Red tide is always bad. Global warming is making it worse, researcher says

A chain reaction started in Europe about 260 years ago, thousands of miles from Florida, and the effect — climate change — is now punishing Manatee County, especially when it comes to red tide.

Scientists and entrepreneurs met at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee to discuss climate change on Friday. Among them was Robert Corell, a principal at the Global Environment Technology Foundation.

“It began in England with the discovery that we can take coal and we can make energy out of it,” Corell said. “We can build the future of humankind in a way that had never been thought of before.”

Harmful emissions spiked dramatically at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Scientists know that, he said, because they measure greenhouse gases that were captured in ice — a time capsule of the atmosphere.

A similar increase is true for the world’s population, which grew from less than one billion people in 1751, to about 7.7 billion people in 2019.

The speakers outlined rising sea levels, worsening hurricanes and suffering industries. They also highlighted a familiar problem in Manatee County: severe, prolonged cycles of red tide.

As a resident of Longboat Key, the recent blooms were personal for Lenny Landau. He pointed to vacant restaurants and canceled hotel reservations, along with the dead fish and respiratory irritation that comes with red tide.

Blooms of red tide are a risk to the environment, public health and the economy.

“If somebody was at war with the state of Florida and they wanted a weapon to come after us, it’s clear that red tide would be perfect, because red tide impacts everything,” he said.

Landau prefaced his speech by saying he was an engineer, not a scientist, though both are motivated by curiosity and problem solving.

He studied red tide for several months and concluded that rising sea levels would eventually be a local concern. However, through the work of another researcher, his focus shifted to red tide.

“I know about sea rise,” he said. “It doesn’t affect me right today, but red tide affects all of us today or tomorrow.”

Florida’s red tide originates from a microscopic organism, Karenia brevis, which occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the only organism of its kind, mainly because it leads to dead fish, shellfish poisoning and human respiratory irritation, according to Friday’s presentation.

“There is no other organism in the world that does all three,” Landau said. “When you hear about red tide in Boston or someplace else, this is not it. It’s different — this is our red tide.”

A problem begins when nutrients are pulled from deep below the Gulf. They move up a continental shelf before traveling near the ocean’s surface, alongside the red tide algae.

And while the algae is already fed by nutrients in the Gulf, it finds more nourishment near the shoreline. Red tide is fed by wastewater leaks, spills or dumps, along with fertilizers and stormwater runoff.

So how does climate change affect red tide once it arrives at Manatee’s shoreline? Red tide often appears in late summer and then fades by early winter, but the cycle is changing.

“You’d have a bloom, it goes away, people forget about it — that’s it,” Landau said. “In my opinion, we’re at a point where we have to do something. If we don’t, some of these things are going to be long term.”

Cold water usually wards off the algae before tourists arrive, he said, but warmer temperatures made a suitable home for red tide. As a result, red tide bloomed in the fall of 2017 and then extended through 2018 and into this year.

“Red tide is impacted by climate change, not because the water is getting warmer, but because it isn’t getting cold enough,” Landau continued.

Little was known about the relationship between climate change and red tide. Facing a lack of information or support, Landau encountered a sense of hopelessness, but he ignored the naysayers and carried out his research.

Some ideas are overwhelming. For example, he said, it’s not clear how locals would address the flow of iron-rich dust clouds from Africa to Florida, which may feed red tide.

But other solutions are more realistic for Manatee County and its neighboring communities. Some organizations are working on new or refined technology, including Mote Marine Laboratory, in Sarasota.

In the meantime, residents can focus on voicing their concerns, reducing the use of fertilizer or curbing sewage and stormwater runoff. The ultimate goal is to starve red tide and lessen its impact.

“It occurs naturally,” Landau said. “We’re not going to argue with that. However, climate change is enabling it to be here year-round, and man-caused pollution is fueling it.”

“It occurs naturally,” Landau said. “We’re not going to argue with that. However, climate change is enabling it to be here year-round, and man-caused pollution is fueling it.”

