Kewaunee County and its neighbors have a serious groundwater contamination problem.
A recent study not only found that wells in areas of greater soil depth were being contaminated with dangerous pathogens, but that up to 60 percent of wells tested were affected, nearly doubling the tally from previous studies.
In 2014, Clean Wisconsin, along with Midwest Environmental Advocates and local citizens, filed a Safe Drinking Water Act petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for help for Kewaunee County residents.
Kewaunee County’s geology makes it vulnerable to groundwater contamination from manure spreading on the landscape.
Kewaunee County residents deserve a robust and thorough effort from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to address drinking water contamination.
For much of the past year, the DNR has pointed to a new set of protections being drafted as their effort to address drinking water contamination from livestock manure.
Access to clean, safe drinking water is every Wisconsin citizens’ right.
For too long, too many citizens in Kewaunee County and elsewhere in the state have been denied that right.
Through these protections, we think the DNR can reduce the risk of drinking water contamination by: Putting limits on when, where and how manure can be spread.
By writing strong rules, the DNR can help citizens with contaminated drinking water have safe wells that draw clean water while giving farmers the tools to effectively manage their livestock byproduct.

Oil spill clean-up delay angers Ogoniland residents.
BODO, Nigeria – Under a leaden sky in oil-rich southern Nigeria, young men hang around with nothing to do, covering their noses from the noxious fumes of the polluted swamp.
The sight in Bodo, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Port Harcourt, is repeated in communities elsewhere in the maze of creeks that criss-cross Ogoniland.
"The people of Ogoni still cannot have access to safe drinking water, not to talk of electricity, basic schools and roads," he told AFP.
Anger in Nigeria’s south over oil spill clean-up delay https://t.co/ilvBUDhtXR #tech #science — oniverse (@theoniverse) June 22, 2017 In June 2016, Nigeria’s Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo formally launched the project, which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said could take 30 years.
Fish and carcinogens Ignatius Feegha, 41, used to catch fish as a child in the waterways of the Niger Delta.
"We can’t see no fish in this water because the water is stained with crude oil," he said.
He said the youths who were unemployed insisted on being paid the money instead of allowing Shell to give the job to contractors.
So Shell, which had already engaged two companies to do the job, had to back out," he added.
READ: Oil spill as militants blow up pipelines in south Nigeria Agbulu said Shell was not ready to give cash to the youths and since they would not allow the contractors to handle the job, decided to suspend the clean-up.

Dunn cites fresh water aquifer crisis.
HOBBS, N.M. – New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn issued a news release Thursday in an effort to clarify his decision regarding fresh water used by the oil and gas industry.
Conversely, non-fresh water sources are available that can be used in oil and gas production.” Effective July 1, the State Land Office, without first reviewing hydrologic information, will not approve new, or renew, land access to drill water wells on State Trust Lands that involve the use of fresh water from the Ogallala aquifer for oil and gas production and related activities.
Dunn adopted a policy in January seeking to protect fresh water under State Trust Lands, implementing the policy at this time.
“As we understand, this regulation will only pertain to water wells that are drilled on state trust lands.
“Related activities is everything in town.
Everything in town is oil related,” he said after receiving a letter from the State Land Office informing him of the policy.
The oil and gas industry already has begun efforts to find alternatives to fresh water, according to several sources.
Terrell said Thursday, “The industry is taking a lot of different looks at the use of fresh water and what we can do to find other alternative sources to fracture our wells with, such as recycling water and using produced water rather than fresh water.” Produced water is water that has already been used in the field and is unfit for drinking.
Last week Rep. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs, owner of Lynx Petroleum, addressing the subject of reducing use of fresh water, said, “The industry is moving in that direction.

County and school officials confirmed Thursday the water at Clover Flat Elementary in Boulevard is contaminated with E. coli, in response to questions posed by NBC 7 Investigates.
He has not been able to keep down water.
He was hospitalized twice with high fevers, and today doctors discovered blood in his urine.
"We were notified by the school Tuesday that the water was contaminated with E. coli," Cousins said.
The family is awaiting test results on whether the school’s tainted water caused their son’s illness.
The Assistant Superintendent for the Mountain Empire School District said officials are not aware of any illnesses caused by the E. coli, but the district is very concerned.
Tests were conducted on June 16 — the day school let out for the summer break.
Families living in the most rural parts of the county have been more heavily impacted by the drought–not just by water shortages but also by increased exposure to carcinogenic water contamination.
"We found that the majority of those drought-impacted public water systems were serving disadvantaged communities."
Most of the coverage can be found on our "Safe to Drink" page.

County and school officials confirmed Thursday the water at Clover Flat Elementary in Boulevard is contaminated with E. coli, in response to questions posed by NBC 7 Investigates.
He has not been able to keep down water.
He was hospitalized twice with high fevers, and today doctors discovered blood in his urine.
"We were notified by the school Tuesday that the water was contaminated with E. coli," Cousins said.
The family is awaiting test results on whether the school’s tainted water caused their son’s illness.
The Assistant Superintendent for the Mountain Empire School District said officials are not aware of any illnesses caused by the E. coli, but the district is very concerned.
Tests were conducted on June 16 — the day school let out for the summer break.
Families living in the most rural parts of the county have been more heavily impacted by the drought–not just by water shortages but also by increased exposure to carcinogenic water contamination.
"We found that the majority of those drought-impacted public water systems were serving disadvantaged communities."
Most of the coverage can be found on our "Safe to Drink" page.

