Walker's DNR not enforcing Water Pollution Laws. Republican Constituents wonder, "What the heck is going on?" Doh!

Here we go again? As if we didn't already have a long list of state problems to solve, leave it to the Walker administration to create new and more serious emergencies, like the DNR's complete breakdown protecting our drinking water.

Members of the Wisconsin DNR's’ policy-making board were surprised and disappointed by an audit that cited serious shortcomings in state enforcement of water pollution laws.

Thanks to Gov. Scott Walker's mind numbing refusal to fix Wisconsin's roads, voters are waking up to the hard reality that many other things are getting a lot worse. You might recall this recent blog post:

Walker's AG Brad Schimel removed DNR oversight, giving away Wisconsin's Drinking Water to Big Business.

"Following guidance provided by state Attorney General Brad Schimel in an opinion issued May 10, the agency will no longer consider the cumulative impact of nearby wells on the aquifer or surface water when deciding whether to permit a well, and it will no longer impose monitoring requirements on well operators."

Republican State Sen. Rob "Part-of-the-Problem" Cowles from Green Bay doesn't like it when he actually has to listen to constituent concerns about something as basic as drinking water:

Sen. Cowles, co-chairman of the Legislature’s audit committee, said that the Legislature should act as soon as possible to allow the DNR to ... hire enough employees to enforce the law.

“I can tell you the DNR board is steaming mad. This was a surprise to them. Three of them called me, and a lot of my constituents did, too. My constituents who saw the story wondered ‘What the heck is going on?’ The people of this state believe in water quality. We brag about our lakes and rivers and having great places to fish in and swim in.”

Welcome to the Republican run government. The key here is "enough employees:"

Leaders of the Legislature, which cut more than 90 positions from the DNR’s budget last year, haven’t publicly commented on the audit.

Gee, GOP "leaders" who made things worse, didn't have a well rehearsed prepared answer?

Incidental Gov. Scott Walker hasn't had much time for things like drinking water and transportation, which still isn't that urgent:

A spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker said any changes in DNR funding will wait until a new budget is enacted next summer.

Government hating Republicans mismanaging government, who could have seen all this coming? 

And really, why would the DNR keep their own board members up to date on how bad they were doing their job?

Board Chairman Terry Hilgenberg said members were told several months ago that the audit was being performed, but Stepp and her staff didn’t update them about the seriousness of the findings before the report was released to the public June 3.

“Board members were being contacted by the media and by other individuals. They’re at Rotary and they’re getting asked ‘What the hell is all that about with that audit?’ and they hadn’t been apprised about all of it. That could create a little angst,” Hilgenberg said.

Welcome to Republican rule. Any surprise they hate government? Oh, and guess when the wheels started coming off?

The DNR has been under fire for the way it protects the state’s waters at least since 2011 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 75 deficiencies in laws, rules and policies. Four of the problems have been cleared up. The state audit provided new details about the shortcomings.

Boy, it would so much easier if Republicans could just get rid of the EPA.

Balance between Environment and Business interests? This is Walker's idea of balance: 
WSJ:

1. Over the last 10 years the DNR failed 94 percent of the time to take enforcement action against sewage plants and industries that exceeded water pollution limits, 

2. Violating its own internal policies, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau said in its report.

3. DNR employees didn’t have time to adequately review annual reports submitted by concentrated animal feeding operations

4. Didn't review plans describing how millions of gallons of manure they generate annually would be kept out of lakes, streams and groundwater.

5. The DNR didn’t meet its goals for inspections and failed to document that it took any action for months or even years in five incidents where monitoring wells showed feedlots were contaminating groundwater with substances harmful to human health, auditors said.

 As serious as these violations were, along with the loss of 90 employees and funding cuts...

It’s wasn’t clear Tuesday if Stepp would appear at the meeting. The agency is still trying to hire and train new employees after losing large numbers of experienced people to retirement, he said.

I  thought this was also interesting to note. Walker will probably blame Gov. Doyle for the cuts he had to make because of the collapse of the world economy during the Great Recession. A bit unfair I would say, and nothing like the ax Walker voluntarily used to cut spending on the DNR and state parks:

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle oversaw reductions in full-time staff in water pollution regulation programs after the 2008 recession hit.Staffing levels increased in 2011 when Walker and his fellow Republicans took control of state government, but two years later cuts resumed.

And unlike the protected transportation fund, stealing from the DNR's revenue stream might have to stop as well:

The DNR collects $5 million to $7 million annually in fees from concentrated animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs, municipal sewer plants and private industry, but it typically keeps less than $90,000, with the rest going to the state’s general fund.