Source: https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article225072815.html

Newsom’s New ‘Water Tax’ Poses Test for California GOP

GOP activists say they will target vulnerable Democrats to prevent super-majority passage

California Republicans are gearing up to target several vulnerable Democratic state legislators in an effort to block Democratic governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed new tax on drinking water.

In his budget blueprint released two weeks into his tenure as governor, Newsom said he planned to create a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” to help poor communities clean up contaminated water systems.

Supporters say the new tax would only cost each residential water customer 95 cents per month in an effort to raise $110 million a year for the fund.

Opponents counter that improvements for water systems in specific communities around the state shouldn’t require a new tax, especially when the state already has a $14.8 million budget surplus and has the highest state tax burden in the country.

Even though California Democrats won big at the polls in November, passing a new water tax is not a slam dunk in the legislature because state law requires a two-thirds supermajority vote to impose a new tax law, and recent efforts to levy new taxes across the state for water initiatives have failed.

Former governor Jerry Brown tried to push the water tax through the legislature last year, but the effort sparked protests from segments of the agricultural community and the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA).

The ACWA represents more than 400 water districts. Brown tried to turn the program into a voluntary tax, but that effort also failed.

Democrats regained the super-majority in the legislature by stacking up big wins in November, making it easier to pass new taxes. Still, in that same election, California voters rejected an $8.9 billion proposed water bond expected to generate a $500 million fund for clean drinking water.

California Republicans and conservative activists are girding to battle a number of new tax hikes with Newsom at the helm and a Democratic super-majority in the state legislature.

Already, they helped put a halt to a proposed tax on text messages in the state that angered Silicon Valley. They are also beginning to fight an expected Democratic effort to repeal the state’s decades-old Proposition 13, which would dramatically increase property taxes.

Carl DeMaio, a radio talk show host and the chairman of Reform America, a conservative group that unsuccessfully targeted the state’s latest gas-tax hike last year, said the new water tax may appear as a modest new tax on consumers, but it’s just one element of Newsom’s multi-pronged plan to raise a number of taxes on California residents.

“I warned you this was coming: Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a massive water tax! Yes, in addition to the cost of water charged on your utility bill, you will now be taxes for wanting to drink water,” DeMaio told supporters in a recent email.

“We must fight this—or more bizarre tax hikes will surely be added,” he wrote. “The water tax is on top of the [texting] tax and gas-tax hikes. And Sacramento politicians are supporting a repeal of Prop 13 on the 2020 ballot to hike property taxes too.”

DeMaio said he plans to launch a campaign to stop the water tax by targeting several vulnerable state legislators in an effort to “bring maximum pressure to block this ridiculous tax.”

Newsom, during a budget press conference earlier this month, cited figures he said showed that roughly 1 million Californians don’t have access to safe drinking water.

A McClatchy investigation in 2018 found that 360,000 Californians rely on water that does not meet state standards for toxins and that 6 million Californians get their drinking water from water companies that have violated state standards at least one time since 2012.

“That is a disgrace,” Newsom said at a budget press conference.

He followed up with a visit to the Central Valley where he discussed the issue directly with residents who have experienced problems with their drinking water.

“We met with resident who cannot drink or bath with the water in their homes—while paying more for it than those in Beverly Hills,” Newsom tweeted Jan. 11th.

ACWA Deputy Executive Cindy Tuck tried to clarify that only a small percentage of California residents do not have safe drinking water, something she agreed was an “unacceptable reality.”

“ACWA believes that making access to safe drinking water for all Californians should be a top priority for the state,” she said in a statement. “However, a statewide water tax is highly problematic and is not necessary when alternative funding solutions exist and the state has a huge budget surplus.”

Tuck said she wants to work with Newsom, his administration and the legislature and other stakeholders on “finding a solution that does not impose a statewide water tax.”

