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Rep. Katrina Shankland: Wisconsin’s groundwater is at crisis point

 By Katrina Shankland, originally posted on October 25, 2016

 

Every person in Wisconsin deserves access to clean, safe, and bountiful water — regardless of zip code. Water is a right, not a privilege. Yet in Kewaunee County, about one in three wells tested for nitrates or bacteria are considered undrinkable. Concerns about radium in the water are significant in southeast Wisconsin. In western Wisconsin, residents are worried about the impact of frac sand mining on water. In the Central Sands area of our state, an ongoing debate about both water quantity and quality is happening; and in northeastern Wisconsin, dead zones punctuate the debate on water. In 81 communities across Wisconsin, residential water systems contain unsafe levels of lead.

How did Wisconsin, with all of our vast water resources, become a state where people have to worry about access to clean water?

Over the last five years, Republican legislators have exempted certain wetlands from water-quality standards, restricted the Department of Natural Resources from regulating agricultural waste, and cut vital DNR scientist positions, making it more difficult to tackle the root causes behind groundwater contamination and ensure everyone has safe drinking water.

Recently, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau released an audit of the DNR’s wastewater permitting and enforcement practices, and the results were deeply troubling. The LAB audit found that the DNR has been ignoring its own rules on water pollution, failing to act on wastewater violations 94 percent of the time over the past decade. The audit also found that concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs — Wisconsin’s largest farming operations — have little to no DNR oversight.

Currently, CAFOs have no runoff testing requirements and are instead required to file self-monitored reports annually with the DNR. Of those self-monitored reports, only 36 of the roughly 1,900 required to be submitted had been electronically recorded as being received — that’s less than 2 percent. When the DNR fails to monitor and enforce its own runoff policies, it’s no wonder we have contaminated wells. We should work together to act on drinking water safety — it affects everyone.

 Last fall, Democratic legislators Rep. Eric Genrich and Sen. Dave Hansen introduced legislation that would have required the DNR to establish acceptable manure-spreading practices in areas of the state that are susceptible to groundwater contamination. Republicans never even gave the bill a public hearing. This summer, after significant public pressure mounted, the DNR proposed rewriting rules for manure-spreading by CAFOs, limiting the amount of manure that could be applied per acre. Unfortunately, Gov. Walker scaled back the rule considerably.
It is my hope that Republicans will stop obstructing action on clean water and instead work with Democratic legislators on the state’s groundwater crisis. We must require the DNR to follow their own water quality rules and provide them with the staff they need to ensure that our water is safe and drinkable. We must have accountability when it comes to enforcing the state’s groundwater rules. People should continue to apply pressure on their elected officials to find sustainable solutions to our water quality crisis — before it’s too late.

If Wisconsin becomes known for having contaminated water, the impacts will be far-reaching throughout our state. It will affect our property values and tourism industry, which are vital to our state’s economy. We cannot afford to continue on this path. We must ask ourselves if we want to live in a state without clean drinking water. The time to act is now!

Rep. Shankland represents Portage County and serves as the assistant minority leader in the Wisconsin Assembly. She also serves on the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and Sporting Heritage.

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