Cleaning Up Dirty Waters

Some waters are not fishable or swimmable. This may be from a combination of “point sources” of pollution (like pollution regulated under WPDES permits and urban stormwater runoff) and “nonpoint sources” of pollution (like agricultural and lawn fertilizer runoff). Every lake in Wisconsin has a “fish consumption advisory” that advises you to limit your consumption of certain fish caught from those lakes because they are contaminated with mercury.

The Clean Water Act requires Wisconsin to put all of the polluted waters in Wisconsin on a list known as the 303(d) list, named after that section of the Clean Water Act. Wisconsin has listed approximately 650 rivers, streams, lakes, and beaches in Wisconsin as not meeting basic water quality standards. To view a map of all of the waters officially listed as “polluted” in Wisconsin, click here.

Over the past several years, MEA has been successful in identifying 40 new polluted waters to be placed on the list for clean-up. Click here to review MEA’s comments on Wisconsin ’s 2002 and 2004 303(d) lists.

The completeness of the 303(d) list depends on how many rivers and lakes the DNR has monitored. As of 2002, Wisconsin had only monitored 9,199 stream miles of the 84,474 stream miles in the state. In other words, only 11% of all of Wisconsin ’s waters have been monitored. Therefore, only 11% of the Wisconsin ’s stream miles are eligible for inclusion on the 303(d) list. Unfortunately, the DNR lacks the data and resources to know whether more waters should be added.

For those rivers and lakes that are listed as officially polluted, the DNR is required to prepare clean up plans called Total Maximum Daily Loads, or TMDLs.  A TMDL is simply a calculation of the total amount of pollution a waterbody can withstand without violation water quality standards. Technically speaking, a TMDL is defined as the sum of “waste load allocations” for point source discharges like WPDES permit holders and “load allocations” for nonpoint sources like agricultural runoff. A waste load allocation is the portion of a lake or river’s pollutant loading capacity that is reserved for an existing or future WPDES permit. A load allocation is for nonpoint sources, and is the portion of a lake or river’s pollutant loading capacity from runoff, or from natural background sources of pollution.

Despite that the Clean Water Act has been in effect for more than 30 years, the DNR has prepared clean up TMDLs for only a fraction of all of the polluted waters in Wisconsin. In early 2005, DNR staff said it would cost $7.5 million over 15 years (or $500,000 per year) to monitor all waters polluted by contaminants other than polychlorinated biphenols (“pcb’s”) and mercury, and then to complete TMDLs for those waters.

Unfortunately, Wisconsin legislators have refused to allocate funds to clean up polluted waters. And, DNR staff say that staff levels are inadequate and that “few WDNR staff with the necessary professional training are available in the state to” prepare clean-up plans. State funds to support laboratory work are “non-existent,” etc.

Click here to read more about DNR’s current process in developing a TMDL for the Rock River and its tributaries.

Click here to learn about DNR’s plans to develop a TMDL for the Lower Fox River and Green Bay.