Protecting Water Resources
Protecting the quality and the quantity of our water resources is a major priority of the Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter. Wisconsin’s northern border is Lake Superior and our eastern border is Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes contain about 20% of the earth’s fresh surface water, supply over 42 million people with drinking water and support a $4.5 billion dollar sport fishing industry. Wisconsin is also home to over 15,000 lakes, 12,600 rivers and streams, and countless smaller creeks. This includes the Fox River, which flows north from Wisconsin and empties into Lake Michigan. The Fox River was the childhood playground of Sierra Club founder John Muir. He wrote lovingly of the Fox River "Along the Fox River, we found dewberries and cranberries, and a glorious profusion of huckleberries, the fountain-heads of pies of wondrous taste and size, colored in the heart like sunsets."
Midwest Currents
Midwest Currents is a new project of the John Muir Chapter's Water Protection team that features information on Wisconsin water-related issues in the news, and seeks to promote grassroots action.
Focus One: Northeastern Wisconsin water contamination and needed drinking water protections. The spreading of manure and other waste on fractured bedrock in northeastern Wisconsin allows the manure and other waste to move directly into the ground water, contaminating public drinking water supplies and private wells. Click here to read recent articles and citizen stories related to drinking water safety. Go directly to citizen action
What do we want to happen?
- Designate a special “management area” in Northeastern Wisconsin that can address the problem of unsafe waste disposal on land highly vulnerable to groundwater contamination due to geology.
- Create a new geology-sensitive, carbonate area mapping program to address the lack of clear, state-wide knowledge about where high-risk lands can be found.
- Strengthen and unify waste spreading regulations to give clarity to what are now weak and confusing land disposal regulations for manure, municipal and industrial waste.
Midwest Currents Action
Excessive land application of wastes and manure spread on unsuitable land has contaminated the public drinking water sources of several communities as well as rivers and lakes throughout the state. We all need to call for solutions to this problem - nothing is more critical to the future of this state and its citizens than ensuring sustainable, balanced use of our finite groundwater resources. Go directly to citizen action
Scientific Background:
Final Report of the Northeast Wisconsin Karst Task Force
Click here to view our Factory Farm Display
Click here to read our Factory Farm Brochure
Book Recommendation: Deeply Rooted Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness, Lisa M Hamilton, Counterpoint 2009
SPEAK OUT FOR MORE SUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES IN WISCONSIN
Attend the upcoming public informational hearing on the proposed expansion (WPDES permit modification) for the Rosendale Dairy, December 3, 2009, at 5:00 pm at the Royal Ridges, 1 Westgate Drive (just off W. Fond du Lac St. which is also known as Hwy 23/49), Ripon, WI 54971, for the purpose of giving all interested parties an opportunity to make a statement with respect to the permit action.
If permitted, Rosendale Dairy will become the largest Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), or factory farm ever sited in Wisconsin. It will house 8,000 milking cows and 300 beef cattle on a very small area of land.
Please attend the public hearing, and voice your concerns about this operation.
Expanding the Rosendale CAFO:
- Threatens drinking water and wetland habitats by the volume of untreated manure- 75 million gallons per year- that will be spread on vulnerable land.
- Impacts air quality by emitting toxic hydrogen sulfide and ammonia
- Threatens water supplies with contamination by antibiotics and hormones.
- Puts area family farms in jeopardy by flooding the market with milk. When supply outpaces demand, the price per gallon drops precipitously.
If you are unable to attend the hearing, please send comments to elizabeth.spaethwerner@wisconsin.gov by December 10, 2009.
Click here to read our comments to the WDNR on the EIS and WPDES permit for Rosendale Dairy
Great News for our Great Lakes!
Governor Jim Doyle who signed the Great Lakes Compact into law on May 27, 2008, and the 2009 Bienniel Budget included funding for four staff positions needed to implement the historic legislation. This legislation will prevent the diversion of our irreplaceable Lake Michigan and Lake Superior water to other states, countries, or water bottling corporations. The Strong Compact establishes consistent, ecosystem-based standards for assessing diversion requests, ensuring the fair management of Great Lakes water. The Sierra Club is part of a coalition of organizations who worked to ensure that the strong Great Lakes compact bill that was passed included the following key provisions:
- Measurable, meaningful water conservation practices.
- Environmentally responsible return of all diverted waters.
- Closes the bottled water loophole that would let multinational corporations profit from public water resources by allowing diversions one bottle at a time.
- Sets permit and monitoring standards for large water users within the Great Lakes basin.
- Maintains the integrity of the Great Lakes watershed by establishing fixed community boundaries.
- Assures an open, public approval process for diversion requests and provides public enforcement options.
What are the Next Steps for the Great Lakes Compact?
Great News! The Great Lakes Compact went into effect in December 2008. Sierra Club's Water Protection Team weighed in with comments on New Berlin's recent application, as a straddling community, to access Great Lakes Water. Over the coming months, we will work to ensure that at least a dozen Administrative Rules associated with the Compact are passed in Wisconsin, and that there is adequate funding allocated to successfully implement this legislation!
Healing Our Waters
Sierra Club is a member of the Healing Our Waters (HOW) Coalition. The coalition is composed of more than 100 organizations representing millions of residents in the Great Lakes region. Its goal is simple: to restore and protect the Great Lakes. This year, their focus was ensuring full funding for Great Lakes restoration and highlighting the huge economic and ecological benefits of this activity. Check out their website, www.healthylakes.org
Download presentations below from our recent Great Lakes events in Green Bay & Milwaukee:
Green Jobs for Clean Water: Freshwater and Economy Forum (pdf)
EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (pdf)
GLWI: The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (pdf)
Great Lakes Protection and Restoration: Towards an Integrated Approach (pdf)
Federal Resources for Great Lakes Restoration (pdf)
Wisconsin Great Lakes Strategy (pdf)
The Fox Watershed: Watershed Strategies for Cleaner Water (pdf)
Restoring the Cat Island Habitats (pdf)
Suamico Watershed Pike Restoration Project (pdf)
To Learn More About Great Lakes Issues
Download our "Citizen's Guide to Protecting the Great Lakes" report. This report identifies Great Lakes problems and solutions that individuals can implement to protect the Lakes. It also highlights the major policy changes that state and federal governments need to make to ensure that future generations can use and enjoy the Lakes as we do today.
The Guide was inspired by the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy (GLRCS) – a comprehensive regional plan to protect our drinking water, economic future and way of life. The Great Lakes hold one fifth of the world's fresh surface water and currently provide drinking water to over 42 million people. Yet each day, our Lakes are damaged economically and ecologically by untreated sewage, industrial pollutants and invasive species. Sierra Club's report offers actions to reduce these threats and contains specific strategies people can use to protect the Lakes.
Visit our Legislative Tracker to find out what bills Sierra Club is working on in Wisconsin!
To support our work with a financial contribution, click here. Visit our Volunteer Opportunities page to see how else you can get involved.