Open Season On Wetlands Destruction Begins
Menards filling wetlands for new store
3/22/01
With regulatory protection for much of Wisconsin's wetlands eliminated by a 5-4 January U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the state legislature unable to agree on how to restore protections, destruction of this landform has begun with the new building season.

The memo below from the DNR's Robert Rosenberger reveals how Menards, the huge home building supply firm, is again acting as an irresponsible corporate steward.  For a new store in Marinette County, Menards is filling a wetland.  The accompanying photos, taken by Rosenberger, reveal the activity.

Just last year, the company was telling the DNR and the Army Corps that its construction project could be done without destroying the adjacent wetland.  Now, with no regulatory protections in place, Menards has brought in the bulldozers.
[John Menard, the company's wealthy founder, was fined $1.7 million by the DNR in 1997 for violating Wisconsin's environmental laws.  Menard had been hauling garbage bags of hazardous waste to his home for pickup by local garbage haulers.  The bags contained fly ash and bottom ash laced with arsenic and chromium.]
According to Charlie Luthin of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, the Menards wetlands fill is "the tip of the iceberg for wetland destruction this spring."  Luthin says he knows of at least eight other projects on which the Army Corps of Engineers has notified the DNR that the wetland fills fall "outside of their jurisdiction," meaning they are NO LONGER protected by the Corps under the Clean Water Act.

A Wisconsin DNR analysis indicates that the Supreme Court’s ruling threatens up to 80% of Wisconsin’s remaining 5.3 million acres of wetlands (half of all the state's original wetlands have disappeared since the mid-1800's).

In some state counties wetlands are particularly vulnerable.  For example, in Ashland County, 94% (156,797 acres) of its wetlands are now unprotected; Price County’s 257,052 wetland acres number more than any other county and 94% of these are now at risk; in Brown County, 90% (25,495 acres) are unprotected; and 3633 wetland acres in Milwaukee County (83% of the total) have been deregulated.

Says Luthin:  "It's open season on wetlands."

- Will Fantle
- What you can do
 
From:  Rosenberger, Robert (DNR)
Sent:  Tuesday, March 20, 2001 2:41 PM 
To: Cain, Michael J 
Cc:  Vollbrecht, Mary E; Koch, Richard J - DNR; Kazmierczak, Ronald; 
Verhoeven, Charles R; Rossberg, Doug C; Simon, Byron D; Simon, Lois J. 
Subject:  Menards wetland filling 

 

Mike- 
 

I have taken some photographs of the wetland filling that Menards is performing  in the City of Marinette, Marinette County.  I also have reviewed the file and have the following information for you. 
 

Site of Menards wetlands fillOn June 12, 2000 the Corps of Engineers mailed a letter to Mr. Chris Goodwin of Ayres Associates about this property.  Ayres Associates is a consulting firm that assists applicants with development projects.  The letter states that the Corps has reviewed information about a project of Menards to potentially build on a 22 acre parcel that contains isolated wetlands. 

This Corps letter states that the Corps has reviewed the wetland delineation that Ayres performed and that there are 4 isolated wetlands that total 0.68 acres in size on the 22 acre parcel.  This Corps letter concludes that any filling of these wetlands would require a permit from the Corps.

The next correspondence that I have in the file is a letter dated July 20, 2000 from the Corps to Mr. Marv Prochaska, V.P. Real Estate, Menard, Inc.  This letter is in response to information that Menards apparently submitted to the Corps about their plans to construct a Menard's store on this 22 acre parcel which contains 4 isolated wetlands.  This Corps letter states that the proposed work is not within the regulatory jurisdiction of the Corps.  This letter states that the project will not result in the filling of any wetland areas. 

My interpretation of these letters is that Menards identified the locations of wetlands on this 22 acre parcel and designed the construction of the Menards store so that the project would not result in the filling of any wetlands. 

As you know, the US Supreme Court recently issued a decision that limits the jurisdiction of Corps of Engineers, and therefore this Department, to regulate the filling of isolated wetlands. 
 

Filling the wetlands by MenardsOn March 16, 2001 I observed that heavy equipment including bulldozers, draglines and dumptrucks were operating at the Menards site and were in the process of excavating and filling the wetlands at this site.  I took several photographs of the filling.  I returned to the site on March 20, 2001 and took more photographs.  These photographs were taken while I was standing in the adjacent road right of way.

 
It is my understanding that this filling is being performed as a result of the recent US Supreme Court decision.  The Court decision removed jurisdiction from the Corps and this Department to protect the wetlands at this site.

As a Department staff person who is responsible for regulating wetland filling projects, what concerns me most about this wetland filling is that in the year 2000 Menards was able to apparently design a Menards store complex on this 22 acre parcel that did not result in the filling of wetlands.  In the year 2001, as a result of the US Supreme Court decision, Menards apparently decided to change their design plans and has destroyed the 0.68 acres of wetlands on this 22 acre site.
 

Attached are two photographs that I took of this site.  If you have any questions you may contact me at 715/ 582-5041. 

-Robert
- more on wetlands issues

- back to the Wisconsin Stewardship Network home page