greatly inform the public and expand the record - - so right there is some DNR provided, one-sided, taxpayer-paid advantage and assistance - - but the DNR did discuss whether to discipline a DNR staffer for giving opponents some public information relevant to the matter.

Does all this sound even-handed and equitable to you?

* A major lead paint maker was found to have donated $750,000 to committees tied to Walker and GOP legislators before and after the GOP-controlled Legislature rolled back lead paint manufacturers' liability responsibilities.

* Another $700,000 was routed secretly to Walker's campaign by an out-of-state mining company for whom Walker signed sweetheart legislation written with the company's participation to allow the digging of a gigantic open pit mine measured in miles across the Bad River watershed and Penokee Hills in Northwest Wisconsin. 

Again, does this sound equitable?

The mine proposal fell through because, as critics and the neighboring Ojibwe tribe had repeatedly argued and documented, there was too much water in the area for the mine to be established.

* A wealthy couple who had donated more than $3 million to various Walker-related campaign organizations received DNR approval to buy a prime piece of state lake frontage; public pressure blocked the deal until an alternative arrangement was approved.

Also, the DNR, with assists from Wisconsin's corporately-attuned GOP Attorney General and State Supreme Court majority whose campaign committees have received millions of dollars in donations from Walker-sympathetic business and conservative advocacy organizations has loosened the rules governing high-volume well pumping permits which supply water to diary and farming and frackers sand operations - - but which can deplete nearby waters, as is well-known.

Records show Walker's campaign has received more than $30,000 from two of the most recent big-volume ground water permit winners:

One of the permits was granted to James Wysocki, of Bancroft, for a well located in Pine Grove in Portage County. Wysocki and several members of his family own the Wysocki Family of Companies, which operates large vegetable and dairy farms. 

The owners of the Wysocki Family of Companies contributed about $31,000 to Walker between January 2010 and August 2016...

And GOP legislators are getting ready to further loosen high-volume well permitting procedures.

In summary:

This is going to be the pattern in Wisconsin and across the country - - as I have noted here and here - - when Walker and similarly chamber-of-commerce minded Governors get more environmental power from the EPA which Trump will run with a chamber of commerce mentality.

Don't think for a moment that National Parks and other public lands can't go the way of Wisconsin state park acreage a Walker donor wants for his golf course, or the 10,000 acres of state land the Wisconsin GOP-controlled Legislature arbitrarily had the DNR put on the market - - along with permissions for Walker to sell any state asset, up to and including power plants, campus dorms, and the State Capitol.

All part and parcel of running government with "a chamber of commerce mentality."

In Walker's dirtied-up WI, an end to coincidence

You can say this with certainty about the banal privatizing of Wisconsin public resources and nationally-noted environmental degradation during Walker's rule.

It isn't complicated: there aren't coincidences anymore.

*  If this is the question: Why did Walker recently appoint an actual former Executive Director of the Eagle River chamber of commerce as the new DNR Secretary? 

The answer is what sort of appointee could one-up Walker's first appointed DNR Secretary - - developer-builder and former McDonald's manager Cathy Stepp - - now a regional administrator in Trump's business-obeisant US EPA - - whose "chamber of commerce mentality" caught Walker's eye in 2010 and led to her seven years of ruinous, one-sided corporatized DNR management.

And why are so many business favors dispensed by Walker and his DNR for groundwater control, sand mining, grabs for primo state land, and permit-free wetland filling statewide by and for firms like Foxconn across Walker's entire tenure long before anyone around here heard of Foxconn?

Well - - before we had the scandal-plagued publicly-funded business piggy-bank known as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation from whose initial chairmanship Walker punted was booted by own party, there was the long-standing Wisconsin Department of Commerce Walker threw out, ergo:

The WI DNR is the new Department of Commerce

Don't believe me? Go to the DNR home page and click on the business tab - - the first one at the top of the page - - and it takes you to bountiful data, personnel, links, tips and other resources.

Environmental and public policy groups: do you get this kind of attention at Walker's DNR: 

The DNR provides many avenues for business owners to work with the agency in growing and sustaining Wisconsin's economy. We will help you succeed with your business endeavors through partnerships between our public and private sectors, time sensitive coordination with state government and innovative programs that can adapt to your business sector's very diverse needs.  

