Protect state ground water
9:55 PM 3/09/04

The longest journey begins with a single step, goes the proverb. A landmark groundwater protection bill on the verge of passage in the Wisconsin Legislature is just such a step. <

The bill is not perfect. Agricultural interests claim it will drown them in red tape while leaving their crops high and dry. That's an exaggeration. Environmentalists complain that the bill does not go far enough to protect Wisconsin streams, rivers wetlands and lakes as well as the underground aquifers most of us rely on for drinking water. That may be true, but this bill is still better than nothing. <

And nothing is pretty much what Wisconsin had until state Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn, and state Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud, R-Eastman, put their noses to the grindstone. Kedzie chairs the Senate Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, while Johnsrud chairs the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. Together, they tackled an issue that first bubbled to the surface when Perrier tried to drill a high-capacity well and build a water bottling plant four years ago: That Wisconsin's regulation of such wells was at least 40 years out of date. <

The Perrier well, it was revealed, was just one of 9,400 high-capacity wells in the state. The only way the Department of Natural Resources could have blocked such a well was if it would harm a public utility. Harm to trout streams or neighboring farms was not even on the radar screen. <

The current bill, however flawed, is a big step forward. It would let the DNR regulate any high-capacity well within a quarter-mile of any trout stream in the state, as well as wild and scenic rivers. On the downside, trout streams account for only 8 percent of state streams, and wells located near lakes and wetlands remain largely outside the agency's purview. <

The bill also regulates wells that would cause a water loss of more than 95 percent of the water drawn. This provision targets bottling plants, but exempts most agricultural uses. <

The bill also allows urban areas, especially Brown County (Green Bay) and Waukesha County, to overcome what UW-Stevens Point Professor George Kraft calls a "disconnect" between surface water and ground water. Both Green Bay and Waukesha County have what appears to be plenty of water, but in reality their underground aquifers are in serious trouble. Kraft says this bill would help such communities plan development better and protect their supplies of drinking water. <

This is an important bill. In these frenzied final days of legislative activity, lawmakers should make the time to pass it.