Gray Wolves
As wolves recover, calls in Wisconsin to end endangered species listing grow
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Conflicts with farmers and hunters continue as the state’s wolf population has risen from extinction in 1960 to more than 900 animals today.
Environment
Former DNR employee: Staff pressured to OK Kohler golf course on rare Wisconsin wetlands and state park
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A golf course proposed by Kohler Co. along the Lake Michigan shore was approved by the state Department of Natural Resources — despite serious concerns by DNR staff about its potential impact on rare habitat.
Failure at the Faucet
‘Regulatory vacuum’ exposes Wisconsin children to lead in drinking water at schools, day care centers
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Gaps in federal drinking water standards enforced by the state leave numerous school and day care sites untested for lead in drinking water; numerous lead service lines remain.
Blogs
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism stands by story on lead testing protocols after DNR request for corrections
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Nine months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned against flushing water systems before testing for lead, the state DNR had not passed that advice on to public water systems in Wisconsin. Our story examined that delay.
Failure at the Faucet
Wisconsin DNR fails to update lead testing guidance in wake of Flint crisis
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Nine months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned against flushing water systems before testing for lead, the state Department of Natural Resources has not yet passed that advice on to public water systems in Wisconsin.
Failure at the Faucet
Wisconsin must do more to protect residents from lead in drinking water, DNR and Milwaukee leaders agree
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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett acknowledges adding anti-corrosive chemicals, the main strategy to prevent lead in drinking water, is a “Band-Aid” approach.
Failure at the Faucet
Lead pipes, antiquated law threaten Wisconsin’s drinking water quality
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Experts, and even some regulators, say existing laws are failing to protect Wisconsin and the nation from harmful exposure to lead in drinking water that leaches from aging plumbing — a danger illustrated by the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Failure at the Faucet
Despite state efforts, arsenic continues to poison many private wells in Wisconsin
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An ancient poison that was detected in the late 1980s in Wisconsin’s drinking water persists despite state regulations designed to eliminate it. High-capacity wells can exacerbate the problem.
Failure at the Faucet
Costs, water pollution remain at closed Badger Army Ammunition Plant
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Decades of toxic waste disposal at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant — including pouring millions of gallons a day of polluted water into Lake Wisconsin — have contaminated some nearby residents’ drinking water and raised concerns about the long-term effects on their health. But help may be on the way.
Failure at the Faucet
Nitrate in water widespread, current rules no match for it
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Levels of nitrate, one of the Wisconsin’s top drinking water contaminants, are increasing. Nitrate comes primarily from fertilizers, including manure, and puts infants and expectant mothers particularly at risk. A projected 94,000 households are drinking private well water with unsafe levels of nitrate. And many of them don’t even know it since few private well owners conduct regular testing.
Science in Government
Wisconsin DNR mulls dissolving science bureau
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Internal correspondence obtained by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism confirms discussions about the possible dismantling of the bureau and a reorganization that would move researchers into other agency divisions.
Critics, both inside and outside the agency, say such a reorganization would rob the state of impartial science that should guide critical natural resource management decisions.
public health
In state’s karst area, even good farming may pollute groundwater
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Two new studies of private well water in Kewaunee County have linked contamination to fertilizer, livestock manure and human waste. “In these shallow bedrock areas, what you put on the surface, you will end up drinking eventually,” county conservationist Andy Wallander said.