Here & Now

Keeping Wisconsin Water Clean

Frederica Freyberg:
There’s a renewed sense of urgency to solve the problem of contaminated drinking water in Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers has declared 2019 the year of clean drinking water. Representative Robin Vos has created the Speaker’s Task Force on Water Quality. In tonight’s look ahead, we examine what kind of funding is being proposed. Plus we get the perspective of two farmers on the ground. Marisa Wojcik has the story.

Marisa Wojcik:
Clean drinking water. For some people in Wisconsin, there is no doubt that safe drinking water will come out of their faucet. But for many others, worrying over what’s flowing through the ground and into the pipes is top of mind.

Scott Laeser:
We’re really starting to get a better understanding of just how much contamination is already out there. Pollution coming from manure and fertilizer and to some extent, septic systems that can very quickly get into our groundwater, especially in a part of the state like this, and then show up in people’s wells.

Marisa Wojcik:
Scott Laeser and his wife Chelsea Chandler own a community shares vegetable farm in Lafayette County in southwest Wisconsin.

Scott Laeser:
We started our farm in 2013. So this is going to be our seventh season, which is kind of crazy.

Marisa Wojcik:
Scott is also the water program director at Clean Wisconsin, a nonprofit that advocates for environmentally friendly policies in the state, with an emphasis on conservation. For Scott and Chelsea, they practice what they preach, finding harmony between food production and conservation.

Scott Laeser:
I think really, one of the goals and themes of our farm has been to find a way to balance those two.

Marisa Wojcik:
With a 3 month old daughter, clean drinking water hits very close to home.

Chelsea Chandler:
I think as a mom you always have a lot that you’re worried about. So don’t want to add clean drinking water to the list, but it’s definitely something that’s in the back of your mind.

Marisa Wojcik:
A recent study conducted in three southwest Wisconsin counties, including Lafayette, showed that 40% of private wells were contaminated beyond safe drinking levels.

Ken Bradbury:
There were a lot of concerns from homeowners and farmers and environmental groups and others about what actually was the groundwater quality.

Marisa Wojcik:
Ken Bradbury is the director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, which helped conduct the study to test these wells. Bradbury and his fellow scientists weren’t all that surprised by the results.

Ken Bradbury:
The geology in that part of the state is fairly vulnerable for groundwater.

Marisa Wojcik:
But a lack of funding for research like this has made it difficult to prove what they were seeing in bits and pieces.

Ken Bradbury:
This was the first time that weve had a very rigorous study to really show that scientifically.

Marisa Wojcik:
In total, Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposes $83 million towards water quality efforts including an additional $1.6 million for the well compensation program, $10 million for the soil and water resource management program, and nearly $1 million toward DNR regulation of concentrated animal feed lots or CAFOs. Over half of Wisconsinites use public water, which by law must be teste. But the rest of the state relies on private wells for their water source, and it’s up to the homeowner to test for contaminants.

Ken Bradbury:
I think a lot of people take it for granted that their water is going to always be good. And in fact, they really need to test to be sure.

Marisa Wojcik:
Inspired by a similar study done in the northeast side of the state, Bradbury teamed up with county conservationists and local citizens from Lafayette, Grant and Iowa counties to fund and conduct the study.

Ken Bradbury:
We thought there would be some response, but the breadth and magnitude of the response surprised us.

Marisa Wojcik:
Days after the results were released, Representative Robin Vos created the Speakers Task Force on Water Quality. But some farmers are hesitant to impose new rules too broadly.

Jim Holte:
There is not a one size that fits all.

Marisa Wojcik:
Jim Holte is a corn farmer in Eau Claire County and the president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. He doesn’t like that farmers are viewed as apathetic to water quality.

Jim Holte:
Were seen as users of water. Water is necessary for our business. And yet people dont naturally step back to the fact that the water that I and my family use on an everyday basis is under this land. We are the ones with the biggest stake in water quality.

Marisa Wojcik:
He doesnt agree that farmers are willing to sacrifice the groundwater around them in exchange for higher crop yields. Instead, they go hand in hand.

Jim Holte:
Farmers are struggling financially across the country, but when you understand how water quality and how conservation impacts us not only today but next year and every year down the road, you understand it’s something we can’t walk away from in difficult financial times.

Marisa Wojcik:
He does concede that agriculture has to take some responsibility for water quality problems in the state.

Jim Holte:
It always has been a contributor and we’re understanding more and more about it now. And were understanding that theyre certainly not the only contributor. Theres other factors.

Marisa Wojcik:
Other factors like human septic systems. But Scott Laeser doesnt put as much stock in that argument.

Scott Laeser:
Last year in Lafayette County we had about a hundred and I believe thirty or forty thousand acres of corn planted.

Marisa Wojcik:
Scott’s looked at the numbers.

Scott Laeser:
So if you do the math on that, you’ve got 22 million pound of nitrogen.

Marisa Wojcik:
And for him, there’s no question.

Scott Laeser:
What that gives us is 4.4 million pounds of nitrogen that is at risk of getting into our groundwater, and 105,000 pounds from septic systems. The majority of that nitrogen is coming from agricultural sources and there are a lot of practices that we know can help mitigate some of that nitrogen loss.

Marisa Wojcik:
Jim Holte agrees that practices like decreasing nitrogen application and no till farming are responsibilities that farmers large or small must take on but he argues they’re already implementing these conservation practices themselves, which is why he’s cautious of broad brush regulations.

Jim Holte:
Enforcement gets to be a tough issue. Yes, if we have regulations that are created with good common sense and good science, we do need to enforce those, yes.

Marisa Wojcik:
Meanwhile, the Speaker’s Task Force on Water Quality is holding hearings across the state, listening to experts and local citizens about the various water quality challenges they’re facing.

Farmer:
As a CAFO, we’ve put the bull’s eye on our back.

Marisa Wojcik:
But there is one thing everyone can agree on.

Jim Holte:
Water quality is important to everybody. It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you’re on.

Ken Bradbury:
Something like water quality, it’s hard for people to be against good water.

Scott Laeser:
More and more citizens in Wisconsin see this issue as a top priority issue. We’re fortunate to have safe drinking water, but now having a daughter has given me a different level of appreciation for the challenges that other people face.

Marisa Wojcik:
For “Here & Now” in Lafayette and Eau Claire Counties, I’m Marisa Wojcik.