Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch, Author at Wisconsin Watch

Who pays for PFAS? Governor, GOP lawmakers wrestle over cleanup liability

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Competing proposals would protect “innocent landowners” — those who didn’t knowingly cause pollution — from liability.

Who pays for PFAS? Governor, GOP lawmakers wrestle over cleanup liability is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin is still sitting on $125 million for PFAS cleanup

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 5 minutes

A year and a half after Wisconsin lawmakers earmarked $125 million to clean up toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, the funds have yet to flow to contaminated communities.

That’s due to a legal and philosophical debate over the limits of government power and the potentially harsh consequences of a decades-old environmental law.

Lawmakers continue to hash out the rules to guide who would receive the money and, more importantly, the legal risks for entities that request it.

The Legislature’s GOP-controlled finance committee won’t transfer the cash designated to address Wisconsin’s PFAS problem to the state Department of Natural Resources, so it continues to accumulate interest in a trust fund.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is now trying again — this time, embracing an idea penned by the Republican legislators with whom he sparred.

Evers’ plans, to be included in his upcoming budget proposal, include a cash infusion that expands the trust fund balance to $145 million, along with a provision contained in a GOP-authored PFAS bill that Evers vetoed last year.

That measure, introduced in 2023 by Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, created grants for municipalities and owners of PFAS-contaminated properties — so-called “innocent landowners” — who didn’t cause their pollution.

It also truncated the DNR’s power to mandate cleanups.

But in his new budget proposal, Evers hopes to carve what appears to be a narrow liability exemption.

It would only apply to cropland that was polluted with PFAS when the owner unknowingly received contaminated fertilizer derived from sewage sludge. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources already has said it doesn’t enforce its cleanup policy under those circumstances.

What are PFAS?

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of more than 12,000 compounds commonly found in consumer products like food wrappers, nonstick pans and raincoats along with special firefighting foam that can extinguish the hottest of blazes.

The intractable chemicals are turning up in drinking water around the country. In 2022, the EPA released health advisories, suggesting virtually no amount of several PFAS is safe for consumption.

The DNR is currently monitoring PFAS contamination at more than 100 sites.

What are state cleanup requirements?

State rules require reporting and environmental restoration by parties that pollute air, soil or water or discover past contamination on their property even if they aren’t directly responsible.

The DNR holds parties liable for PFAS contamination they didn’t cause but also exercises discretion to force past spillers to clean up instead of current property owners. The law also under certain circumstances exempts neighbors of contaminated properties from liability when a spill crosses property lines.

The department’s authority comes from Wisconsin’s spills law, passed in 1978. The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed that legislators intended to see pollution cleaned up regardless of who caused it. Failing to do so, it said, is just as, if not more, dangerous to human health than the initial spill.

The power of Wisconsin’s spills law has come under scrutiny in recent years as the scale of PFAS cleanup costs comes to light.

What do the Senate bill’s backers dislike about current policy?

Last session’s Senate bill would have prevented the DNR from enforcing provisions of the spills law when the responsible party qualifies as an innocent landowner and allows the department to clean up its property at the agency’s expense.

Wimberger said the measure would prevent the financial ruin of landowners who seek help from the department to address PFAS pollution or obtain clean water, without which their “application for a grant is a self-incriminating statement they have a polluted property and are an emitter.”

The threat of enforcement against the owner of a contaminated property might cause banks to think twice about refinancing a loan or even require a borrower to pay up in full, he said. Looming enforcement could increase the difficulty of selling a property.

At its most pernicious, the law might drive property owners to avoid testing for pollutants, risking their health for fear of the financial consequences.

Is this actually happening to landowners?

Wimberger has often portrayed innocent landowners as homeowners or farmers who unknowingly had PFAS-containing inputs spread atop their fields.

But last year, Midwest Environmental Advocates, which opposed the bill, reviewed each of the 130 PFAS spill cases the department reported online.

The firm determined only seven cases applied to individuals and none concerned farmers whose contamination originated from PFAS-contaminated fertilizer. Most concerned businesses like chemical and energy companies, defense contractors and salvage yards.

What impacts would the Republican proposal have?

Wimberger said department promises to exempt farmers don’t suffice, and throwing money at the problem is ineffective unless lawmakers enact enforcement guardrails.

Although the GOP bill would have protected individuals, liability exemptions also could extend to businesses like private landfills or paper mills that spread pulp and industrial sludge onto farm fields.

A list of more than 20 potential innocents compiled by one of the bill’s co-authors includes an electric transmission company whose transformer exploded in 2019 and the city of La Crosse, which the state currently holds responsible for PFAS contamination caused by the city’s fire department at its municipal airport. The bill’s backers say the property owners lacked a choice when firefighters sprayed the PFAS-containing foam.

Attorneys from the nonpartisan Legislative Council told lawmakers PFAS manufacturers and companies that test those chemicals likely wouldn’t qualify as innocent landowners.

However, the proposal would have prevented the DNR from enforcing cleanup laws against companies based on PFAS samples taken from company properties unless the department could show the contamination exceeded a government standard.

