Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network Calls on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to Include Citizens with Polluted Wells on his Water Quality Task Force
Contaminated wells, polluted drinking water, and industrial agriculture are not new issues in rural Wisconsin and are a real crisis for real families.
Robin Vos
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network (SRWN), a coalition of grassroots groups from Wisconsin working to protect their communities from the negative impacts of factory farming, is calling on Speaker Vos to include citizens with wells polluted by nitrates or bacteria on his water quality task force.
Kriss Marion, Lafayette County Supervisor and SRWN member, is alarmed by the recently released groundwater study in Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette counties that found 42% of tested wells were contaminated, “I applaud the Speaker’s decision to finally address the water quality concerns of citizens and community leaders across the state. Citizens and leaders from affected communities must be included on the task force to ensure the voice of victims is heard.”
Contaminated wells, polluted drinking water, and industrial agriculture are not new issues in rural Wisconsin and are a real crisis for real families. From Judge Boldt’s 2014 decision that ‘massive regulatory failure’ contributed to water contamination in Kewaunee County, to the Legislative Audit Bureau’s 2016 report that found the DNR failed to enforce its own pollution rules 94 percent of the time, to the EPA’s recent visit to the Central Sands region to test wells near the Central Sands Dairy CAFO — the evidence is clear: Wisconsin’s elected and regulatory officials are failing to protect rural families and their drinking water.
Mary Dougherty, president of SRWN, is calling on Speaker Vos to include the SRWN coalition on his task force, “We have members from around the state who are faced with a disturbing decision when they turn on their tap for a glass of water — is the water safe or will it make me sick? Citizens are on the frontline of this issue, they are the most impacted, and they belong on Vos’s task force.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