The Office of Business Support is the agency's one-stop shop for business assistance. The office's mission is to work across programs to create the business climate that yields better environmental and economic performance. We're building capacity through sectors and engaging businesses and communities. 

*  Another question: Why there is such widespread and persistent manure contamination of residential wells in Kewaunee County?

This all-purpose story pretty much explains it, though the headline would have been stronger if '94+% of the time' could have been squeezed in: 

State audit finds DNR ignoring own rules on water pollution

And throw in this one for good measure, too:

Walker Donors Got DNR Well Permits

*  Or this one:

Waterway pollution in Wisconsin is spiking in Wisconsin on Walker's watch, according to data that the DNR forwards to the federal government and which I gathered and posted, here - - and the major culprit is known to be phosphorous, according to the DNR: 

*  More lopsided data on the DNR list for 2016 in favor of pollution: 

In the proposed 2016 list update, DNR proposes to add 225 new waters. A majority of the listing additions were waters that exceed total phosphorus criteria. A significant number of new listings were also based on poor biological condition. Ten waterbodies are proposed to be delisted.

So how did that happen, since you may recall that in 2010, after years of collaborative work among stakeholders statewide, a new rule was implemented to finally address phosphorous dumping and runoff.

Enter GOP legislators and their somewhat Orwellian-titled "Healthy Waters, Strong Economy Act" - - which the Journal Sentinel noted last year:

The GOP-controlled Legislature in 2014 passed legislation that would give the option to factories and sewage treatment plants to put off fully meeting stricter phosphorus limits for up to 20 years. 

The DNR muddies the issues on this March 17, 2017 web page with a blend of bureaucratic and chamber-of-commercy-jargon that further affirms why there no coincidences anymore in our intentionally, ideologically-dirtied-up state environment:

The multi-discharger variance (MDV) for phosphorus extends the timeline for complying with low-level phosphorus limits. In exchange, point sources commit to step-wise reductions of phosphorus within their effluent as well as helping to address nonpoint sources of phosphorus from farm fields, cities or natural areas to implement projects designed to improve water quality.

And so how has all that "step-wise reductions of phosphorous" or "Healthy Waters..." legislating worked out for people and the water in Walker's "chamber of commerce"-run environment?

Back to the DNR web page about the state of Wisconsin's waterways:

*  Same story in the 2018 list: 

In the proposed 2018 list update, DNR proposes to add 240 new water segments. A majority of the listing additions were waters that exceed total phosphorus criteria. Thirty-five waterbodies are proposed to be delisted. 

Oh, one more piece of the puzzle, from last month: 

Scott Walker amasses $4 million campaign war chest, dwarfing Dem rivals in Wisconsin governor's race

Presaged in 2016, here: 

Scott Walker John Doe: Corporate Checks Fueled Coordinated Campaign

More Than One Divide in Waukesha: Mayor v. Chamber of Commerce

Readers of this blog and other people familiar with the political controversies over whether Lake Michigan water should be piped to Western Waukesha County have read often about the subcontinental divide.

By the time you finish this post, you'll also know something about another water-related divide in Waukesha - - this one between the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce and Waukesha City Mayor Larry Nelson and whether there should be interstate controls over moving water out of the Great Lakes.

Back to the subcontinental divide: that's the physical edge of the Great Lakes basin (think of the basin as a large, though irregular bowl containing the lakes) and is best visible in these parts at Sunny Slope Road, in Waukesha County, as the hill across I-94 somewhat west of Miller Park.

East of that hill, you're in the Great lakes basin and the Lake Michigan watershed. West of it, you're in the Mississippi River watershed, where water flows towards that big river and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.

Much of the controversy swirls around the wisdom of piping water over the hill, because unless it is returned as treated water, it's lost to the Great Lakes.

And there are other unanswered questions surrounding diversion applications, too, including who will pay for the pipeline(s), can the sewage district absorb all that additional water for treatment, will water diversions also divert more jobs away from Milwaukee, can Lake Michigan handle the removal of millions more gallons of water daily to the suburbs, and so forth.

New Berlin has made a preliminary application for a diversion, and the City of Waukesha has announced that a similar, but larger diversion, is the only way it can guarantee high-quality water for its community, too.

Current US law requires the unanimous approval of all eight Great Lakes states to divert water over the subcontinental divide.

