League of Wisconsin Municipalities
Dan Thompson, executive director, (608) 267-2380

Madison — Six groups have filed a lawsuit against a state Department of Commerce rule to permit new kinds of private septic systems in environmentally sensitive areas of Wisconsin, charging that the agency overstepped its authority in adopting the rule.

The League of Wisconsin Municipalities was joined by the Racine County town of Caledonia,  Citizens for a Better Environment, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, the River Alliance of Wisconsin and the wastewater division of the Municipal Environmental Group in filing the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court against the rule known as Comm 83.

"This rule could be the catalyst for the greatest explosion of sprawl we've ever seen in Wisconsin.  It could also represent the greatest threat to ground water that the state has ever seen," said Menasha Mayor Joseph Laux, president of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.

Susan Mudd, state director of Citizens for a Better Environment, said the 1983 Ground Water Management Act was intended to protect public health and underground drinking water resources.

"This rule turns back the progress of the last 17 years," she said.

Tom Miller of Waupaca, board chairman of the River Alliance of Wisconsin, said there is no data available on what Comm 83 could do to the ground water.

"We're moving too fast," he said.  "The Legislature and others could have put this on the slow track.  Instead they put it on the fast track."

"The rule should be sidetracked at least until communities have time to plan for increased development pressure under the new Smart Growth law," said David Cieslewicz, executive director of 1000 Friends.

The rule would allow new technologies to supplant conventional septic systems and "mound" systems in areas where either the groundwater or bedrock is too close to the surface to allow conventional systems to work.  It would open an estimated 8.9 million acres — more than one-fourth of Wisconsin's land area — to development.

"Environmentalists feel that the technology is still untested in Wisconsin," said Caryl Terrell, of the Sierra Club's John Muir Chapter, which supports the lawsuit but did not join as a plaintiff.  "We're concerned about the impact on drinking water supplies."

The lawsuit asserts that the Department of Commerce rule would encourage development beyond the reach of municipal sanitary sewers, speed the loss of Wisconsin's agricultural land, increase air pollution, threaten the habitat of endangered species and encourage the spread of water-borne bacteria harmful to humans.

The agency's rule was developed without regard to standards aimed at protecting the public health and purity of ground water, and its environmental impact statement on the rule did not take into account the effects of  the new, flexible regulatory philosophy the rule represents, the lawsuit adds.  In the absence of court action, the rule would take effect July 1.

The lawsuit seeks temporary and permanent injunctions against the lawsuit, as well as reimbursement for the costs of bringing the issue to court.