The vast majority of Californians with unsafe drinking water are located in the Southern Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert, the McClatchy investigation found.

Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association also argues that any effort to address to improve drinking water for specific communities in California should draw on the state’s budget surplus.

Coupal has called Newsom’s proposal an example of “California’s knee-jerk reaction to default to a new tax whenever there’s a problem.”

Steve Frank, a candidate for California Republican Party chairman, said Republicans in the state need to drive home the message that Democrats are continuously looking for new tax revenue streams.

Even though the state’s Republican party collected $34 million in the last election cycle, the most money raised by any single state party, Democrat or Republican, California Republicans still lacked any type of coherent message, Frank said.

“There was none,” he said. “If you don’t have a message, you don’t get the people to vote.”

Newsom’s new flurry of new tax proposals should help spur Republicans into action if they are serious about regaining their footing and resurrecting their organization and focusing their messaging, he added.

“Are you aware that Gavin Newsom wants to tax you on your water?” Frank asked in a recent interview with the Ventura County Reporter. “That’s just one example of the overreach of the Democrat party, and that the Republican party needs to point out to folks. Every time they see a bottle of water, they should be seeing a Democrat and a tax, and that’s our responsibility.”

Source: https://freebeacon.com/politics/newsoms-new-water-tax-poses-test-for-california-gop/

This reformed ‘club rat’ has raised millions for clean water projects

Scott Harrison describes himself as the quintessential prodigal son.

At 18, he left his conservative Christian home in New Jersey for New York City, where he became a nightclub promoter. There, he led a life of excessive drinking and drugs, model girlfriends and Rolex watches.

“It led to a life that looked good on the outside, but was rotting on the inside,” Harrison tells CNN’s Poppy Harlow in a recent episode of Boss Files. “There had been a betrayal, a departure from any sort of spirituality or morality or virtue that I had held onto as a child. And I thankfully had this moment, at 28 years old, where I came to my senses and said ‘Oh my gosh, I’m the worst person that I know.’”

Harrison — who is now 43 and the founder and CEO of charity: water which has raised more than $360 million for clean water projects — says it made him think about his legacy.

“If I continued down this path, there was a good chance that I would die before 40. I mean, if I had just partied like this, I may not make another 12 years. My tombstone might actually read: ‘Here lies a club rat that got a million people wasted.’”

That’s when he had an epiphany: What if he sold everything and just started over?

Harrison decided to spend a year volunteering and submitted applications to the Peace Corps, UNICEF, American Red Cross, Oxfam International and other organizations. But he didn’t have the proper experience and was denied by all of them.

So he paid $500 a month to join Mercy Ships, a nonprofit that operates floating hospitals and offers health care and other services to communities in need.

Harrison joined Mercy Ships on a trip to war-torn Liberia and ended up spending two years in West Africa as a photojournalist, documenting the work of the organization’s doctors, surgeons and nurses in the field.

“I would go into the villages, I would see kids drinking out of swamps. There’s really no other way to say it: green, algae filled, disgusting standing water. And children would leave their homes with these buckets, or these jerrycans and they would fill them up, and I would watch kids drink water that I wouldn’t have let my dog drink,” Harrison recalls.

During this time, Harrison met Dr. Gary Parker, a surgeon who explained to him how much clean water could help the world. “He said… ‘water makes more people on this planet sick than all the wars, all the violence combined… sure, you can help us fund the next $50 or $60 million dollar ship, or you could give everybody clean water.’”

Parker inspired Harrison to found charity: water, a nonprofit that brings clean water to millions of people in developing nations.

“There are 663 million people today living without clean water, effectively drinking disgusting dirty water that risks their lives and the lives of their children. That’s one in ten people alive, and we think that number should be zero… that’s the beauty of water, it’s a solvable problem,” Harrison says.

Getting the message out

Harrison launched charity: water at a nightclub on his 31st birthday.