SIERRA VISTA — The southwest sizzled this week with high temperatures surpassing the triple digits.
So, what’s the best way to avoid heat-related illnesses?
If it’s not possible to stay indoors at all times during this week’s scorcher, the best defense is keeping cool and drinking plenty of water.
There are typically three main heat-related illness that can occur when body temperatures get too high and fluids too low: heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Heat exhaustion, which is more severe than heat cramps, causes symptoms that include nausea, dizziness, headaches and a rapid pulse.
Heat stroke is the most severe heat-related illness.
“In heat exhaustion, that person is clammy and still has the ability to sweat,” Ryan said.
A person suffering from heat stroke loses the ability to sweat, which is critical in lowering body temperature.
They turned to The Cove Aquatic Center and the Teen Center to avoid the blistering heat and prevent dehydration.
For 8-year-old Ella Cartwright, the Cove is where she goes with her family to escape from the summer heat.

Parkway, environmental groups receive water quality grants.
These and other projects across the mountains are the award recipients of the Pigeon River Fund of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.
The fund recently awarded $182,440 to environmental groups working to improve surface water quality, enhance fish and wildlife habitats, expand public use and access to waterways and increase water quality awareness in Buncombe, Haywood and Madison counties.
Since 1996, the Pigeon River Fund has distributed $6,371,037 in grants.
The grants will enable us to begin a community and stakeholder planning process to think about the future of the property, discuss what’s on the land, what’s special about the resource, what are community interests, and what are the interest of adjacent communities.” Another grant recipient is the French Broad River Academy, a private boys school off Riverside Drive in Woodfin.
The academy received $14,960 to develop wetland areas on the school’s campus adjacent to the French Broad River, to re-establish a natural area that will help filter rainwater and runoff before it makes its way into the river.
The wetland area is the first in a multi-layered plan to improve the environmental sustainability of the campus, and to teach the middle-schoolers about environmental stewardship first-hand, said John Douglas, the school’s development director.
Haywood Waterways Association: • $13,950 toward the Shelton Branch Stream Relocation Project at Vance Street Park in Waynesville.
The Conservation Fund: $30,000, contingent upon other funds, toward the acquisition of 93 acres known as the Urban Property in Haywood County on the north side of Maggie Valley.
The property helps protect the watershed that provides the valley’s drinking water.

Solar energy powers clean water, business opportunities for refugees.
DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sadick Thenest remembers how his 8-year-old daughter had a narrow brush with death two years ago, when she contracted cholera after drinking contaminated water.
“She was so gaunt, weak and had terrible diarrhea,” said the refugee from Burundi.
“I always ensure that my children use clean and safe water,” he said.
“I have instructed them to wash their hands with soap after using a toilet.” Thenest, who works as a technician with international engineering charity Water Mission, said the health situation in the camp is improving as more people get access to clean water from a recently installed solar-powered water treatment facility.
As part of a broader initiative to help refugees access clean energy and sanitation, Water Mission is installing more such plants in three refugee camps in western Tanzania.
The $5.3 million project, funded by the Denmark-based Poul Due Jensen Foundation, is expected to provide safe water for some 250,000 refugees in Nyarugusu, Nduta and Mtendeli camps.
“We will document saved lives and ensure general public health, as a result of safe water,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A recent shipment of 780 solar panels to Tanzania will produce 226,000 watts of power and provide a continuous supply of safe water to keep children in good health, it said in a statement.
Yet while access to clean energy for refugees and their host communities is a global priority for UNHCR, analysts say millions of displaced people still lack access to sustainable, cheap energy sources because of a lack of funding.

For Petunia Mohale, safe drinking water was not a given.
Mohale was one of approximately 300 million people in Africa who do not have access to safe drinking water.
Steere and Kate Thiers Steere founded I-Drop Water as an alternative solution to make safe drinking water affordable and accessible for people like Mohale in South Africa and the African continent.
I-Drop purification systems are installed in any grocery store with access to a running tap, at no cost to the shop owner.
Customers can then purchase safe drinking water for just R1 per litre – an approximate 80% discount on bottled water.
“We’ve removed these capital cost barriers by making it [the filtration system] free for any grocery store to install in their shop and start selling.” In the months after installing the machine, Mohale sold around five bottles of filtered water a day, with more on the weekends.
While an I-Drop technician is available to repair the machine should it malfunction, Thiers Steere is typically able to address any technical problems remotely via the machine’s cellular-based platform and the data she receives from it.
Ultimately, I-Drop aims to be an environmentally friendly, affordable alternative to the bottled water industry and a practical solution to deteriorating water infrastructure.
According to the South African Institute of Civil Engineering’s Infrastructure Report Card 2011, the replacement value of the water resources infrastructure was R139 billion.
Steere and Thiers Steere believe in the eventual scalability of I-Drop throughout Africa and elsewhere.

Solar energy powers clean water, business opportunities for refugees.
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, June 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sadick Thenest remembers how his 8-year-old daughter had a narrow brush with death two years ago, when she contracted cholera after drinking contaminated water.
"I always ensure that my children use clean and safe water," he said.
Thenest, who works as a technician with international engineering charity Water Mission, said the health situation in the camp is improving as more people get access to clean water from a recently installed solar-powered water treatment facility.
As part of a broader initiative to help refugees access clean energy and sanitation, Water Mission is installing more such plants in three refugee camps in western Tanzania.
The $5.3 million project, funded by the Denmark-based Poul Due Jensen Foundation, is expected to provide safe water for some 250,000 refugees in Nyarugusu, Nduta and Mtendeli camps.
"We will document saved lives and ensure general public health, as a result of safe water," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A recent shipment of 780 solar panels to Tanzania will produce 226,000 watts of power and provide a continuous supply of safe water to keep children in good health, it said in a statement.
Yet while access to clean energy for refugees and their host communities is a global priority for UNHCR, analysts say millions of displaced people still lack access to sustainable, cheap energy sources because of a lack of funding.
Providing solar street lamps and lanterns and energy-efficient cooking stoves can greatly improve the lives of refugees and contribute to their protection, Okello said.