Environment

On 5/25 Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a suit to challenge the recent DNR approval of diverting water from Lake Michigan to suppy the upcomfing Foxconn project.  The gist of the suit is that the DNR mis-interpreted the provision in the Great Lakes Compact allowing water diversions. The compoact requires that water diversions be made for public water supply purposes. Racine had argued that since the city primarily uses residential water that the diversion was appilcable. MEA (and a lot...

The spill from the pond at Hi-Crush yesterday is currently moving down the Trempealeau River toward the MIssissippi and is reportedly still visible. 

I spoke with Andrew Savagian at the DNR office in Madison this afternoon about the spill. The processing water from the pond was apparently very thick, which explains the need to drain the pond at Hi-Crush (since the driver of the bulldozer could not be found underwater) and perhaps why the spill is not disappearing as it flows down the...

A panel of local leaders discuss the advances they have made in sustainability, and those they intend to implement in the future. A  Q&A session followed. The panel includes Randy Eide (Menomonie Public Works Dept.), Ron Verdon (Tainter-Menomin Lake Assoc.), Eric Turner (Dunn Co. Development), Amanda Haffele (Solid Waste & Recycling), Dan Prestebak (Dunn Co. Conservation), Jody Hagman (Men. Chamber of Commerce), and Laura Donovan (UW Stout Sustainability).

Note - the lighting...

I recently read When the Hills Are Gone - a book about the sand mining activists in Wisconsin during the period of the frac sand boom. The author, Thomas W. Pearson, is an associate professor of anthropology at UW-Stout. A disclaimer - I've known Tom for years, particularly since the frac sand activist period documented in this book. 

The book brought back quite a few memories for me, as I was occasionally one of the people in the "...