“I lured my friends there with [an] open bar, and said, ‘On your way in, you’ve got to donate $20, and we’re going to go build a couple water projects and I’ll show you the proof of this.’ And that was really the start.”

Since its launch in 2006, more than one million people have donated to charity: water’s cause. The organization has funded more than 30,000 clean water projects in 26 countries, giving nearly 10 million people access to clean water.

The organization allocates 100% of public donations directly to fund clean water projects, says Harrison.

“I thought if we could promise that 100% of every donation would always go directly to help people get clean water, it would take the most common objection off the table,” he says.

Private financing and partnerships with businesses and foundations help pay for the organization’s operating costs like salaries and office space.

One key to charity: water’s success is the ability to tell its story via social media, Harrison says. The nonprofit uses crowdfunding to build and fix wells and broadcasts footage of the work it’s doing in villages on its web site and on Facebook.

Harrison’s work has caught people’s attention. In 2014, President Obama invited him to the National Prayer Breakfast and highlighted his life and work. “That’s the kind of promoting we need more. That’s the kind of faith that moves mountains,” Obama said.

“Regardless of whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, or you’re a Jew, a Christian, an atheist, a Muslim, a Mormon, it doesn’t matter what you might differ on religiously or politically,” Harrison says. “People can come together and agree on clean water.”

Harrison says he wants to continue to grow the venture. Last year, he launched The Spring, a subscription service for people who want to make regular donations of $60 a month.

Harrison also recently published a book, “Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World.” Looking at what he’s accomplished so far, he acknowledges his experience promoting nightclubs actually helped him tell charity: water’s story today.

“I actually look at it like I’m inviting people to a party. I’m inviting people, um, to come past … There is no velvet rope. I had the doors open for anybody. But come to this party where you give of yourself generously and you see the impact of that gift,” he says.

Source: https://fox2now.com/2019/01/21/this-reformed-club-rat-has-raised-millions-for-clean-water-projects/

The Dirty Truth About Turning Seawater Into Drinking Water

As countries in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere struggle to find enough freshwater to meet demand, they’re increasingly turned to the ocean. Desalination plants, located in 177 countries, can help turn seawater into freshwater. Unfortunately, these plants also produce a lot of waste—more waste, in fact, than water for people to drink.

A paper published Monday by United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment, and Health in the journal Science of the Total Environment found that desalination plants globally produce enough brine—a salty, chemical-laden byproduct—in a year to cover all of Florida in nearly a foot of it. That’s a lot of brine.

In fact, the study concluded that for every liter of freshwater a plant produces, 0.4 gallons (1.5 liters) of brine are produced on average. For all the 15,906 plants around the world, that means 37.5 billion gallons (142 billion liters) of this salty-ass junk every day. Brine production in just four Middle Eastern countries—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—accounts for more than half of this.

The study authors, who hail from Canada, the Netherlands, and South Korea, aren’t saying desalination plants are evil. They’re raising the alarm that this level of waste requires a plan. This untreated salt water can’t just hang around in ponds—or, in worst-case scenarios, go into oceans or sewers. Disposal depends on geography, but typically the waste does go into oceans or sewers, if not injected into wells or kept in evaporation ponds. The high concentrations of salt, as well as chemicals like copper and chlorine, can make it toxic to marine life.

“Brine underflows deplete dissolved oxygen in the receiving waters,” said lead author Edward Jones, who worked at the institute and is now at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, in a press release. “High salinity and reduced dissolved oxygen levels can have profound impacts on benthic organisms, which can translate into ecological effects observable throughout the food chain.”

Instead of carelessly dumping this byproduct, the authors suggest recycling to generate new economic value. Some crop species tolerate saltwater, so why not use it to irrigate them? Or how about generating electricity with hydropower? Or why not recover the minerals (salt, chlorine, calcium) to reuse elsewhere? At the very least, we should be treating the brine so it’s safe to discharge into the ocean.

Countries that rely heavily on desalination have to be leaders in this space if they don’t want to erode their resources further. And this problem must be solved before our dependency on desalination grows.