But Wisconsin lacks PFAS standards for groundwater, and GOP-backed bureaucratic hurdles, including a 30-month time limit on the rulemaking process, have encumbered efforts to create them.

The state’s second attempt will expire in March.

Evers recently jump-started a new effort to create PFAS groundwater rules and proposed an exemption from the usual holdups.

“Safe drinking water should not be a partisan issue, and yet it has been,” said Marinette City Council member and clean water advocate Doug Oitzinger, whose county is coping with PFAS contamination linked to a firefighter training site owned by Johnson Controls International. “We have failed utterly as a state to have environmental laws that protect us when it comes to PFAS.”

What does Evers say he’ll include in his upcoming budget?

Evers’ proposal would transfer money to the DNR for PFAS testing and removal at public drinking water systems, testing of private wells, grants to stem the release of PFAS into the environment, research into PFAS destruction methods and statewide PFAS testing. Evers also would allocate $7 million to innocent landowners for testing and cleanup.

He continues to call for the release of the PFAS trust fund money, the balance of which now stands at $127.1 million, including unspent funds from a state firefighting foam cleanup program.

“We cannot afford more years of inaction and obstruction,” Evers said in a statement. “I urge Republicans and Democrats to work together to do what’s best for our kids and Wisconsin’s families by investing in critical efforts to improve water quality.”

But potential spills law impacts remain unknown until the governor’s budget clarifies the scope of liability protections Evers hopes to create.

“I’ve been waiting for months for the governor to clarify his definition of an ‘innocent landowner,’ and he has refused to respond to my requests,” Wimberger said in a statement.

Evers’ staff have said the governor remains opposed to limiting department authority, and if Republicans present a proposal identical to last session’s bill, he might veto it again.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Wisconsin is still sitting on $125 million for PFAS cleanup is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Opting for coexistence: Some Wisconsin landowners learn to live with beavers

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Beavers can cause property damage, but research shows they positively impact the environment. Some landowners are ditching traps and dynamite to peacefully manage the nuisance.

Opting for coexistence: Some Wisconsin landowners learn to live with beavers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Dam lucky: How we caught a beaver (on camera)

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

* A reporter’s view *

Bennet Goldstein: Water cooler conversations rarely get as quirky as strategizing the best ways to obtain photographs of cute, occasionally destructive rodents. But for nearly a month it was all I could discuss.

From equipment purchases to road trip plotting, our team’s preparation to spot a beaver was either a lesson in steadfast resolve or overkill.

With a car weighed down by plenty of granola, trail mix and Goldfish crackers, Wisconsin Watch photojournalist Joe Timmerman, videographer Trisha Young and I spent a stretch of October driving through Wisconsin’s Driftless Area and Central Sands to report a series of solutions-focused news stories. We sought to learn how beavers and their dams could mitigate severe flooding and drought, which Wisconsin and other Midwestern states increasingly face due to climate change.

Wisconsin Watch reporter Bennet Goldstein drives down the highway at sunrise to meet with a source during a multi-day reporting trip with Wisconsin Watch audio/video producer Trisha Young and photojournalist Joe Timmerman on Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

I could not write about beavers without capturing one on camera, a task that has even on occasion flummoxed The New York Times.

Thankfully, a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network helped fund this undertaking.

We splashed through streams, bushwhacked through brush and hopscotched through reed grass to locate dry land where we might capture an image of our elusive furry target.

***

Last summer, I took a reporting trip to Viroqua for a different story with colleagues from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. There, former Vernon County Conservationist Ben Wojahn described a dilemma facing western Wisconsin communities as they consider removing failing flood control dams constructed by the federal government in the mid-1900s.

Maintaining the structures would cost more than their value, according to evaluations, but cutting gaps into them without backup protections left residents feeling insecure and unprepared for future floodwaters.

In an ideal world, Wojahn suggested, the county could bring in wood-chomping beavers to slow the flow by building nature’s dams.

What would that take?

Beaver relocation has happened before. Natural resources officials in Idaho and California famously parachuted the critters into hard-to-reach mountainous regions in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Such measures probably don’t make sense in Wisconsin, where beaver colonies polka-dot the state.

But how to find one?

Scientists warned me spotting beavers in the wild is exceptionally difficult, adding that they are typically active in the wee morning hours and at dusk. Their astute smelling and hearing senses warn them of peepers.

Wisconsin Watch reporter Bennet Goldstein tries out a hunting shroud he ordered in preparation for photographing beavers on Oct. 8, 2024, at the Wisconsin Watch office in Madison, Wis. He ultimately decided the netting was too noisy and inconvenient to use. (Coburn Dukehart / CatchLight)

Then again, these researchers had not attempted to disguise themselves as piles of grass.

I initially considered purchasing ghillie suits, but the thought of spending hours commando-crawling in an outfit meant to resemble foliage sounded unappealing.

We ruled out the prospect of wading into lake shallows because Joe had rented a camera lens worth $10,000. Shrouding ourselves beneath synthetic netting would create too much noise when we stopped to pick our noses or stretch a hamstring.

