Clean Wisconsin's Environmental Victories
Landmark laws, policies and actions Clean Wisconsin has helped put into place:
2007 - Manure management/polluted runoff reduction rules for factory farms (CAFOs)
Clean Wisconsin helped pass rules banning Winter Manure Spreading in early 2007. Along with a strong coalition of environmental groups, Clean Wisconsin helped our state take another step in the right direction to stopping the most harmful manure runoff events.
2007 - Won a legal challenge to the water pollution permit for Oak Creek Coal plant
Clean Wisconsin had long maintained that the cooling system for the largest power plant construction project in Wisconsin history (the Elm Road Generating Station in Oak Creek) was illegal, and challenged the DNR discharge permit in 2006. In 2007, a Dane County judge agreed with Clean Wisconsin and ruled that the water permit does not comply with federal law and must go back for review by a state administrative law judge.
2006 - Won legal enforcement against WPS for Clean Air Act Violations - Reduced Wisconsin's air pollution and contributions to global warming
Filed lawsuit for Clean Air Act violations and reached a settlement with Wisconsin Public Service to shut down its two oldest and dirtiest boilers at its Green Bay Pulliam plant and invest half a million dollars on energy efficiency projects in Brown County.
2006 - Wisconsin Clean Energy Act & Governor's Efficiency Executive Order
Clean Wisconsin was a member of the Governor's Task Force on Energy efficiency and Renewables, the group leading the way on this historic bill. This act was a huge victory for Wisconsin, makes a major commitment to clean energy resources, and takes an important step toward getting a handle on rising electric and heating bills in the state. The efficiency investments resulting from this bill will save Wisconsin businesses and homeowners more than two hundred million dollars a year. Increased renewable energy production requirements for utilities from 2 to 10 percent.
2005 - Governor's signing The Great Lakes Compact
Governors of the U.S. states and premiers of the Canadian provinces sharing the Great Lakes signed a cooperative agreement protecting the use of Great Lakes waters. The Compact ensures Great Lakes water will not sold to the highest bidder and instead are protected for generations to come. Clean Wisconsin worked alongside the Great Lakes Governors in getting an agreement signed, the first step towards the Compact, and thousands of Clean Wisconsin members weighed in on the process of protecting this incredible yet vulnerable resource.
2005 - Introduction of Governor's Conserve Wisconsin Agenda
Clean Wisconsin continues to work with the Governor's office, agency staff and legislative leaders to enact this broad environmental initiative, including issues that directly impact clean water, clean air and clean energy – the issues Clean Wisconsin and its members are most concerned about.
2004 - Statewide Mercury Reduction Rules
Clean Wisconsin diligently worked for a number of years to help Wisconsin become the first state in the Midwest to require cuts in mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants and to become the first state in the nation to require cuts in mercury pollution from power plants that burn western coal. It marked a huge victory for Clean Wisconsin, the health of citizens, and the health of our lakes, rivers and streams. Since then, a weaker federal mercury rule has taken precedence and Clean Wisconsin continues the fight to further reduce mercury pollution.
2003 - Fought Crandon mine threat to the Wolf River
Clean Wisconsin played a key role in grassroots organizing and education to help protect the Wolf River from potential mining destruction. After twenty seven long years of fighting, the threat to the Wolf River ended when the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa and the Forest County Potawatomi tribes purchased the proposed mine site, the accompanying mineral rights, and withdrew the permit application to mine the copper-zinc ore body.
2002 - Polluted Runoff Reduction Rules
These rules reflected a major leap forward from the largely voluntary polluted runoff programs of the past. Clean Wisconsin worked to help define and implement rules and standards protecting lakes, streams and rivers from manure.
1999 - Statewide Energy Efficiency Fund
More than any other group, Clean Wisconsin is responsible for creating and fighting for this fund, which created public benefits monies for energy efficiency, renewables and low-income energy programs. This commitment of $60 million annually contained several landmark provisions directing larger amounts of ratepayer dollars into conservation and clean energy resources. For more than four years, Clean Wisconsin served on a committee at the Public Service Commission and on a task force on electric utility regulation, thus resulting in a milestone law for cleaner, more efficient energy for Wisconsin.
1998 - State Pesticide Law (ATCP 29)
The Agriculture (Ag) Department proposed rule changes which would have made it more difficult for neighbors to be notified when pesticides are applied. Clean Wisconsin alerted thousands of citizens of these changes which resulted in thousands of letters and calls to the Ag Department. The Ag Department eventually stopped this weakening rule change.
1998 - Sulfide Mining Moratorium Law
This law requires companies proposing metallic sulfide mines to give an example of a similar mine in North America which has not caused significant water pollution. Clean Wisconsin implemented a grassroots educational campaign: we spoke to 100,000 people about the impacts of the proposed mine near the Wolf River; we passed out over 5,000 postcards prior to the public hearings in Milwaukee; and we coordinated educational workshops with area legislators in Milwaukee, Appleton, Neenah and Eau Claire.