The technology is becoming more affordable, as it should, so lower-income countries that need water may be able to hop on the wave soon. While this brine is a problem now, it doesn’t have to be by then.

Red tide episode kills record number of sea turtles

Wildlife officials say manatee deaths are not far behind.

SARASOTA — A Florida red tide outbreak close to 16 months old has killed more sea turtles than any previous single red tide event on record, and manatee deaths are not far behind.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission attributed 589 sea turtles and 213 manatee deaths to this episode of red tide, which began in late 2017. It had killed 127 bottlenose dolphins as of Dec. 20, leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an unusual mortality event.

Combine manatee deaths from red tide, human actions, cold stress and other causes was 824, according to a preliminary FWC report. A previous die-off killed 803 manatees in 2013 during another red tide bloom.

Preliminary data from FWC showed that the 824 manatee deaths in 2018 from both red tide, sickness and human-related causes surpassed the previous record of 803 set during another red tide outbreak in 2013.

Because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, NOAA has not provided updates for dolphins on its UME website. Dolphin strandings spiked in August and November, but have begun to slow down as red tide shows signs of weakening along the Southwest Florida coast.

Few experienced the gruesome first-hand effects of red tide more than turtle patrol participants, who wore masks and scarves to check turtle crawls following hatching during nesting season, May through October.

Don MacAulay of Englewood said he felt the effects of the airborne toxins — a nearly 150-mile by 20-mile wide bloom at its peak — driving over the bridge to Manasota Key. His throat and eyes burned from the aerosolized red tide toxins carried miles by the sea spray.

The stench of the carnage hung on the summer humidity.

“We were wearing snorkel goggles and respirators to do the job,” said MacAulay, a volunteer since 2016. “It was just horrible. Everywhere you stepped, you couldn’t go down to the shoreline. It was lined all the way with dead fish. … The bugs were worse.”

Turtle patrollers — doctors, dentists, anglers, kayakers, teachers, outdoors people from all walks of life — donned military-grade gas masks or wore scarves over their face on mile-long walks to check for fresh turtle crawls. Later on, they cleared a path through piles of rotting fish to make way for hatchlings racing to the sea.

“The turtles barrel through the dead fish and still nest,” MacAulay said. “We had to go each day regardless of the stench and the toxins in the air. We tried to protect ourselves the best we could. It’s kind of extreme when you’re walking down the beach like you’re in chemical gear in a lab somewhere.”

MacAulay, and many others who signed on for the previously leisurely strolls to check nests — before sunrise and before beachgoers or tides could erase evidence of the crawls — didn’t quit the thankless job.

“We protect every single nest on the beach from predators and whatever,” MacAulay said. “If we miss a day, it’s pretty bad. Even during hurricanes people try to go out before it gets bad.”

In September, an exasperated MacAulay posted a photo of a deceased dolphin on Facebook. It’s jawbone was exposed and it appeared to have been dead for a while.

“Red tide is wiping everything out,” MacAulay told the Herald-Tribune after the discovery.

Fellow Manasota Key patroller Emily Rizzo, whose asthma makes her more prone to red tide sickness — the itchy throat, watery eyes and coughing — continued her duty walking a half-mile stretch despite the symptoms.

“I love sea turtles; I feel an obligation,” said Rizzo, who lives in Venice. “Frankly, if I could have found someone to take my place, I’d be happy to let them do it, but we are short of volunteers. It was tough, but I thought I had to do it.”

The turtle hatchlings needed the support. Coyotes have become very active on Manasota Key in the past few years, according to Rizzo.

“We were very, very worried about our babies,” she said.

Suzi Fox, the director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch & Shorebird Monitoring, said 2018 was a highly successful nesting season on Anna Maria Island thanks to about 89 walkers. They reported that an estimated 35,000 hatchlings came from 534 nests on the island.