And a new set of proposed amendments to a 1985 US-Canada agreement would require communities west of the divide, like the City of Waukesha, to promise return flow and other measures through an orderly application process to win diversion permission.

The pro-diversion, anti-Compact rhetoric got hotter last week when the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce blasted the proposed Compact amendments.

The Chamber urged Wisconsin to severely water down that agreement in the Badger State's implementing legislation, and, according to media reports told Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson that was the Chamber position, too.

The Chamber objects to the Compact's requirement for unanimous agreement among the states because one state could block another's diversion request, though it is widely believed that if any state among the eight failed to approve the unanimity principle, the US-Canada agreement would collapse.

And that would open up the Great Lakes to unregulated water withdrawals far from the region: previous efforts to pipe Great Lakes water to the Western US, or to send it by tanker ship to Asia, prompted the Compact in the first place.

That's why the subcontinental divide has long been the physical and political barrier to diverting water away from the Great Lakes.

But add to the notion of "divide" a gap apparently now open between the stance of the Chamber and Nelson, Waukesha's Mayor.

Though a supporter of a Lake Michigan diversion, Nelson told a public meeting in Waukesha he called Monday night that he supported the Compact, and did not agree with the Chamber's advice about deleting the Compact's unanimous approval language.

Nelson's remarks did not make the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story Tuesday morning, but reporter Darryl Enriquez mentioned it his blog later the same day.

The relevant paragraphs:

"Nelson didn't hesitate to express his support for the compact, saying that it "provides a fair process for cities like Waukesha" to acquire Great Lakes water...

"That [the unanimous agreement provision] prompted a group of high-powered business and the corporate leaders last week to question whether the compact should be changed to strike the unanimous vote provision. They feared that a single no vote could doom a project like Waukesha's, and make it susceptible to the political whims of other state leaders.

Nelson responded to the statement by saying that changing the unanimous vote provision would "blow up the compact" and harm Waukesha's chance at getting Lake Michigan water..."

Though his office is non-partisan, Nelson is a Democrat. Fair to say that most of the Chamber honchos are Republicans, so the political divide in Waukesha also crosses into partisan politics and city-county relationships, too.

Canadians Act Like Great Lakes Neighbors: Can The Waukesha County Chamber Of Commerce Do The Same?

Canada is about to set aside a record number of acres to preserve forests.
This will help reduce greenhouse emissions and clean the air, with benefits working their way south to the US, and planet-wide.

There's a lesson here for folks right here in SE Wisconsin, where bashing the Canadians is something of a habit, as some politicians, and groups like the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce, erroneously have accused the Canadians of lying in wait to block Waukesha's access to Lake Michigan.

The Great Lakes are a shared resource.

More to the point, Canadians do not have a vote on, or a veto over, any diversion application forwarded by New Berlin, Waukesha or any Wisconsin or US community.

What Canada is doing, through forest preservation, is helping us all to enjoy a life-giving resource: clean air.

The same is true of water: if it's managed on a truly regional (The Great Lakes region, not the Waukesha-Milwaukee SMSA) and international scale, we all benefit.

The least the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce could do is correct its erroneous web posting that contains the false, wierdly-jingoistic claim that a Waukesha diversion would require the approval of a foreign power's two provinces that border the Great Lakes.

From the Chamber's website is this part of a resolution it has adopted, and which should be corrected or just plain withdrawn:

"WHEREAS, the proposed compact includes many positive features, allowing decisions regarding local water usage to be vetoed by any one of the CGLG members is cause for serious concern. Currently, the compact allows for regional review of many of the compact’s provisions directly impacting Waukesha County. For example, as Waukesha looks to divert water for its community needs, such a diversion would require the unanimous approval of all eight states and the two Canadian Provinces.

"THEREFORE, on behalf of the current businesses and residents of our county, and with respect to future growth, The Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce asks that the legislature not approve any Great Lakes Compact that places the authority for granting or denying water diversions for Waukesha County in the hands of another state or country. While a well thought-out plan balancing the conservation of an invaluable regional resource with the needs of growing counties like Waukesha is essential, an approved compact must include a fair and equitable process for reviewing Great Lakes water diversion requests, not allowing a sole governmental authority veto power."