I turned to wildlife photographers.

Blogs offered many tips. One professional recommended hiding in shrubbery and shadows, but he urged the adventurous to be wary of ticks.

Then it dawned on me I might be overthinking this exercise. I could instead take inspiration from hunters who have plenty of tools for quietly stalking prey. I settled on a pop-up blind and silent swivel chair.

We needed only to locate a beaver lodge and lurk.

A beaver lodge is seen alongside trees in a pond on Katie McCullough’s property as a train rumbles down the track nearby, Oct. 23, 2024, in Rio, Wis. McCullough installed a pond leveler on her property after discovering an active beaver lodge and dam. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

***

One October afternoon, Joe and I canoed across a pond near the village of Rio. We passed pond scum and lily pad patches before arriving at a rickety duck hunting stand, its wood warped and spotted with exposed nails.

I steadied the canoe as Joe lunged for a foothold on the water-encircled platform. It wobbled under his weight. We eased the gear atop the stand as the sun hung low in the sky.

“What’s going on?” I said, bobbing in the canoe as he unfurled the blind.

Joe laughed.

“Is this the first of many firsts of the lengths to which we’re going?” I asked, recording the moment on a GoPro. “You’re going into a special wildlife viewing tent with a hunting chair and hunkering down for the next hour in hopes of spotting a rodent.”

Joe had spotty cell reception, so we agreed I would return at dusk if I didn’t hear from him first.

Wisconsin Watch investigative reporter Bennet Goldstein paddles a canoe across Katie McCullough’s pond on her property during a reporting trip, Oct. 18, 2024, in Rio, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Birds chirped as I paddled back to the car, periodically banging into submerged logs.

I hunched in the front seat, hoping to avoid agitating our host’s yappy dogs, who might scare the beavers. Perched in the host’s living room window, the canines stared me down.

“I’m in my car so they don’t hear me or smell me,” I texted Joe.

A mix of dread and boredom set in as I waited, praying this would be our only beaver-spotting attempt.

An hour passed. Sandhill cranes warbled in the distance.

Joe texted.

“It just barely stuck its head above water then dove back down but I got pictures of one!!!!”

A beaver swims across a pond on Katie McCullough’s property, Oct. 23, 2024, in Rio, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

* A photojournalist’s view *

Joe Timmerman: As my heartbeat quickened I shifted the camera’s gears, quietly racing to document our first beaver sighting without disturbing the natural moment.

I’ve photographed surveyors in the world’s longest cave on 16-hour expeditions, woken up hours before dawn to see Indiana’s returned bison under the rising sun and hovered inches away from bats suffering from white nose syndrome in Texas. But I had never undertaken an assignment like this.

When Bennet asked how I felt about the lengths we had taken to photograph these cunning Castorids, all I could do was laugh.

Spend pieces of a month traveling across south-central Wisconsin’s beautiful landscape to prove skeptical experts wrong — and serve our readers — by returning with photos of North America’s largest rodent?

I was all in.

After our first surprise sighting near Rio we tested our luck at an additional site.
A shared hunch told us we could return home with an even better image. A few days later when we visited Jim Hoffman’s wide-spanning property at Goose Landing, I descended again into Bennet’s hunting tent before dusk.

The setting sun shines through the window of a hunting tent as Wisconsin Watch photojournalist Joe Timmerman sits inside waiting for beavers to emerge from their lodge on a property owned by Jim Hoffman, who is building a series of artificial beaver dams, Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Wisconsin Watch photojournalist Joe Timmerman prepares to spend multiple hours of hiding in a hunting tent to photograph beavers, Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis. (Trisha Young / Wisconsin Watch)

An hour passed. The sun’s setting silhouetted the once-golden, green and yellow surroundings. Then another 30 minutes. My eyes darted between the beavers’ lodge across the pond and their trail to some felled trees nearby that Hoffman had showed us.

A slight movement caught my attention. My eye recognized the unmistakable slicked-back head of a beaver swimming across the pond. Then a second head popped up, and a third.

I zoomed in all the way, pushing our old company camera to the max in the darkening conditions. The mere seconds of opportunity etched the beaver images into the memory card before the animals disappeared beneath the water’s surface.

I waited another 30 minutes before calling it quits due to the lack of natural light. I stepped out of the tent and began packing up our gear, somewhat content but wanting more.

That’s when I saw a beaver swimming directly toward me. I fumbled to pick the camera off the ground, manually spinning the sight into focus when the beaver’s tail slapped the water, sounding a thunderous echo that made me jump.

After spending 11 hours that day making over 1,200 images, I couldn’t believe my sleepy eyes. I flipped through the first few pictures of the tail slap only to discover they were comically out of focus.

A screenshot of Wisconsin Watch photojournalist Joe Timmerman’s Photo Mechanic software shows a sequence of images of beavers swimming across a pond on the property of Jim Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Construction, as the sun sets Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis.

Moments later, a reprieve. The beaver re-emerged, seeming to look at me as it swam nearby — offering a fresh opportunity to make a better picture.