She suspects there could be a dip in nesting next year after several record seasons.

“People don’t come to Anna Maria Island to visit a high rise,” Fox said. “They come for the wildlife. These people are dedicated to wrapping their arms around the wildlife and protecting it.”

It could be decades before the impact of red tide on the hatchlings is known. Sea turtles take about 20 to 30 years after hatching to reach sexual maturity and mate, according to NOAA.

The data patrollers provided to local and state groups will be vital to studying the long-term impact of red tide on the area’s endangered sea turtles.

“The sea turtle patrol were some of our biggest help during this,” said Gretchen Lovewell, strandings investigations program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory. “They were reporting animals to us every morning, often times collecting them in one area so we could one-stop shop. It was hard enough to pop over the dune and breathe again. They were breathing it in and coughing.

“The death and destruction was bad, but they helped get them out of the environment quicker.”

Mote performed more than 200 necropsies on sea turtles this summer.

The widespread effect of this year’s red tide outbreak made it more difficult to recover and treat marine animals, according to FWC veterinarian Martine DeWitt, who said the 2013 bloom that killed 277 manatees was more localized near Charlotte County.

DeWitt said the recent red tide took more coordination among local and state agencies and that manatees with suspected red tide toxicity are still being collected.

“The toxin can persist in the environment and still be in the sea grass,” she said. “It’s not over yet.”

So far, Manatee County has picked up 316 tons of dead fish from waterways — consuming 892.5 regular hours and 253.24 overtime hours. Cleanup has cost the county $210,543, the bulk of the costs incurred by contracting with a vendor ($154,482) to clear residential canals during the peak of the bloom.

Sarasota County removed 251 tons of red-tide related fish and marine debris from County managed properties at a cost of $231,991.57. About 4 additional tons of debris removed from the City of Sarasota were not included in the county cost.

Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20190115/red-tide-episode-kills-record-number-of-sea-turtles

FGCU researchers want to test Gulf of Mexico’s water quality

Researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University want to put sensors in several spots around the Gulf of Mexico’s floor to test water quality.

Researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University want to put sensors in several spots around the Gulf of Mexico’s floor to test water quality.

The team led by Dr. Mike Parsons is utilizing portions of grant money received in fall 2018 to place the sensors in specific locations to test oxygen, nutrient, temperature, salinity, and other levels. The data is expected to help better understand the timeline of red tide and the impact it had on oxygen levels in the water at some of its deepest points right off the southwest Florida coast.

“By getting these sensors out and putting really good measures on these conditions we can see how things are changing,” Dr. Parsons said. “Red tide is still out here, it’s calmed down quite a bit and it’s offshore but by continuously collecting this data we’ll be able to see how conditions change when it comes back.”

“We’re not sure if red tide would go all the way to the bottom to tap into those nutrients,” Dr. Parsons said of the limited data available, especially for impacts deeper in the Gulf.

Researchers from the university also are studying ciguatera toxin, which also involves a great deal of work diving to the bottom of south Florida’s largest saltwater bodies.

“We’re taking our expertise studying ciguatera,” Dr. Parsons said of the team’s dedication to diving deep into water quality issues and getting answers about what it means for our community.

“Just finding out what’s the best way for this region to be more productive economically and ecologically,” FGCU Master’s student and researcher Adam Catasus said. “[We’ll] collect data to show this is what’s happening over time, show the effects.”

Water collected on Thursday from several dive sites showed a high concentration of bloom, but thankfully not red tide. High levels of the diatom Asterionellopsis glacialis were in bloom, and a well mixed water column proved to be positive for the new bloom but not good for red tide blooms.

“These low oxygen issues are caused by a lot of bacteria breaking down organic matter,” Dr. Parsons said of the oxygen issues that plagued the southwest Florida coast all summer. “The big question I think out here is how were the low oxygen levels linked to red tide.”

Dr. Parsons also noted the potential that red tide fuels itself to grow by feeding of the fish kills that it causes.

