Who's Going? Criste and Rhonda Are!
To Clean Water Lobby Day - January 30 at the Capitol
Rhonda Carrell and Criste Greening of Wood County faced and stared down the forces of large industrial agriculture when Wysocki Farms proposed to bulldoze 6000 acres of wooded land in their town for irrigated cropland and a dairy CAFO. Rhonda and Criste and friends knew that irrigation wells pumped the Little Plover River dry and fertilizer leaching caused sky-high nitrate levels in the nearby Town of Armenia’s residential wells. They didn’t want this fate for their 7- and 10-Mile Creeks, nor for the drinking water of their families and neighbors.
Their nearly eight years of work (fingers crossed) may have successfully fought off the Wysocki operation. But neither is done working for clean, healthy waters throughout the State of Wisconsin.
|
|
Join Rhonda, Criste, lots of your central Wisconsin water friends, and water advocates from around the state at Clean Water Lobby Day on January 30! This year is especially critical: 2019 was declared by Gov. Evers as the “Year of Clean Drinking Water” and the state legislative’s Water Quality Task Force just released its recommendations, finally nitrate is getting some attention, and PFAS pollution is a new concern.
Click here for more information and to sign up.
Need a ride to Clean Water Lobby Day?
Check out this link to start or join a carpool!
|
|
Why YOU should be part of Clean Water Lobby Day
Residents of the Wisconsin’s Central Sands, both full-time or seasonal, have long known about our groundwater resource issues.
Many of us began our groundwater awareness around issues of drying lakes and streams caused by unfettered high capacity well irrigation pumping. Though we are now in a period of record rainfall that has temporarily masked pumping impacts, the issue will return when weather gets normal and after DNR completes its most recent study. Stay tuned!
Our awareness has grown around alarming groundwater pollution levels, primarily nitrate contamination in residential wells. Sample collection projects for residential wells have been set up in Adams, Marquette, Portage, Waupaca, Waushara & Wood Counties. Private well owners are encouraged to test their well water even if they were not selected to participate in a county’s grant-funded project. The results in the news today showing many towns with 20-30-40% of samples exceeding drinking water standards is sobering, and a strong wake-up call that protections for central sands drinking water is inadequate, and that recommended agricultural practices are ineffective at reducing nitrate concentrations.
This is where the “rubber hits the road” – what can YOU DO TO PUSH FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT - by advocating legislation that provides authority to the DNR to manage and enforce rules, provide counties with adequate staff and funding to manage, provide consultation with farm producers and enforce the rules, and to DATCP the ability to enact reforms needed in agricultural practices, management of manure storage/spreading – ALL to improve our groundwater resources.
ATTEND CLEAN WATER LOBBY DAY – Be part of the change needed and meet with your state legislator to demonstrate that we expect them to create and pass sustainable groundwater protections and management, particularly in the central sands region.
|
|
CSWAC Steering Committee Meeting February 23
Please mark your calendar and plan to attend or send a representative from your water group to the next CSWAC Steering Committee Meeting on Sunday, February 23, 2020 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm at the Anna Follette Memorial Community Center, 155 N Front Street, Coloma, WI 54930. We will review the legislative proposals sent to the Senate from the Assembly dealing with Water Quality Task Force recommendations re: water quality. The final legislative floor session will be in the Senate and ends in March for the current legislative year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
