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| 3/12/2010 11:37:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Groundwater debate takes parties below the surface
More expansion of DNR regulatory authority proposed
Democrats are calling it an important measure to protect drinking water and Wisconsin's lakes, streams and wetlands, but some Republicans say a bill to establish new groundwater regulations is nothing more than another attack on jobs and Wisconsin's economy, not to mention another transfer of power to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Last week, state Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison) introduced a measure to toughen standards for new and existing high-capacity wells and to give the DNR authority to identify and establish groundwater management areas (GMAs), within which the state could impose restraints on water use.
In announcing the legislation, Black said the state cannot afford to ignore the issue of groundwater protection.
"While Wisconsin is blessed with a plentiful supply of groundwater, the supply is not unlimited and we are running into those limits in some parts of our state," Black said. "This legislation will help us protect our drinking water and our lakes, streams and springs."
State Sen. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) disagreed, however, saying the bill was not about groundwater protection so much as it was about expanding the DNR's power.
Gunderson said the proposal, coupled with a global warming energy bill also pending in the Legislature, represented the continuation of a "session-long assault" by Democrats on the state's economy, and he predicted it would lead to more job losses and to the creation of an even more hostile environment for job creation.
The bill emerged this week after months of work by a Groundwater Work Group created last fall by Black, the chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, and Miller, the chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.
Gunderson was one of two GOP lawmakers on the seven-person committee. Sen. Neil Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) was the other.
Black and Miller said the bipartisan group spent dozens of hours in presentations and on field trips, hearing from citizens, industry, and scientific experts to learn about the problem and possible solutions.
The proposal
Under current law, the DNR must undertake an environmental review of a proposed high capacity well if it would be located within 1,200 feet of an outstanding or exceptional resource water or trout stream, if more than 95 percent of the water withdrawn would be lost from the basin, or if it may have a significant environmental impact on a spring with a flow of at least one cubic foot per second, or about 646,000 gallons a day, for at least 80 percent of the time.
Under the bill, any high capacity well proposal that would affect a perennial spring with a flow of .25 cubic feet per second (approximately 160,000 gallons a day) would trigger a DNR environmental review.
A high-capacity well is defined as one pumping more than 100,000 gallons per day. The DNR could impose conditions to halt any adverse effects from such wells and could deny the application.
According to a Legislative Council memo, the bill would also empower the DNR, under certain specified conditions, to identify and establish groundwater management areas in locations where the "coordinated management of groundwater is needed to avoid or mitigate significant adverse environmental impacts associated with excessive groundwater withdrawals."
In addition, the memo states, the measure would require the chief executive of a county containing a GMA to appoint a groundwater management council; for a GMA in multiple counties, the counties must negotiate an agreement providing for the appointment of the council.
If a GMA council was not appointed within six months of its designation, the DNR would appoint the entity, the Legislative Council memo states.
The GMA council would be directed by law to draft a groundwater management plan, which must include water conservation regulations and must be designed to achieve designated water withdrawal quantity targets.
If a plan was not approved by both the affected counties and the DNR within three years, the DNR would develop the plan.
Finally, the bill "authorizes any person to file a petition with the DNR requesting environmental review of a proposed high capacity well that does not meet any of the specific criteria under current law, on the grounds that construction and operation of the well as proposed is reasonably probable to result in significant adverse environmental impact to surface waters."
In other words, anyone could challenge the application of a high capacity well, even if it would not be within 1,200 feet of an outstanding resource water or trout stream, even if less than 95 percent of the water withdrawn would be lost, and even if spring flow did not reach .25 cubic feet per second.
Political support
Black and Miller say the expanded controls are necessary because excessive groundwater withdrawals have led to unhealthy levels of arsenic and radionuclides in some municipal wells in southeast Wisconsin, while large withdrawals can lower water levels in nearby lakes and wetlands and thus have an impact on property values and recreational activities such as fishing and boating.