“If we removed the dead fish biomass we’d remove one of the nutrient sources from red tide,” he explained. “Is there a way we can remove the fish before they wash up on the beaches and ruin our tourism?” Dr. Parsons wondered, noting the millions lost in southwest Florida’s economy from the summer’s water woes. “[This] will get us really high-resolution data.”

The university research team will pull the data from sensors on a monthly basis to collect information allow them to better understand the timeline and circle of red tides impact.

Source: https://www.nbc-2.com/story/39727682/what-is-the-water-quality-of-the-gulf-of-mexico

Polluted wells show need to tackle water quality woes

It seemed fitting that during the last week of ex-Gov. Scott Walker’s war on our environment, we should learn that an alarmingly high percentage of private wells tested in southwest Wisconsin are contaminated with bacteria and chemicals.

It’s also more proof that Wisconsin needs new funding and new rules to address water quality problems that have oozed across the state. The time is ripe to make this the era of clean water for all. In fact, it’s overdue, based on the latest news.

As reported last week by Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal, the first systematic study of well water in southwest Wisconsin found bacterial and chemical contamination at rates as bad as and possibly worse than areas in northeastern Wisconsin targeted by new state water protection rules. About 42 percent of 301 randomly selected wells tested in Iowa, Grant and Lafayette counties exceed federal health standards for bacteria that can come from animal or human waste or for nitrate and other toxic fertilizer residues.

The southwestern Wisconsin well tests are bad. Same goes for wide swaths of central Wisconsin, where levels of nitrate and other contaminants have steadily grown, causing some counties and municipalities to consider taking actions in lieu of state indifference under Walker. Well contamination is so bad in parts of northeastern Wisconsin that even Walker couldn’t ignore it. He signed legislation that will require new manure-handling rules for that area once the rules are finalized.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, hardly a leader on the environment, was quick to the draw after the latest news broke, announcing he would appoint a task force to study the issue. But for the thousands of citizens impacted by tainted water for years, the time for study is over. They want action. This isn’t complicated. Gov. Tony Evers can and should take the lead, moving forward with new mechanisms to assure all citizens have safe drinking water.

The current blend of state and federal funding to address the continuing degradation of our water quality falls well short of what’s needed. And despite weak claims to the contrary, the evidence is clear that by far the biggest source of contamination is agriculture.

Wisconsin can look to states like Minnesota and Missouri, which have dedicated portions of their sales taxes to help farmers invest in conservation practices that work. Minnesota’s Legacy Fund, for instance, has provided almost $1 billion for clean water work in a decade. Funds come from a three-eighths of 1 percent slice of the state’s sales tax. In addition to clean water, the fund supports other natural resources programs along with arts and culture in the state.

Minnesota’s approach may be a reach for a divided Wisconsin, where clean drinking water somehow became a partisan issue. But it’s time Wisconsin identifies its own innovative path to stem the steady decline in funding for water quality over the past few decades.

While we’re at it, Wisconsin should also beef up its action levels for requiring conservation practices. Minnesota, for instance, requires that farm operations close to municipal wellhead areas take steps to remedy contamination once nitrate levels rise to 5 parts per million in water, half of the federal standard. The program is designed to protect wellhead areas before nitrates and other contaminants reach levels that force municipalities to fund costly treatment options. Let’s remember, too, that contamination of residential wells violates the private property rights of homeowners.

Some will cry “regulation” if our rules are toughened. So be it. Maybe the old standards, or lack of them, worked in another era. But modern agriculture has changed the playing field. In total, Wisconsin farmers are applying more fertilizer and manure these days. Soil erosion has increased, reversing earlier progress. When soil erodes, it carries nutrients and chemicals on its way to ground or surface water.

Source: https://madison.com/ct/opinion/column/bill-berry-polluted-wells-show-need-to-tackle-water-quality/article_78c4e7ff-20af-56d1-90c7-64f0ea09bb3d.html