Table of Contents 
 
DNR Water Protection Understaffed 

Budget Proposal 
What You Can Do 
Contact Your Elected Officials 
Contact Wisconsin Governor Thompson 
Contact your Wisconsin State Legislators Online & Toll-Free 
Write a Letter to Your Wisconsin State Legislators  

Issue Updates

Minergy Incinerator
Fox River Cleanup

Only 42 people are available in DNR field stations to work on 10,000 inquiries and permit requests each year from landowners considering waterway and wetland alterations. 

These 42 people are also expected to provide technical assistance for 500 local governments who enforce local ordinances in floodplain, shoreland, and wetland areas. The DNR's staffing analysis shows that the agency has only 37% of the labor needed to make permit decisions and assist local government staff. 

Eighteen northern counties have 72% of the state's lakes, or approximately 1,550 lakes per person in DNR's water regulation programs. 80% of the waterfront is in private ownership. 

Not surprisingly, this work pressure overloads the staff, resulting in a 50% turn-over each year as staff become frustrated, burn out, and leave. In turn, DNR is then forced to expend even more resources training new staff and they lose the institutional memory held by the former experienced people. 

This is not good news for Wisconsin's wetlands, lakes and streams -- nor is it good government. 

We like to think that DNR staff keep a regular eye on Wisconsin's valuable waterways. We like to think DNR carefully examines every proposal and every site where developments or changes are planned. Many permit process would benefit from staff able to properly visit and analyze local conditions, and talk with neighbors, before making decisions. But, obviously, this is impossible with DNR staff levels so low. 

At a recent hearing in Shawano, a DNR staff person admitted he was like an overworked "traffice cop on a Fourth of July weekend." As a practical matter, he could only stop cars speeding at greater than 75 mph. 

The one staff person is required to cover all wetland and waterway proposals in Marinette, Oconto, and Shawano Counties. These three large counties host some of the most extensive and valuable lake, river and wetland acres in Wisconsin -- and the development pressures are intense and growing -- but DNR has only one field person to oversee their management. 

This is an outrage which must be corrected. 

Budget Proposal 

The DNR is proposing a "Wisconsin Waters Initiative" for the 1999-2000 budget. 

A key aspect is to add 12 new staff perons to DNR's water regulation program. Though somewhat helpful, this leaves DNR 30 people short of the true workload. 

The Initiative also asks for $892,000 to provide electronic access to water information and $80,000 in seed money to consolidate state and local permit processes. 

The hope is that posting and organizing information on the Internet will streamline the workload and provide greater direct citizen access on a more timely basis. Technical assistance could be more automated, leaving staff free for more field inspections. 

Our state economy depends on water resources to draw residents and guests. According to DNR, our fishing, hunting and wildlife-watching industry totals $8 billion in business receipts, 110,300 jobs, and $262 million in tax revenues. Our investment in protecting lakes and streams is no longer adequate. It is less than 10% of the cost of 1993 flood damages or of one of our major lake restoration projects. 

The DNR projects that the Initiative would save homeowners $400,000 per year in flood insurance premiums and increase property values by $1,000,000. 

What You Can Do 

Contact Your Elected Officials 

Contact Wisconsin Governor Thompson 

Governor Tommy Thompson 
Room 115 East, State Capitol 
P.O. Box 7863 
Madison, WI 53707 
Ph: 608-266-1212 
FAX: 608-267-8983 

Representatives:  Email & Web Page Addresses and Toll-Free Numbers 
Senators:  Email & Web Page Addresses

State Senator 
P.O. Box 7882 
Madison, WI  53707 
 
State Rep.    (Last Name, A thru L) 
P.O. Box 8952 
Madison, WI  53708 

State Rep.    (Last Name, Mc thru Z) 
P.O. Box 8953 
Madison, WI  53708 

(If you don’t know who your elected state representatives are, 
call the Legislative Hotline 1-800-362-9472  on weekdays.) 

Wisconsin Stewardship Network Annual Conference 
"Recovering Our Past, Protecting Our Future" 
January 29 - 30

Up to Top

Issue Updates 

Minergy Incinerator 

A scheduling conference was held in Oshkosh last month, for the continuation of our legal challenge of this large private incinerator built on Public Trust Land on Little Lake Butte des Mort in Neenah. 

More than a year ago, Clean Water Action Council joined with Friends of Our Neenah Parks, William Dunwiddie, and John & Ann Gillen in legal action. The Gillens have provided the bulk of financing the high costs of the case, and we've all been represented very ably by Attorney William P. O'Connor of the Madison lawfirm Wheeler, Van Sickle & Anderson. 

Mr. O'Connor took us all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court this past year and won a unanimous decision saying that private citizens do have the right to protect "public rights." This legal standing clearance now takes us back to square one and we can now start the trial process in earnest. 

The schedule is as follows: 

Jan. 1 -- Filing motions & briefs
Feb. 23 -- Hearing on motions & briefs 
Sept. 31 -- Pre-trial 
Oct. 4 -- Trial. 

It's a long, drawn-out process. 

Fox River Cleanup 

The next few months will be intense. A formal public hearing is planned in Oshkosh in January on the proposed landfilling of PCB contaminated sludges in a local landfill. (We will have more information in our next newsletter.) 

At the same time, the DNR is expected to release the first draft of the Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RIFS) for the comprehensive Fox River cleanup plan. A 60 day comment period will follow. 

Last week was the first meeting of a statewide DNR Advisory Committee which will review DNR efforts to set PCB soil criteria for Wisconsin. This is being done at the request of the Brown County Harbor Commission, even though the Commission has yet to ask the citizens of Brown County whether we think it's a good ideda to landspread their contaminated river sediments dredged from the shipping channel. 

The Advisory Committee includes many representatives of the paper industry, including several lawyers and consultants. The sewage treatment plants are also very interested, because sewage containing PCBs is already landspread in Wisconsin. 

Rebecca Katers, representing Clean Water, participates in the Advisory Committee and she raised serious concerns about volatization into the air, runoff into nearby water bodies, wildlife impacts, and the fact that Fox River sediments carry a lot more than just PCBs. 

She argued that setting a simplistic soil standard will not address all these concerns adequately. The next meeting will be held in early February.