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Speak-up for the Great
Lakes
Citizens
can attend Great Lakes Management
Initiative Official Hearings Sept 28 - Oct 6
The Great Lakes are one of the
natural wonders of the world. This world-class resource deserves world class
protection.
Between now and October
18th is the best opportunity for Wisconsinites to express the value of the
Great Lakes and comment on an important agreement that will change the way
water is protected in Wisconsin. You can your voice heard by attending one of the 4 Wisconsin
hearings, by submitting written comments, or by signing on to an E-letter on
the website below.
For hearing dates See
information about the Hearing
Schedule
For more information on this important subject see
Clean Wisconsin's website: http://cleanwisconsin.org/campaigns/greatLakes.html
You can contact Governor Doyle at 608.266.1212 or
governor@wisconsin.gov. More details and a prewritten letter to Governor Doyle,
can be found at http://www.cleanwisconsin.org/campaigns/doyle_GL_letter.html
You can also Sign a letter to the Council of
Great Lakes Governors asking for improvements to the Compact.
For more information,
the Initiative Documents are
available at:
www.speakongreatlakes.org and www.cleanwisconsin.org/campaigns/greatLakes.html
Read
the Clean Wisconsin Press Release:
Clean Wisconsin Highlights Great Lakes
Compact Strengths & Weaknesses
Environmental
organizations invited to
join the 4th Annual UW-Oshkosh Earth Charter
Community Summit Oct 2-9
The theme this year is WATER. While activities are planned throughout the week
of October 2-9 including Fun on
the Fox” on Saturday October 9, 2004. This community festival will
take place along the Fox River from 10 am to 4 pm. Planned activities will
focus on children, families, and community, including introductory kayaking,
fishing, hands-on science, exhibits, music, and food.
For
more information and registration
form
See Earth
Charter Oshkosh 2004
See
the Summit
Flyer
Wolf Watershed Educational
Project
Meeting on nuclear waste
Saturday
October 9 in Shawano
From: Midwest Treaty Network <zoltan@igc.org>
THE Wolf Watershed Educational Project (WWEP)
will meet on Saturday
October 9 in Shawano at 10 am-3 pm.The meeting will be at 125 South Sawyer, in the Community Center
at the SW corner of the City Hall/Police Building, across from the
Public Library, just south of Hwy 47/29. Thanks to Protect Our
Wolf River (POW’R) for hosting the meeting. We can talk about
helping Mole Lake with the Wolf River Protection Fund:
http://www.wolfriverprotectionfund.org/
Robert Halstead and
Cassandra Dixon have been
invited to speak to the WWEP and the public/media
about the threat of a high-level radioactive waste dump in the
granite bedrock of the Wolf River Batholith. In 1985, the U.S.
Department of Energy identified the Batholith as a
“Proposed Potentially Acceptable Site” for an underground
repository. By 2007, the USDoE needs to designate a new
dump to replace the Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada,
which will run out of capacity in 2037.
Robert Halstead was senior policy analyst for the
Wisconsin Radioactive Waste Review Board
in the 1980s, and today is Transportation Advisor to the
Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Cassandra Dixon
is a longtime WI anti-nuclear organizer with Nukewatch.
The Wolf River Batholith underlies much of Shawano,
Menominee, Waupaca, Langlade and Oconto counties.
Wolf Watershed Educational Project
www.treatyland.com
Hotline: 800-445-8615
Bush Administration Directs Agencies to Ignore Clean Water Act
Using a back-door route to deregulation, the Bush administration has removed
clean water protections for 20 million acres of American wetlands and tens of
thousands of miles of streams, lakes and ponds, according to documents obtained
through the federal Freedom of Information Act. The documents, used to produce the report "Reckless Abandon: How the Bush
Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm," outline the consequences
of a 2003 federal policy directive that encourages regulators to routinely avoid
enforcing Clean Water Act protections for American rivers, lakes, streams and
wetlands unless otherwise directed.
The report was produced by nonprofit environmental groups Earthjustice, the National Wildlife
Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra
Club. It can be found online at www.cwn.org.
Direct
link to "Reckless
Abandon: How the Bush Administration
is Exposing America's Waters
to Harm" (PDF)
Keep Track of Imperiled Waters in Your Area!
From:
cleanwaternetwork@list.cwn.org; jklein@nrdc.org
The Army Corps of Engineers recently ordered its district offices to
begin posting to the internet, information on all instances in which they
havedeclined to extend Clean Water Act protections to various water
bodies.
Most districts have complied with this directive and are now making public
a brief data form on each "non jurisdictional determination" (NJD).
While
the data form leaves much to be desired in terms of providing useful
information on whether the decision not to regulate was legally sound or not, it
does, for the first time, provide the public with an opportunity to see
what waters are being left vulnerable to pollution and destruction -- and
to second guess those decisions.
The Clean Water Network has collected links to all of the Corps
District lists of NJDs currently available. These are provided in the
attached document. Use this resource to monitor what waters your local Corps
district is declining to protect.
TAKE ACTION!
- Watchdog your local Corps district. Get on their website periodically
and look at the decisions being made not to protect waters in your area.
- Consider calling the office for more information or visit sites
yourself to see if the Corps made the right decision (note that many officer's
decisions not to regulate are made without ever even making a site visit
- this information is provided on the data form).
- Note that all waters that are connected to navigable waters (even
through very circuitous connections) should still be protected.
- All waters that are navigable (can float a canoe) should still be
protected.
- All waters that cross a state, foreign, or tribal boundary should still
be protected.
- And even waters that don't meet any of the above conditions are
likely still protected if they support any of the following: interstate
recreation, extraction of fish or shellfish sold outside the state,
extraction of water for industrial purposes or
irrigation, or endangered species.
If you feel that the Corps has made a mistake in stripping Clean Water
Act protections from certain waters, invite your local media and state
and federal lawmakers down to these waters and show them what the
President's policy directive is doing to waters in your/their state.
For more information and support contact Josh Klein at (202) 289-2421
or jklein@nrdc.org
See
the list of NJDs (PDF)
Public invited to comment on environmental assessment for proposed
stormwater detention pond in Delafield by September 23
The City of Delafield has requested approval from the
Department of Natural Resources to construct a regional stormwater detention
basin on the former Charles Dix property, 2222 Milwaukee St.
For
more information See
the WDNR Announcement
DNR seeks
comments on Hilbert wastewater plant by September 25
The
village has requested permission from the state Department of Natural Resources
to improve its wastewater treatment facility.
Plans call for the construction of a permanent belt press to dewater sludge
and a new tank to store dewatered sludge. Hilbert temporarily is operating a
trailer-mounted belt press.
The project is estimated at $254,000 and will be paid for by existing funds.
Public comments must be received by Sept. 25; mail to Mulazim Nasir, Bureau
of Watershed Management, Department of Natural Resources, Box 7921, Madison, WI
53707; or phone 608-267-7627.
See
article from Appleton
Post-Crescent
Nominate your endangered river for
the 2005 America's Most Endangered
Rivers report, to be released in April 2005.
Deadline for nominations is October 1, 2004.
Each year, the America's Most Endangered Rivers report shines a
national spotlight on local rivers facing the most uncertain futures.
Get
your nomination forms (PDF)
Go
to the American Rivers announcement
Stewardship
Fund applications available - Deadline for Application is October 15, 2004
Applications for the 2004 Stewardship Fund Grant are now available
from Sheboygan County’s Planning and Resource Department, room 335 of the
Administration Building, 508 New York Avenue or on the Internet at
www.co.sheboygan.wi.us
Read
the Sheboygan Press Article
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