“All three of them are swimming like 20 feet away from me right now slapping their tails,” I texted Bennet and Trisha as they hid in their car.

“You could probably walk over and come see them.”

After all our silent stalking, the beavers had found us. Rather than rushing away, though, they were lingering — slapping the water to warn others of our presence. As the evening’s first stars appeared above, two swam parallelly in the pond below, putting on a show in trying to shoo us away.

Beavers swim across a pond on the property of Jim Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Construction, as the sun sets on Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

“On our way!” Trisha replied.

* A videojournalist’s view *

Trisha Young: By the time Bennet and I rushed to the pond where Joe was photographing, about five or six beavers were making their rounds on the water. Our arrival seemed to increase their resolve to show us who was boss.

Thwack! The sound of the tail slap made me jump, stopping all of us in our tracks. A short while later, another thwack, then another. The beavers would beeline toward us, slap, then circle back and repeat the admonition.“What brave creatures,” I thought. Their boldness was intimidating, and the idea of being tail-slapped or bitten by their massive teeth was terrifying. Yet I was truly starting to like these hydraulic engineering rodents.

Jim Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Construction, left, looks at an artificial beaver lodge he built along a pond on his property as Wisconsin Watch photojournalist Joe Timmerman, center, and audio/video producer Trisha Young, right, report on Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wis. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

Bennet assured Joe and me that beavers would struggle to catch us on land. So I imagined falling to my fate into the dark, beaver-infested waters.

I’ve interacted with beavers before, always while kayaking. I was accustomed to the tail slap, which I always interpreted as a signal that I should keep it moving. But this was something special: a whole colony of beavers.

As I watched one pair of beavers swim side by side — one small, one large — I wondered whether Mama Beaver was showing her youngster how to lay down the law and make their authority known.

The sky turned far too dark for our cameras. We remained captivated by the furry varmints’ antics for about half an hour before finally obliging to their demand.

Beavers swim around a pond, seemingly trying to intimidate onlookers at Goose Landing near Alma Center, Wis. (Trisha Young / Wisconsin Watch)

We headed back to the car, giddy with excitement despite the tiring day reporting at Goose Landing. The encounter was invigorating, even if our cameras couldn’t fully capture the magic we witnessed in the darkness.

The interaction reminded me of something Hoffman emphasized as we traversed the land with him: Beavers have been here for thousands of years.

The Ojibwe tell stories of Amik, a giant beaver who was given an extraordinary tail and reshaped land across the Midwest. In these stories, the beaver holds a place of significance alongside the wolf, bear and muskrat.

The fur trade in Wisconsin centuries ago decimated millions of beavers and other fur-bearing animals, forever altering ecosystems and Native livelihoods. Tribes were forced to compete with traders for resources, disrupting traditional ways of life.

Now, another shift is underway in wetland conservation, reviving a story about the symbiotic relationship between beavers and humans. I was grateful to glimpse these creatures and document how humans are trying to mimic their engineering to restore Wisconsin wetlands.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Dam lucky: How we caught a beaver (on camera) is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Republican bill seeks more local control over wind, solar farms

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 5 minutes

A bill that would empower Wisconsin municipalities to block the construction of solar and wind farms in their backyards has been introduced a second time.

Currently, local governments possess limited authority to regulate the siting and operations of solar and wind farms, but as the number and size of projects grow — solar panel fields spanning thousands of acres and wind turbines as tall as the Statue of Liberty — some residents from the Driftless Area and central Wisconsin say the state’s system for approving energy projects unfairly stacks the scales of power against communities that live alongside the facilities.

Meanwhile, a clean energy advocacy group and former Wisconsin utility regulator said the bill would enable a discontented minority to dictate energy policy for the entire state, effectively kill renewable energy development and generate uncertainty for businesses.

The Republican-backed proposal comes amid a wave of construction after federal lawmakers invested billions of dollars during the Biden administration to slow the pace of climate change. The ensuing backlash and enactment of local restrictions are playing out across the country.

Here’s what you need to know:

Some context: Investment in renewable energy has been a state priority for decades and a requirement for Wisconsin’s utilities. It also is central to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ ambitious climate goals. Wisconsin seeks to operate a carbon-free electric grid by 2050.

In 2023, 9% of net electricity generated within the state came from renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The governor’s Task Force on Climate Change expects most future emissions reductions to come from large-scale utility projects, especially the replacement of aging coal plants with solar farms.

In 2016, the state generated just 3,000 megawatt-hours of electricity from utility-scale solar facilities. Seven years later, it increased to 1.2 million. Nearly two dozen more solar farms are in the pipeline.

Wisconsin’s utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, oversees the approval of large projects, but opponents say gaps in state oversight make Wisconsin attractive to private developers, who aren’t mandated to share project expenses or evaluate ratepayer impacts.

They don’t have to demonstrate the energy created by the new installation is even needed at all — requirements if a public utility were to construct the facility. (The commission considers costs when utilities want to purchase power or an energy facility.) But developers can sell solar and wind farms to Wisconsin utilities. Ratepayers shoulder the infrastructure costs and pay state-authorized rates of return.