The Canadian role in such diversion applications' review is advisory only, a known and much-repeated fact, and will help preserve the Great Lakes for Waukesha residents and tens of millions in the US and Canada who share in that responsibility.

Walker figures out new way to serve business, weaken WI DNR

[Updated from 10/28/17] Right-wing WI GOP Gov. and corporate bellhop Scott Walker now wants to give foxes the run of the farm.

He's moving to shift from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources the oversight of controversial, large-scale, water-demanding and manure-producing animal feeding and breeding operations to the more industry-focused Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection, (DATCP), where all sorts of ag and dairy promotion and marketing is centered. 

I'll add below the email which DNR management sent to employees late Thursday about the plan.

Note that Wisconsin legislators didn't want Walker to use the state budget as the means to split the Wisconsin DNR into half - - as various DNR haters and business allies have dreamed of doing for years- - essentially creating a more narrowly-focused Department of Hunting, Fishing and Recreation and another agency to 'regulate' de-regulate for corporations the people's air, water, and land.

So Walker is simply moving to do much the same thing by again using his executive powers to weaken, downgrade and twist the DNR into the 'chamber of commerce mentality' operation he set in motion for his corporate backers' nearly eight years ago.

That's when he turned the wrecking ball over to the enthusiastically anti-DNR and ideologically-committed developer and former McDonald's store manager Cathy Stepp on day one of his first term.

Sidebar: Stepp has taken her environmental hostility to Donald Trump's US Environmental Protection [Sic] Agency regional office in Kansas City - - allowing Walker to replace her with an actual, just-retired chamber of commerce official who cements that chamber of commerce/state definition loop.

But 'chamber of commerce mentality' Walker was not content with having already trashed the DNR's nationally-recognized, talent-attracting water division and further whittling the DNR down to a glorified business permitting, self-regulating agency that will perform like a patronage-directed department of commerce and help him move $3+billion in public funds to the wetlands-filling, water-sucking Foxconn plant where bulldozing in Racine County might start next year

Walker wants to further drain the DNR's mission, just as he did by wiping out its science bureau and laying off agency scientists, and removing climate science and materials from the agency mission, and replacing civil service oversight of the DNR's forestry division with an industry insider and further separating that workforce from the rest of the DNR staff by moving the forest division up north, and, through budget cuts and favoritism, laying the groundwork for corporate sponsorships at state parks (are direct state parkland transfers to private owners for projects like the proposed, high-end, wetland-filling-and-polluting, artifact-threatening, dune-damaging golf course adjacent to Kohler Andrae State Park south of Sheboygan far off?

Now instead of giving the DNR the staff it needs to carry out its traditional, constitutionally-protected water resource mission in the public interest, Walker is out to move the DNR's already-weakened, overtly business-friendly 'oversight' of industrial-scale cattle and dairy operations

from the water specialists and institutional memory and past practices at the DNR to the more friendly business-related confines of the State Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, (DATCP).

From DATCP's "about us" web page:

DATCP Mission

We partner with all the citizens of Wisconsin to grow the economy by promoting quality food, healthy plants and animals, sound use of land and water resources, and a fair marketplace.

DATCP Vision

We will deliver efficient and effective programs and services to Wisconsin agriculture, consumers, and businesses, to provide market confidence and to enhance competitiveness and profitability.​

Talk about setting up a classic conflict of interest and clash of private and public interests in a state where the deck is continually stacked in favor of business and campaign donors by Walker, the GOP Attorney General and the Walker-led. GOP-dominated state legislature. 

And where the rush is on for sweetheart mining and other water-privateering legislation, perhaps to circumvent a possible statewide redistricting ordered by the US Supreme Court to overturn the WI GOP's grotesquely-gerrymandering.

The Walker plan to move what is essentially the protection of the public's water to DATCPhad been reported almost a year ago when he gave big ag a heads up; today one of its representatives has given a thumb's up: 

John Holevoet, director of government affairs at the Dairy Business Association, said... the authority transfer would be a “good move” from both an environmental and farmer perspective, and would mean the state’s taking a “fresh look” at the program that will “probably make it more functional and better.”

