Letter: Oversight matters on water quality issues
To the Editor-
To the Portage County Board of Supervisors and other impacted parties:
It was quite a packed room last night at the Land and Water Conservation Committee meeting, where Lisa Doerr from Polk County presented to the committee the concept of an Operations Ordinance. These ordinances have been passed in three counties and seven towns so far, with one town rescinding the ordinance after the board flipped following an election. These ordinances are legal and provide some accountability and assurance that plans are in place to protect areas around these large facilities. You can find these examples at https://protectyourtown.org. These ordinances are not an attack on farmers, and many non-industrial ag farmers in these communities support the ordinances. It is truly bipartisan.
There were lobbyists at the meeting from Venture Dairy’s Kim Bremmer, who previously tried to dissuade our county board from funding monitoring wells in Nelsonville; DBA Edge, Dairy Business Association (“We focus on advocating to advance the dairy industry at the state level. DBA represents more than 250,000 cows in Wisconsin and has over 650 members,” according to the website), Erin Tomasik; and the president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, Brad Olson, who is leading the effort to make these ordinances illegal in the state. Sarah Byl, Lisa Doerr’s neighbor, spoke against her and the ordinance. For context, her father previously owned her medium-sized dairy farm and was convicted of illegal dumping into a wetland in 2018. Her sister is the person who filed the lawsuit against the Town of Eureka. Know who these people are and why they came to Portage County.
Please don’t forget why oversight matters. Erin Brockovich wrote a book called Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We The People Can Do About It. In Nelsonville, and all of Portage County, we’ve experienced some of the worst water quality in the state. This is no laughing matter. Imagine if Nelsonville’s water flowed from your tap and the onus was on you to protect your family. When we first found out about the contamination, we wrongly assumed that county government and the DNR would step in and protect us. They did not.
This is the time for the county board to act to protect our drinking water. You may not be Superman, but to us, we need you because this is how local communities get protection. The county is mandated through Statute 92.02 to protect and reverse the contamination of waters of the state. This will take courage from all of the county’s supervisors. But it’s the law.
Thank you for your time and continued attention on drinking water pollution. It’s time to act.
Lisa Anderson
Nelsonville