The commission reports that, compared to the Midwest and national averages, Wisconsin residents pay higher rates but less on their monthly bills because they consume less energy.

Opponents of large-scale projects also criticize the state’s disclosure requirements, which enable developers to acquire land rental agreements, often confidential, before communities are officially notified.

Residents often accuse industry of minimizing their concerns over impacts to wildlife, roads, aesthetics, property values, utility bills, health, topsoil and water quality.

Yet climate change jeopardizes those same things, and land rental and municipal payments can be a lifeline. The construction of solar and wind farms can divide towns and neighbors. Public hearings quickly get messy.

Organizers have mounted challenges, playing out in boardrooms, courthouses and the Legislature. Several towns enacted restrictions on renewable energy projects, a push supported by Farmland First, a central Wisconsin advocacy and fundraising group. Last year, a developer sued two Marathon County towns over their wind farm rules.

President Donald Trump is the latest to seed doubt over the merits of large-scale renewable projects after issuing a Jan. 20 executive order that suspends federal permitting for any wind farm while agency officials review government leasing and permitting practices.

The bill: The proposal requires solar and wind developers to obtain approval from every city, village and town in which a facility would be located before the Public Service Commission could greenlight the project.

Senate Bill 3’s authors, Rep. Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said the measure responds to constituents who feel their concerns over continued development in the Driftless Area continue to fall on deaf ears.

“We are hoping to kick-start a conversation because the way I view it now, renewable energy projects are essentially the wild wild West,” Tranel said. “People have figured out that they can profit exorbitant amounts of money off these projects, and they are just popping them up left and right, and our current attitude is long-term ramifications be damned, and I don’t think that that makes any sense.”

Currently, the commission reviews proposals for energy facilities with a capacity of at least 100 megawatts. For scale, an average wind turbine in 2023 had a capacity of 3 ½ megawatts. A megawatt of solar generation might cover 7 ½ acres.

Local governments review projects less than 100 megawatts in capacity, but municipalities can impose restrictions on solar and wind farms only in limited instances, such as demonstrating they will protect public health or safety — a tall order. Additionally, municipalities that enact siting restrictions on wind farms cannot impose criteria more stringent than commission rules.

The bill would apply to any solar or wind farm with a 15-megawatt capacity or more. If a municipality fails to take action within an allotted period, the proposed facility would be approved automatically.

An identical proposal introduced during the previous legislative session, exclusively backed by GOP lawmakers, failed to receive a committee hearing.

Yea: Some of the bill’s backers view the influx of large energy projects as the harbinger of “utility districts” across Wisconsin’s rural spaces, primarily for the benefit of urbanites.

It’s not that proponents of local control snub clean energy, said Chris Klopp, a Cross Plains organizer who has joined challenges to transmission and solar projects. Rather, regulators could respond to climate change more equitably.

“This idea that you can just decide you’re going to sacrifice certain people, well, I think there’s a problem with that,” she said. “Who decides, and who gets sacrificed? None of that is a good conversation. It should be something that works for everyone.”

Nay: Representatives from EDP Renewables, NextEra Energy, Pattern Energy and Invenergy — developers with a Wisconsin presence — didn’t respond to requests for comment.

But former Public Service Commission Chair Phil Montgomery said local governments lack the agency’s battery of professionals it takes to evaluate whether an energy project would meet the state’s energy needs.

Empowering Wisconsin’s 1,245 towns, 190 cities and 415 villages to weigh the facts against their own standards would spell disaster for ratepayers, he said.

Michael Vickerman, former executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a renewable energy advocacy nonprofit, said the bill unfairly targets wind and solar.

“You’re deciding that this industry will no longer be welcome in this state,” he said. “It becomes such an arbitrary and mysterious, unstable, unpredictable process that the developer says, ‘Screw it. I’ll just go to Minnesota. I’ll go to Illinois.’”

What’s next? More than 20 co-sponsors, all Republicans, signed on to the bill, and it has been referred to a Senate committee. Klopp hopes to rally more lawmakers to obtain a two-thirds, veto-proof majority.

Montgomery said even if it leads nowhere, the bill certainly sends a message to investors.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify information provided by former Public Service Commission Chair Phil Montgomery.

Bill Watch takes a closer look at what’s notable about legislation grinding its way through the Capitol. Subscribe to our newsletters for more from Wisconsin Watch.

Republican bill seeks more local control over wind, solar farms is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

An ecosystem engineer’s vision: mock beaver dams to restore Wisconsin wetlands

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Beaver-inspired structures could limit flooding and benefit wildlife habitat, but state permitting is arduous.

An ecosystem engineer’s vision: mock beaver dams to restore Wisconsin wetlands is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Photos: What Wisconsin’s democracy looked like on Election Day

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:05:09 +0000

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Election Day involves more than quickly marking a ballot and anxiously awaiting election returns.

Filing dispatches from across Wisconsin during Tuesday’s general election, our reporters examined how residents participated in the democratic process. Voters and election workers brought joy, angst and purpose to the polls.

