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As a member of the Wisconsin Salt Wise Coalition, Milwaukee Riverkeeper supports several state bills (SB 52 and AB 61) that would create a deicing applicator certification program through WDNR. The program is based on the existing contractor training that we help provide. These bills would provide some liability protection for snow removal professionals that are trained in best practices for protecting public safety and water quality. Both bills have passed out of committee and we’d like to see them come to the floor for a vote. Please contact your lawmakers and let them know that reducing salt in our waterways protects water quality, aquatic life, drinking water supplies, and infrastructure. Find contact information for your lawmakers and some template language below.
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Support Changes to SB 312 That Remove Polluter Loophole in PFAS Cleanup Bill
The health of Wisconsinites in over 120 communities across the state is at risk due to PFAS, a class of highly-toxic, human-made chemicals tied to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, increased risk of thyroid disease, and other impairments. In our watershed, PFAS has been detected widely in river water, sediments, fish, and wastewater, as well as in the drinking water supplies of West Bend, Milwaukee, Saukville, Cedarburg, Brookfield, Germantown, Sheboygan, South Milwaukee, and Grafton.
Governor Evers signed the biennial budget and $125 million has been allocated to a PFAS cleanup trust fund. However, legislation must be passed to ensure that funding can be distributed quickly and efficiently to communities through grant programs. Additionally, the current draft includes a polluter loophole that limits WDNR’s authority to test for contamination, begin remediation, and hold polluters accountable for the messes they create. These limitations also undermine Wisconsin’s Spills Law, which is Wisconsin’s number one tool for protecting communities from dangerous chemicals like PFAS.
Please contact your legislators and ask them to support changes to SB 312 that ensure funds can be distributed equitably and efficiently to impacted communities, without undermining long-term remediation efforts that are protected under Wisconsin’s spills law. If the polluter loophole in SB 312 is not removed, we will oppose it. Contact information for your legislators can be found below.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has been pivotal in protecting threatened and endangered species and keeping iconic species like bald eagles, gray whales, and wolves from disappearing, as well as many less iconic species of plants and wildlife. Sadly, the Trump Administration rolled back many key components of the ESA. While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have begun to reverse a few of these rollbacks-including restoring some protections for threatened species and re-instating the separation between species listing decisions and economic evaluations-they have left many damaging policies in place. We face an extinction crisis in the US and worldwide with the possible loss of 1 million species in the next few decades due to climate change, habitat loss, and pollution. We need to make the ESA as strong as possible and urge the UFWS and NOAA to revoke the Trump rules in their entirety. All of life is connected—if we lose plants, insects, invertebrates, and other wildlife at the bottom of the food chain, we will also lose mussels, fish, and mammals dependent on aquatic life including us! Please send your comments in by August 21st. You can also contact your federal legislators to tell them you support restoring full ESA protections and urge them to support the “Recovering America's Wildlife Act”, which would finally give the USFWS the funding that it needs to list and recover at-risk species throughout the country.
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This year is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has been pivotal in protecting threatened and endangered species and keeping iconic species like bald eagles, gray whales, and wolves from disappearing, as well as many less iconic species of plants and wildlife. Sadly, the Trump Administration rolled back many key components of the ESA. While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have begun to reverse a few of these rollbacks-including restoring some protections for threatened species and re-instating the separation between species listing decisions and economic evaluations-they have left many damaging policies in place. We face an extinction crisis in the US and worldwide with the possible loss of 1 million species in the next few decades due to climate change, habitat loss, and pollution. We need to make the ESA as strong as possible and urge the UFWS and NOAA to revoke the Trump rules in their entirety. All of life is connected—if we lose plants, insects, invertebrates, and other wildlife at the bottom of the food chain, we will also lose mussels, fish, and mammals dependent on aquatic life including us! Please send your comments in by August 21st. You can also contact your federal legislators to tell them you support restoring full ESA protections and urge them to support the “Recovering America's Wildlife Act”, which would finally give the USFWS the funding that it needs to list and recover at-risk species throughout the country.
More information can be found at Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants | Proposed Rule