This is the state agency that is assigned ag and dairy promotion, by law:

The specific duties of the secretary of agriculture, trade, and consumer protection are outlined in Chapter 93.07 of the Wisconsin state code. Some of the main duties of the office include:^[5]

• Promotion of agriculture: "To promote the interests of agriculture, dairying, horticulture, manufacturing, commercial fishing and the domestic arts and to advertise Wisconsin and its dairy, food, and agricultural products by conducting campaigns of education throughout the United States and in foreign markets. Such campaigns shall include the distribution of educational and advertising material concerning Wisconsin and its plant, animal, food, and dairy products. The department shall coordinate efforts by the state to advertise and promote agricultural products of this state, with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation where appropriate. The department shall submit its request and plan for market development program expenditures for each biennium with its biennial budget request. The plan shall include the identification and priority of expenditures for each market development program activity.
• State aid to Livestock Breeders Association: To receive and examine, prior to its transmission to the department of administration, the biennial request for state aid of the Wisconsin Livestock Breeders Association; to transmit and make recommendations upon this request to the department of administration and the governor; and to advise as to the manner of expending and accounting for state moneys appropriated to that organization."

And promotes ag and dairy businesses and helps those industries sell their products through a non-profit marketing board, according to a DATCP web page:

Established in 1983, this market order board has 25 members who represent Wisconsin's thousands of ​​dairy farmers. Its mission is “To help grow demand for Wisconsin milk by providing programs that enhance the competitiveness of the Wisconsin Dairy Industry.” 

DATCP also:

*  Manages the Alice in Dairyland program.

*  Works closely with the annual World Dairy Expo.

*  Has a non-voting seat on the World Dairy Expo board executive committee.

All of which speaks to a government agency that is a lot closer to private sector goals than is the DNR, even with the changes Walker has made there.

Relevant employees at DNR got this email from environmental and business operations manager Pat Stevens, a former builders, transportation and WMC official first put in charge of DNR programs like clean air and other business-related tasks, and to whom oversight of the former water division had been transferred:
---------------

To staff in: External Services, Drinking Water and Groundwater, Water Quality, Remediation and Redevelopment, Enforcement, and Fisheries Management

From: Pat Stevens, Mark Aquino, Sanjay Olson, and Todd Schaller

As part of his multi-faceted rural agenda, Governor Walker announced Thursday that he has asked the DNR to start working with DATCP and the EPA on transitioning CAFO regulatory and enforcement authority from DNR to DATCP.

Because your program may work with CAFOs, we wanted to share this information with you. Please understand that it is too early in the process to even begin to outline for you how this will work or to answer the various questions you might have on hearing the news. Many details need to be worked out and any move will require legislative and EPA approval.

In general, we see this as an extension of our own alignment process where we have moved related programs once covered by two or more DNR divisions into one division to streamline the process. Currently, the two agencies have different rules impacting CAFOs, so it makes sense to evaluate how to consolidate them under one agency instead of having CAFOs answer to two different agencies.

We at the DNR have experience in these complex moves and changes. Alignment, HR Shared Services, and PECFA are all examples of how we can work through these projects that provide benefits and more efficient services for our customers.

No timetable has been set but we will begin immediately to explore how such a move can take place. We will keep you posted as the process moves forward.

Please note that Jim Dick will be the spokesperson on this issue.

Thank you.

Pat Stevens
Administrator – Environmental Management Division
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

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

Finally, it's important to understand that moving DNR work related to the state's more than 240 CAFOs - - most house dairy cattle, but don't forget the pigs! - - and their clean-air and water-related issues also physically separates the process from public oversight and participation.

DATCP's building is located on the far east side of Madison, about eight miles from the State Capitol, the DNR, legislative offices and various public policy and advocacy groups long-located in downtown Madison.

Note also that people used to connecting with the DNR in Madison by bus can get to the DATCP building - - but that trip adds another hour or so from the Capitol Square with a transfer at East Towne mall.

Why should so many people be additionally-inconvenienced?

I think we know the answer. 

*  Long bus commutes, like cumbersome Voter ID laws which create long lines, lead people to stay home.

*  Or like the isolation of the regional planning commission in western Waukesha County, far from the Milwaukee population center, and not even on a bus line, period.

Where government puts its facilities and how they are staffed says a lot about how that government wants to interact with the people who pay the bills.

Back to Voter ID. Walker said the state would issue qualifying ID's at state motor vehicle offices, then closed some and didn't expand the often minimal hours to help get those ID's in people's hands.