"Wise use assures water will be available for agriculture, business, and households on a long-term basis," Miller said. "This bill provides a framework for Wisconsin to solve emerging problems with its groundwater, and prevent future problems. It also opens opportunities for new technologies in water conservation and gray water recycling."
George Meyer, the executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, called the legislation significant for sportsmen and women.
"This bill is critically important to Wisconsin's groundwater resources including springs which are vital for those tens of thousands of Wisconsin trout anglers, duck hunters and trappers that rely on Wisconsin lakes, streams and wetlands for providing quality fish and wildlife habitat," Meyer said.
Amber Meyer Smith, program director at Clean Wisconsin, the state's largest environmental organization, pointed to the effect of recent heavy groundwater withdrawals.
A drawdown in Waukesha resulted in radium concentrations high enough for city officials to consider filing a request to divert water out of Lake Michigan to use in place of groundwater, she said, while the Little Plover River now regularly runs dry, resulting in significant fish kills on the central Wisconsin trout stream.
"Fishing is a $2.3 billion industry in Wisconsin that directly employs more than 25,000 individuals," Smith said. "This industry will dry up with the lakes and streams if we don't act to protect our water. When streams and lakes begin running dry, it's a signal that we must manage our groundwater supply more effectively, and this bill will give local communities the tools they need to ensure our drinking water stays healthy and plentiful for generations to come."
Poisoning the jobs environment
For his part, Gunderson said the DNR would be getting all the power - indeed, he accused the agency of helping draft the bill - and he said Black and Miller had ignored GOP suggestions within the Groundwater Working Group.
"Sen. Miller and Rep. Black are going to claim that the Groundwater Protection Bill is the product of the bipartisan Groundwater Work Group, but let me be crystal clear, it is not," Gunderson said. "Sen. Miller and Rep. Black did not even consider the more than seven pages of suggestions and concerns made by Sen. Kedzie and I before going behind closed doors with the Department of Natural Resources to draft this legislation. Protecting our ground and surface waters is an issue that I care a great deal about, but this legislation goes too far empowering environmental special interests to not only block new business but also severely impact agriculture in Wisconsin."
Gunderson specifically attacked the provision allowing any person to file a petition with the DNR "requesting environmental review of a proposed high-capacity well that does not meet any of the criteria for which environmental review is specifically required on the grounds that the well is reasonably probable to result in significant environmental impact to surface waters."
"Maybe Madison is 77 square miles surrounded by reality because only two career politicians from Madison could come up with a term like reasonably probable," he said. "I can tell you what else is reasonably probable if this legislation passes: the loss of even more jobs in Wisconsin as the Sierra Club requests an environmental review of every proposed high capacity well. Employers will choose to locate in other states that are not so openly hostile to business."
Gunderson said it should come as no surprise Black and Miller want to give the DNR more power to regulate water because, he argued, they are the same legislators who wrote Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed global warming legislation.
Under that bill, Gunderson said, the DNR would be allowed to establish rules regulating the standards for transportation fuels sold in the state as well as to set vehicle emission standards identical to those in California.
"First they introduced Gov. Doyle's global warming legislation that would give the Department of Natural Resources a wide array of new powers to not only regulate the fuel we can put into our cars, but it would also give the DNR the power to determine the types of vehicles we could buy in Wisconsin," he said. "Now they want to give the DNR unfettered control of our state's water without continuing legislative oversight."
Gunderson said Forbes Magazine already ranks Wisconsin as the third worst state in the nation for business, while the state has 4.3 percent fewer private businesses today than it did in 2006. That loss was an anomaly, he said, because nearby states were seeing increases in the number of private businesses while the nation as a whole experienced a 6.1 percent surge in private business growth during that period.
"I cannot believe that in this economy, Sen. Miller, Rep. Black and the Democrats want to give the DNR even more power to devastate private businesses and agriculture," he said.
Richard Moore can be reached at rmmoore1@verizon.net
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