1997 - Kidney Island Lawsuit
We won a lawsuit that protects Green Bay from further contamination of PCBs from Kidney Island sludge dump. We represented Clean Water Action Council, a local group fighting the DNR's approved expansion a sludge dump contaminated with PCBs, despite known dangers. We sued the DNR and Brown County Port Authority and won.
1994 - Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Bill
This bill created a comprehensive program for screening children and removing lead where exposure has occurred. Clean Wisconsin worked closely with public health advocates in lobbying for this law to protect children.
1993 - Petitioned for energy efficiency upgrade of building codes
Clean Wisconsin petitioned the legislature for efficiency standards in new commercial buildings, which reduced power plant emissions and saved $72 million. We defeated attempts to gut the Rental Energy Conservation Code. As a result of our work, landlords must meet weatherization standards when property is sold, realizing an average energy savings of 20%.
1992 - Established rules creating point source discharge limits for phosphorous
Phosphorus is the leading cause of excessive weed and algae growth in Wisconsin lakes. Clean Wisconsin led lobby efforts before the Natural Resources Board to force the DNR to revamp its water discharge permit program, which lacked numerical standards in accordance with the Federal Clean Water Act. These rules created Wisconsin's first statewide limit on phosphorus emissions from factories and cities.
1992 - Wisconsin's Nonpoint Pollution Act
Clean Wisconsin petitioned DNR to adopt stronger regulations for animal feedlots, whose manure runoff has been found to cause weed growth in lakes and streams, and poses a human health risk in drinking water. This Act accelerated the pace of protecting watersheds from farm runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and urban nonpoint pollutants.
1991 - Wetland Water Quality Rules
Clean Wisconsin staff played a major role in organizing, working with conservation groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, to fight for tougher rules. The DNR created rules to reduce the number of wetlands lost due to development, agriculture, etc.
1991 - Creation of Lower Wisconsin Riverway
Then Clean Wisconsin Executive Director Keith Reopelle played a major role in the lobbying and organizing work which protects a 92 mile stretch of the WI River from excessive development. Ten years of careful study and advocacy resulted in the creation of the riverway.
1990 - Wisconsin Comprehensive Recycling Law
Along with lobbying in the Capitol, Clean Wisconsin played a key role in organizing a massive grassroots campaign for statewide recycling; it was designed to achieve full recycling in all Wisconsin cities; limits out of state garbage dumping in Wisconsin; and, created markets for recycled materials.
1987 - EPA and DNR standards on (1) water quality, (2) effluent limits, and (3) antidegradation
Under the Clean Water Act, DNR created rules: (1) setting new limits for the concentrations of pollutants in lakes and rivers; (2) limiting individual pollution discharges in order to attain the legal limit in the lake or stream; and (3) creating higher standards for the cleanest lakes and rivers.
- Clean Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the EPA to force the strongest state implementation of the Clean Water Act.
- Clean Wisconsin defended a strong interpretation of the DNR's water quality standards, effluent limits, and anti-degradation rules to restore water quality in our heavily polluted waters and to preserve the integrity of our most pristine waters.
1984, 1986 - Wisconsin Acid Rain Law
This law placed a cap on sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Clean Wisconsin disclosed research results which gave the public the names of eight lakes which had been chemically altered by Acid Rain; Clean Wisconsin played the lead role in lobbying and grassroots organizing
1983 - Comprehensive Groundwater Protection Act
This act protects drinking water for 80% of Wisconsin residents by setting standards for contaminate concentrations, and requiring bans if limits are exceeded (e.g. atrazine and nitrates). Clean Wisconsin was a major force in passing the act and has worked hard every year since to strengthen the law. Efforts have included preservation of state budget dollars to compensate victims for polluted wells and clean up of leaking toxic dump sites. Clean Wisconsin supported a ban on atrazine, a herbicide used to control weeds in corn. At the time, Atrazine was contaminating over 1 million acres in Wisconsin and over 70,000 wells.
1978 - Wisconsin Mining Reclamation Law
This law strengthened reclamation requirements and addressed toxic waste disposal and impacts to wetlands and groundwater. In addition to leading the lobbying efforts to put this law in place, Clean Wisconsin served on committees to implement this law and continues to fight to strengthen it.
1975 - Wisconsin Power Plant Siting Law
This law requires long-term planning for power plants and transmission lines. It reviews energy needs and environmental impacts and provides an opportunity to advocate for cleaner fuel alternatives. For five years, Clean Wisconsin was a leader in the successful lobbying efforts to create this law.
1972 - Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act (WEPA)
This act requires environmental impact statements for major actions that affect the quality of human environment. One of Clean Wisconsin's first successful lobbying efforts resulted in this state version of the landmark National Law. Clean Wisconsin's then-attorney, Kathleen Falk, brought lawsuits that forced state agencies to comply with WEPA.