Walker's Wisconsin now comes in dead last in Business Startups.

Scott Walker's "Open for Business" state slogan has perception issues, according to Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Foundation president Jim Morgan.  

That's the excuse now being given to explain Walker's Wisconsin coming in dead last in attracting new entrepreneurs. And it has nothing to do with the Republican majorities anti-education, anti-science, anti-Milwaukee, anti-clean energy positions, right. And hell, they're not done dragging Wisconsin's reputation into the ground with the continuing Walker disaster known as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. 

Yea, people are getting the wrong impression, that's the ticket. Blame the people objecting to one bad bill after the next, from abandonment of environmental safeguards to dumbing down education, not Scott Walker:

WPR: Studies show people stay in Wisconsin because of the cost of living and natural beauty. Morgan said making that perception of the state mainstream is seriously needed.

That would seem near impossible to do, when you consider we're seeing declining incomes and increased levels of water pollution in our state. If we could just keep that bad news off the front pages:

Research Finds Wisconsin Is Home To Fewest Startups In The Nation: Ask WMC Leader Jim Morgan why Wisconsin comes in dead last in the race to attract new entrepreneurs, and he'll tell you it all comes down to perception.

"We see people often leaving because they don't think there are opportunities here, when actually we have a pretty diverse economy here and may have 60,000-70,000 open jobs. But if you're 16 or 17 years old, you don't see it."

"People in that 50 to 65 to 70 year range leave Wisconsin, and so they take their wealth with them, and so you don't have that investment," he said.

Republicans hope voluntary compliance will solve watery Dead Zones and Nitrate Laced Drinking Water.

Wisconsin Republicans don't seem to think we've got a water quality problem in the state.

Instead, they're always talking about "balancing" the cost of doing businesses against the cost of keeping Wisconsinites and the environment healthy. That's a false narrative and not really an open question.

The problems keep mounting up too. From the harmful effects on children exposed to blowing Koch Industry coal dust off freight cars in Green Bay, to watery dead zones in the bay itself, Republicans are just now starting to talk about. Perhaps they're waiting for things to get worse. How about preventing the problem? Nope, that would be a big government solution.

For example, here are a few lowlights of Republican Rep. Reid Ribble's do nothing word salad, for a problems that's completely out of control already. From Upfront with Mike Gousha:

"...now that it's lasted so long and is so large...we're starting to have some of our larger dairy farms talking in those same terms...we're getting to a place now where people are really beginning to take this seriously...first you start with awareness, you recognize you have a problem...create the awareness of it, which is what we're doing now...you begin to share best practices...where the agriculture community pulls themselves into compliance...it's all of us working together."

Yea, we've got all the time in the world. Ribble knows his voters don't want a government solution, so what the heck, talk is cheaper.

Here's coverage from WBAY about the growing nitrate problem in our drinking water, a problem many Wisconsinites may not even be unaware of:

An agricultural group is calling out the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, accusing the agency of not protecting the health of people in Kewaunee County. Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP) issued the 137-page report, saying in it there’s proof the DNR isn’t doing its job protecting Kewaunee County residents.

SRAP’s Scott Dye said, this report shows the DNR is letting industrial dairy farms pollute Kewaunee County by not checking to see if farms are following the rules for handling waste, not enforcing rules that already exist, and not taking community complaints seriously.

“We should not mince words about this. This is nothing short of a public health emergency. What we’re talking about are Third World conditions in America’s heartland. We have people in our community who cannot drink their water, brush their teeth, wash dishes, and are fearful of bathing in their water if they have an open cut. The Wisconsin DNR that has utterly failed its duty to properly regulate the 16 largest industrial-size farms and failed in its duty to protect the health and safety of the county’s residents and environment.” 

Walker's hollowed out version of the DNR continues to blow smoke (a media pollutant) about a problem they're not trying to solve. They might be waiting for a major environmental disaster to occur.

Dept. of Natural Resources spokesman Bill Cosh sent this statement to Action 2 News: Protection of groundwater and our drinking water in Kewaunee County and the entire state remains a priority for this agency.  To that end, we are working with citizens and other stakeholders of Kewaunee County to develop proposed actions and potential solutions to reduce risk to public health and groundwater quality that could not only be applied in northeast Wisconsin, but also be potentially applicable to other areas of the state. We are regulating within the full authority we have within the current laws and rules. However, we are continuing to work to come to potential suggestions for the legislature.

Voluntary compliance, a non-regulatory approach, is all the rage in Republican states. From PBS's Market to Market, Iowa is a little more proactive, but still, polluters are just shifting the cost of the problem onto taxpayers:

Get more on the DNR disaster playing out in Wisconsin at the Political Environment.