Friends of the Jump River

Background: Based on the DNR's 1997 Northern Rivers Initiative, the North Fork of the Jump River ranks in the 87th percentile among northern Wisconsin rivers and the headwaters segment of the Jump River ranks in the 97th percentile. This river is home to numerous state-listed sensitive and threatened mussel, turtle, and dragonfly species, as well as trout and sturgeon.

The Friends of the Jump River formed in 2000, and have been trying to influence the proposed construction of the Catawba-Kennan Sewage Treatment Plant in Price County. In December of 2001, they submitted comments to the DNR outlining how the proposed Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit for this facility failed to protect the water quality of the Jump River. The DNR issued the permit in early 2002.

On March 29, 2002, Midwest Environmental Advocates (along with attorney Marc Melnick) filed a Petition for an Adjudicatory Hearing challenging the reasonableness of various term of the WPDES permit. We filed this action on behalf of the Friends of the Jump River and the River Alliance of Wisconsin. We argue that the permit restrictions fail to maintain the water quality of the Jump River, in violation of both state and federal Anti-degradation Policy of the Clean Water Act.

On April 22, 2004 , Midwest Environmental Advocates scored a victory for water quality in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. The court decided that river protection groups can argue that the DNR's "default" water quality category is inconsistent with the federal Clean Water Act and state law because it ignores the high water quality of some rivers in Wisconsin .  This would allow Midwest Environmental Advocates to argue that the DNR is required to recognize the high water quality of rivers like the North Fork of the Jump River prior to allowing discharges of pollution into it.

Status: After wining in the Court of Appeals, Friends of the Jump River recognized that there were hundreds of more rivers than just the North Fork of the Jump that needed protection from sewage discharges and other sources of pollution. Rather than continue to spend time and effort in Court on just one river, Friends of the Jump River voluntarily dismissed its case in favor of petitioning the DNR to list up to 433 river segments (including the North Fork) as Exceptional Resource Waters or Outstanding Resource Waters under Wisconsin law. In doing so, Friends of the Jump River joined 43 other conservation groups in their fight for protecting northern Wisconsin's pristine rivers.