Left, a view of McDill Pond in summer 2013. (City-Times photo)

UWSP Professor Slated to Testify Before Assembly Committee Thursday in Madison

By Brandi Makuski

A bill with potential to turn back the clock on groundwater protection management has been scheduled for a last- minute hearing Thursday in Madison only one day after it was introduced.

Assembly Bill 479 would make obtaining a high- capacity well permit easier for mega- dairies, frac sand mining companies and other large agribusiness. The public hearing begins at 12:30 PM Thursday in Room 225 NW inside the State Capitol. The bill was introduced Wednesday by Assemblyman Jeffery Mursau from Crivitz. A message left for Mursau Wednesday was not immediately returned.

The bill prevents the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources from using scientific data showing the effects of high-capacity wells on surface and ground water when considering a well permit. It would also shorten the length of time the DNR would have to approve such a permit.

“It would negate some court decisions made in recent years that give a little more protection to lakes and streams from (well) pumping,” said Dr. George Kraft, a groundwater specialist at UWSP. “It sort of turns the clock back to the law in 2003 which isn’t very protective of lakes and streams.”

Kraft was asked to testify before the Assembly Forestry and the Environment Committee Thursday afternoon by Rep. Chris Danou from Trempealeau, and said he was preparing his remarks Wednesday night. He said he wasn’t sure if he was able to change his schedule to attend the last- minute hearing but would at least have his remarks made part of the record.

“As a university guy, I don’t give an advocacy point of view; my job is to say, ‘the bill will do this; this consequences will be that’,” he said.

Kraft pointed to what he calls a “landmark decision” made in 2011, when residents from a Lake Beulah district took the DNR to court to compel the department to consider the affects wells would have on lakes and streams. The Supreme Court ruled on the side of those residents, and while Kraft called that decision “only a first step in the right direction”, he said the new bill negates that ruling.

Portage Co. Water Specialist Ray Schmidt said Wednesday he would be attending the hearing in Madison but was not familiar enough with the bill as it had only been introduced earlier that day. Schmidt added he would comment further on the bill after the hearing.

In an email obtained by the City-Times, Scott Froehlke from the Central Sands Water Coalition said the new bill “fundamentally grinds groundwater management efforts in Wisconsin to a halt”, and urged area officials- and residents- to attend the hearing if possible.

“Many of you attended the groundwater meeting in Plover in early January,” Froehlke said in his email. “If we can get some of that compelling testimony heard again in Madison tomorrow, it might help the cause. Come on down and tell your story. Most of these lawmakers have no idea what is happening on our Central Wisconsin landscape.”

The committee is comprised of the following Representatives:

• Representative Mursau (Chair)
• Representative Krug (Vice-Chair)
• Representative Czaja
• Representative Loudenbeck
• Representative Stroebel
• Representative Danou
• Representative Milroy
• Representative Clark

Assemblywoman Katrina Shankland of Stevens Point is an outspoken proponent of the environment as well, and can be reached (888) 534-0071. The hearing is open to the public.

Check back with the City-Times for updates they come in.