In some cases images told their stories more powerfully than words.

Here is the best of Wisconsin Watch’s photography from Election Day, portraits of what we saw and who we met.

Jonathan Walton, Ward 29 chief Inspector, middle, makes an announcement as the polls open on Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Madison East High School in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Volunteer poll worker Seth McClure hands a ballot to Lisa Wilber of Madison, right, during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Madison East High School in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Elliot Chmura-Moore helps his father, Dylan, submit his ballot. It was the 20th vote submitted on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, at the Oshkosh Public Library polling place in Oshkosh, Wis. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Shane Worden, one of the first 20 voters of the day at the Oshkosh Public Library in Oshkosh, Wis., gives a thumbs up to a poll worker after inserting his ballot into a voting machine. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Election workers count ballots at Green Bay Central Count in the Green Bay City Hall building on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

An observer leans back and watches while election workers count ballots at Green Bay Central Count in the Green Bay City Hall building on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Town of Westfield poll worker Frank Traina assists fellow poll worker and chief election inspector Lacey Baumann as she casts her ballot on Nov. 5, 2024, at Westfield Town Hall in Marquette County, Wis. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

UW-Oshkosh students Adam Ketter, left, and Jacob Young spent the day as poll workers. Students and community members voted at the Culver Family Welcome Center at UW-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wis., on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

A voter heads to the polls on Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

A ballot is temporarily stuck in the tabulation machine during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Milwaukee Central Count at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Jefferson Davis, a Republican election observer, left, and Republican Party of Milwaukee County Chairman Hilario Deleon, right, talk to each other after learning that the doors of the tabulation machines were not properly sealed during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Milwaukee Central Count at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Alvonia Missouri of Milwaukee, joined by her great-grandchildren, Tyriah Smith, 5, left, and Tyron Smith, 7, right, registers to vote during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Sharon Brown, a volunteer poll worker, center, helps Iyana Simpson, 21, right, prepare to vote for her first time during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at the Clinton & Bernice Rose Senior Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Volunteer poll worker Beverly Cooley cheers after helping Jayvonte Wingard, 18, right, vote for his first time on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, at the Clinton & Bernice Rose Senior Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Devin Hildebrand casts a ballot as his daughter Ivy, 2, wears a voting sticker from her mother, Lily, at Green Isle Pavilion in Allouez, Wis., on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Voters cast their ballots at Allouez Village Hall in Allouez, Wis., on the evening of Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, prepares to clear the flash drives used to store the final vote count during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Milwaukee Central Count at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Election workers count ballots on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, at Milwaukee Central Count at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Election workers count ballots during Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, at Milwaukee Central Count at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

People cheer as 8th Congressional District candidate Tony Wied makes a victory speech at the Legacy Hotel in Green Bay, Wis., on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

An attendee of 8th Congressional District candidate Tony Wied’s election night gathering is seen at the Legacy Hotel on Nov. 5, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Tony Wied celebrates his 8th Congressional District victory at the Legacy Hotel in Green Bay, Wis., on Nov. 5, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Photos: What Wisconsin’s democracy looked like on Election Day is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

‘Nowhere else I’d rather be’: An ordinary Election Day follows town’s extraordinary turmoil

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

An impassive portrait of George Washington watched Tuesday’s Election Day proceedings from his perch above the entrance of Westfield Town Hall.

Washington’s expression offered no hint that the Marquette County, Wisconsin, town was recovering from political tumult: fierce divisions on a three-member board that culminated in September when voters ousted their town chair in a recall election.

Westfield’s election inspector and chief election inspector soon resigned, along with its treasurer and a town supervisor. The same evening the board approved those resignations, the town clerk, that meeting’s notetaker, handed in her notice.

None of the resignees nor the former board chair, Sharon Galonski, responded to requests for comment for this story.

Several news outlets, including the Associated Press, reported the events, prompting questions about how the resignations might affect Westfield’s preparation for the general election.

But interim Town Clerk Courtney Trimble said the media blew the situation out of proportion. Volunteers immediately stepped forward following the poll workers’ resignations. Trimble said she had a list of 12 who offered their names.

“I’m confident in their ability,” she said Tuesday. “These elections always feel — I don’t want to say ‘pressure’ — there’s more training that you put in.”

‘Hopefully, tomorrow the commercials will stop!’

Westfield’s polling place occupies its white clapboard-clad town hall, surrounded by cornfields and conifers. The converted one-room schoolhouse dates to the mid-1800s, and chalkboards line its interior walls. Scotch-Irish settlers, attracted by the area’s fertile soil and nearby springs, founded the community.

Here, voters trend conservative. During the 2020 election, they handily handed then-incumbent President Donald Trump 333 votes — nearly two-thirds of ballots cast.

Election greeter Chris Vander Velde stood at the hall’s entrance Tuesday, directing voters to wait in the foyer. They shuffled to the registration table, where poll workers Frank Traina and Susan Porfilio sat. Those caught in the day’s periodic downpours squeaked on the hall’s wooden floors.

