The Great Lakes Need Protection, And We All Need A Stronger DNR

Clean Wisconsin staff attorney Melissa Malott raises important questions about Murphy Oil's intentions at its refinery on Lake Superior.

Will a six-fold expansion of refining planned there lead to more pollution of Lake Superior?

Given the company's pollution track record that Malott cites in her Wisconsin State Journal op-ed, the concerns are valid, and they need to be raised and addressed before Murphy Oil is allowed to turn Lake Superior into an industrial dump.

Clean Wisconsin is a Madison-based environmental organization.

WHAT: Flyering at BP stations to let consumers know about BP's dumping plan.
WHEN: Tomorrow! Saturday, August 11, 2007, starting at 1PM
WHERE:
Madison: Wisconsin Environment Office, 122 State Street. Suite 310, Madison, WI 53703, ph. (608) 251-1918
Milwaukee: Outpost Foods, 204 E. Capitol Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53212

You can meet with Wisconsin Environment staff for a short how-to session and then head out from one of our two central locations listed above, or just print the flyer and go to your neighborhood BP station. If you're doing the latter, please let us know when and where.

Location(s)

Lautenschlager Rips State For "Do Nothing" Water Policies

Former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager blasts Wisconsin officials for their "do nothing" policy in the wake of Indiana's permission to British Petroleum allowing its Whiting, IN refinery to increase polluted dumping into Lake Michigan.

Lautenschlager is right about Wisconsin's curious and disappointing silence - - something I had noted on this blog almost two weeks ago.

And Lautenschlager mentions the rush to push Lake Michigan water to some Waukesha County suburbs.

Would it be too much to ask that the DNR do its regulatory job and work aggressively under Matt Frank, the newly-nominated secretary, to keep mass cattle fecal runoff out of Lake Michigan?

An earlier posting about this outrage in Manitowoc County is here.

Or is shoulder-shrugging by the agency in the face of obvious pollution now part of some new, secret DNR mission statement?

Should the entire burden of environmental protection in and around Manitowoc be borne by dedicated volunteer neighbors of these offending large animal operations?

Should sampling and improving Lake Michigan water quality along the lake's eastern shoreline be the responsibility of these activists?

Isn't that why we have a Department of Natural Resources?

I'd recommend that Matt Frank make splash in his new job with a road trip to Manitowoc, then a visit to the woodshed with his new staff, followed by an announcement of action.

And follow-up.

It's been almost five months since then-Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager issued a 20-page opinion on how and when certain Wisconsin communities could apply for permission to divert water from Lake Michigan.

 The ruling barred bureaucrats in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources from administratively approving such a diversion request, and also said efforts in 2006 by the City of Waukesha to ask Gov. Jim Doyle for permission without getting the unanimous consent of the other seven Great Lakes states were also out of bounds.

 You'd think, as hot as this issue is in southeastern Wisconsin, and across the Great Lakes where the first regional test cases for new diversion efforts are brewing, that the AG opinion would be big news.

Nope. Hasn't been reported on in the traditional media, but you can read about it, access the full document and see a Wisconsin law firm's analysis here.