When it comes to public input, and protecting the state's waters which the Wisconsin Constitution says belong to all of the people, which side of the public-private line do you think DATCP supervision of big ag and big dairy is going to land?

So many things about this Walker-ordered reorganization being done administratively without hearings or legislative action absolutely scream 'Big Business Wins Again, Public Loses.'

Remember when former WI DNR Secretary Stepp famously complained that government should not:

Change the Rules to Fit the Players.

Waukesha Mayor In A Freeman Op-Ed

Below is the text of an op-ed on the current Waukesha water and political situation written by Mayor Jeff Scrima [Note also that I will repost this, as some readers report they cannot see the version directly below. There may be a formatting error):

Little Red Riding Hood was too easily fooled. The wolf in disguise didn’t have her best interest at heart.

Whose interests are being served by the present discussions about Waukesha water? Whose pockets are being lined? Whose wallets are being tapped? Whose future is being secured?

Let’s examine the facts.

The lobbying group “Sustainable Water Supply Coalition” (the same group that ran the full page ads in the Freeman newspaper before the election) recently convinced Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce to rally a petition. The petition, as well as their survey, is designed to push the City of Waukesha Common Council towards Lake Michigan water.

Whose interests are being served here?

City of Waukesha residents need to be aware that the same lobbying group, the “Sustainable Water Supply Coalition,” also supports “creating rate-free water districts for business development in the City of Milwaukee as a creative manner to attract new business… further positioning Milwaukee as an innovative and resource-ready location for business growth” (Letter from Sustainable Water Supply Coalition to the Milwaukee 7, dated February 5, 2010). In other words, while this lobbying group is pushing for the City of Waukesha to purchase Lake Michigan water, they are also pushing for a way to create and help pay for “rate-free districts for business development in the City of Milwaukee.”

Moreover, this lobbying group promotes the “sustainable use of the deep sandstone aquifer so the current elevation of the drawdown is optimally raised. Such efforts will preserve the opportunity for sandstone aquifer-reliant communities to continue to rely on this needed water source for long-term supply.” (also in the Letter from Sustainable Water Supply Coalition to the Milwaukee 7, dated February 5, 2010). Translation: if the City of Waukesha connects to Milwaukee water and goes off the deep sandstone aquifer, more water will remain in the deep sandstone aquifer to supply other communities.

It would seem that they want Waukesha residents to abdicate their future water to Milwaukee so as to reduce the cost of water for the rest of Waukesha County. Whose interests are being served here?

Milwaukee and Waukesha County, not the City of Waukesha and its residents.

Questions

1. If the City of Waukesha connects to Milwaukee water and water rates soar in the City of Waukesha, will this be an incentive for residents and business to remain or come to the City of Waukesha, or will they move into the rest of Waukesha County where property tax and water rates are less expensive?

1. Will the “Sustainable Water Supply Coalition,” the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce, or Waukesha County Government help the City of Waukesha residents and businesses pay for their higher water rates?

1. If Oak Creek and Racine water sources are truly financially viable options, why doesn’t the City of Waukesha Common Council and Water Utility release these cost estimates to the public?

Remember recent history and connect the dots, don’t be fooled.

• The current Application for Great Lakes Water specifically “assumes connection to Milwaukee’s water system” (page 4-29).
• Milwaukee Aldermen sent me a letter of concern three days after the election about the water issue.
• Waukesha Water Utility is paying lobbying group Martin Schreiber and Associates, Inc. $12,800 per month, who in turn is hiring former Milwaukee Alderman Mike D’Amato to give counsel on the City of Waukesha’s future water source.
• The “Sustainable Water Supply Coalition” and Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce join forces to lobby the City of Waukesha Council to promote interests outside of the City of Waukesha, namely Waukesha County and the City of Milwaukee.
• Again, it will be the City of Waukesha residents and businesses that will be paying the higher water bills.

Note that under current normal operations, the City of Waukesha Water Utility is providing radium compliant water to its customers. The Application for Great Lakes Water also provides two alternative non-Lake Michigan water solutions.

It is only by having the citizens and businesses in the City of Waukesha well-informed and involved will we be able to move forward with responsibility and accountability.

It’s best not to be fooled by wolves in grandmother’s clothing.