Such orderly proceedings were unlike the tempest 2024 presidential cycle, marked by the unexpected withdrawal of President Joe Biden, two assassination attempts against Trump and the rapid ascent of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

“Hopefully, tomorrow the commercials will stop!” said one voter who arrived mid-morning in a white and black plaid shirt and sparkly flip-flops.

She and Vander Velde laughed.

Behind her librarian glasses, Porfilio instructed electors to sign the register before continuing to the four voting booths arranged along the room’s perimeter.

The morning hustle? Distinctly ordinary.

Voters visited Westfield Town Hall in Marquette County, Wis., to cast ballots on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

One voter forgot her photo identification but returned later with the card in tow. A smiling man’s registration incorrectly appended the suffix “Sr.” to his name.

“I have no idea why,” he told Porfilio.

Traina checked IDs and reminded people the ballot was double-sided with the school referendum on the back

“Thank you for working the polls,” a voter in a maroon windbreaker told him.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Traina said. With every flick of his arm, his “In God we trust” tattoo peeked out from under his Harley-Davidson T-shirt.

Residents of all ages flocked to the polls.

“No ID?” Traina jokingly asked a curly-haired kid, waiting, as their family signed in.

The child mumbled, hands in pockets.

Later, a young woman in a red raincoat and glasses stepped before Porfilio.

“Have you ever voted here before?” Susan asked.

“No, it’s my first time voting in general,” the woman said.

By 10:30 a.m., over half the town’s electorate had cast ballots, including absentee and early voters.

Porfilio chatted with a man in a Lake Michigan shirt. She checked his voter number.

“And I’ll give you your license back,” Porfilio said.

“You heard my house burnt down, right?” he said.

“No!” she said. “When was that? Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah,” he muttered.

‘Take our township back!’

Across the room, Chief Election Inspector Lacey Baumann supervised the Dominion ballot drop box, the last stop on the voters’ town hall circuit.

Baumann awoke at 3:30 a.m. to milk her 53 goats so she could be at the town hall by 6 a.m., an hour before the polls opened. What started as a COVID-19 pandemic pastime became a side hustle, where she and her family make soaps, lotions, laundry detergent, bath salts and lip balm.

“I just want to confirm that there are two initials on the backside box of your ballot,” she told a woman in sweatpants. “You’re gonna put it in the machine where the arrows are. When you hear the second ‘ding,’ you’ll be good to go.”

Lacey’s twin sister, Lindsay Baumann, won Westfield’s recall election in September. Her campaign pledged to “take our township back!” and she bested Galonski by 32 votes.

Lacey Baumann, chief election inspector for the town of Westfield, casts her own ballot the morning of Nov. 5, 2024, at Westfield Town Hall in Marquette County, Wis. (Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch)

From the first meeting in 2023 when its members were sworn in, turmoil marked Westfield’s town board. Members sparred during meetings. Discussion routinely veered into accusations of malfeasance.

The recall petition charged Galonski with a litany of offenses, including initiating the termination of the volunteer fire department without considering citizen input and consulting the town board, spending taxpayer dollars in excess and denying a board supervisor access to town property.

At an August board meeting, Galonski defended her actions and rejected one attendee’s call to resign to spare the town the cost of a recall election.

“I haven’t done anything wrong — not a thing. Everything has been done according to the law and by vote of the board,” Galonski said. “The majority of the board has taken action on many of the things that you want to do a recall on.”

‘It’s our right. It’s our privilege’

Voters continued to stream into Westfield’s town hall for the rest of the day. The town reached another turnout milestone.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Vander Velde said. “It’s our right. It’s our privilege. It’s our responsibility.”

Vander Velde, who moved to Westfield more than three decades ago, enjoys chatting with fellow residents on Election Day, but another reason she enjoys working the polls is the chance to learn the rules and regulations. She calls herself a “law and order person.”

“Government is really of the people,” Vander Velde said. “The people in this township are really good, close people, and you expect your government to respond that way.”

As anxious Americans awaited news of the presidency’s fate, Baumann, the town’s newly elected chair, said she felt the political slugfest in her community was over.

“It seems like there’s a lot more happier people,” she said. “We’re getting somewhere.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

‘Nowhere else I’d rather be’: An ordinary Election Day follows town’s extraordinary turmoil is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

I’m out of town now. Is there a way to vote in Wisconsin elections online?

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

No. During Wisconsin elections, such as the upcoming general election on Nov. 5, regular voters may only cast ballots in person at a polling location or by mailing an absentee ballot.

The website myvote.wi.gov enables Wisconsin residents to register online and request a paper absentee ballot. For voters who are already registered, Oct. 31 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot. All absentee ballots must be received by municipal clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

However, there are exceptions for military and overseas voters.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, enacted in 1986, enables members of the U.S. Uniformed Services, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Merchant Marine; their family members and U.S. citizens residing outside the country to electronically request and receive voter registration and absentee ballot applications and blank absentee ballots.

Thirty-one states — but not Wisconsin — along with Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands allow some voters, including those in the military or overseas, to return ballots electronically, via fax, email or through an online portal. Wisconsin only allows those types of voters to request and receive absentee ballots electronically, but they must return hard copies via the post.

Overseas voters must request their absentee ballots by 5 p.m. Oct. 31.

Military voters away from home must request their absentee ballots before 5 p.m. on Election Day and return them to their municipal clerk by 8 p.m., which while theoretically possible, is unlikely to be successful when voting in Wisconsin.

The federal Voting Assistance Program recommends returning completed ballots 11 to 35 calendar days before the election to be counted, depending on the location of the uniformed service member or their eligible family.

Citing cybersecurity concerns, a federal interagency group issued guidance in 2020 to increase state election officials’ awareness of the risks associated with electronic ballot delivery and return. The four agencies recommended paper ballots, saying remote voting is “vulnerable to systemic disruption.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

I’m out of town now. Is there a way to vote in Wisconsin elections online? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin town of Eureka sued over large farm regulations

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

After notifying a northwest Wisconsin town last October of their intent to challenge a local ordinance that regulates livestock farming, two residents last week made good on their promise.

Wisconsin town of Eureka sued over large farm regulations is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

How many manure spills is too many? St. Croix County residents scrutinize big farm’s new owner

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The new owner of a large St. Croix County dairy farm with a history of manure spills is seeking to build trust among watchful residents who worry about deteriorating water quality.

How many manure spills is too many? St. Croix County residents scrutinize big farm’s new owner is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

What are the health risks of coal piles like the ones in Green Bay?

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

C. Reiss Terminals, a Great Lakes shipping company, has been transporting coal for more than 135 years from its dock in downtown Green Bay.

Locals and lawmakers have long complained about the fugitive dust that blows from its iconic coal piles into the surrounding low-income neighborhoods, whose residents — nearly half of whom are people of color — disproportionately bear the effects.

Officials hope to relocate the business, which occupies 35 acres along the Fox River near Mason Street. They unsuccessfully tried for years to identify a new site that meets the company’s operating needs.

But they found one at the now-razed J. P. Pulliam Generating Station, which shuttered in 2018. Brown County purchased the site of the former Public Service Corp. coal power plant three years later and intends to lease it to C. Reiss. But it would first need to transform the property — which is located in an industrial area at the Fox River’s mouth, more than a half mile from the closest residence — into a functioning port.

The city and the county have amassed more than $30 million in local, state and federal dollars for the project. Still, its future is unclear after the proposal wasn’t selected for another federal grant valued at $25 million. Local government leaders say they remain committed to seeing the project through.

The coal piles would not actually be moved, but rather drawn down by C. Reiss as coal is simultaneously deposited at the new site, where the power plant also stored coal outdoors for more than a century.

Coal piles release dust and gases as they are exposed to air. Long-term inhalation of coal dust can lead to lung and cardiovascular disease and death. C. Reiss reports its annual air emissions to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Carnegie Mellon University economists found that airborne particulates detected within 25 miles downwind of coal power plants increased alongside coal deliveries and the size of coal stockpiles. And as ambient fine particulates increased, so did the areas’ death rates.

“There may be relatively low-cost policy interventions to reduce the air pollution from coal piles,” study co-author Akshaya Jha said. “Covering the coal piles up. There are water-based or even chemical-based liquids that you can spray periodically on the coal pile to reduce the coal dust coming from the pile.”

Additionally, acidic runoff containing heavy metals forms when it rains on coal piles. The Wisconsin DNR regulates businesses that generate industrial stormwater and requires C. Reiss to follow a stormwater pollution prevention plan to reduce the risk of its coal piles polluting local water supplies.

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

What are the health risks of coal piles like the ones in Green Bay? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch, Author at Wisconsin Watch

Who pays for PFAS? Governor, GOP lawmakers wrestle over cleanup liability

Wisconsin is still sitting on $125 million for PFAS cleanup

What are PFAS?

What are state cleanup requirements?

What do the Senate bill’s backers dislike about current policy?

Is this actually happening to landowners?

What impacts would the Republican proposal have?

What does Evers say he’ll include in his upcoming budget?

Opting for coexistence: Some Wisconsin landowners learn to live with beavers

Dam lucky: How we caught a beaver (on camera)

*** A reporter’s view ***

*** A photojournalist’s view ***

*** A videojournalist’s view ***

Republican bill seeks more local control over wind, solar farms

An ecosystem engineer’s vision: mock beaver dams to restore Wisconsin wetlands

Photos: What Wisconsin’s democracy looked like on Election Day

‘Nowhere else I’d rather be’: An ordinary Election Day follows town’s extraordinary turmoil

‘Hopefully, tomorrow the commercials will stop!’

‘Take our township back!’

‘It’s our right. It’s our privilege’

I’m out of town now. Is there a way to vote in Wisconsin elections online?

Wisconsin town of Eureka sued over large farm regulations

How many manure spills is too many? St. Croix County residents scrutinize big farm’s new owner

What are the health risks of coal piles like the ones in Green Bay?

* A reporter’s view *

* A photojournalist’s view *

* A videojournalist’s view *