News From Walker's Fief - Budget Bill Would Eliminate Water Protections On Phosphorous, Ag. Runoff

[hatrack]

Gov. Scott Walker's budget bill proposal would roll back regulations designed to protect waterways from weed-producing phosphorus and other pollutants that wash from streets and construction sites.

EDIT

n his two-year budget starting July 1, Walker is proposing rules that would:

• Make sure Wisconsin's phosphorus limitations aren't stricter than surrounding states.

• Repeal state laws requiring communities, by 2013, to achieve a 40% reduction in total suspended solids, a component of runoff. Municipalities had complained that the mandate was expensive and hard to meet. It is already forcing many communities to increase street sweeping, install new catch basins and build settling ponds to capture pollutants.

• Transfer authority for regulating soil erosion at commercial construction sites from the DNR to a newly reorganized agency, the Department of Safety and Professional Services.

EDIT

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/118216519.html

[tabatha]

1. Yep, he is in the Koch's back pocket.

[Angry Dragon]

2. That is Dictator Walker ..... give him the correct title

he has earned it

[Mojorabbit]

3. Something similar here in Fl.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/tallahassee-shoves-a-fertilizer-bill-down-locals-throats/1157733
Now that our Legislature has given up on converting state parkland to golf courses, a terrible vacuum has been created. We need a new Worst Bill of the Year.

Today's candidate: the fertilizer bill.

The "fertilizer bill," also known as Senate Bill 606 and House Bill 457, would wipe out any local laws in Florida that restrict fertilizing one's lawn during the summer.

About 40 cities and counties in Florida have passed such rules, including Pinellas County and St. Petersburg.

The theory is that it rains now and then in Florida during the summer. The stuff washes off and ends up in the gulf, the lakes and rivers, choking the little fishies and making the algae happy.

[truedelphi]

4. Thank you hatrack. Good to know.

Then you have the situation in Michigan,where so much of the valuable water from underground aquifers there is being siphoned off to the big companies that pour it into plastic bottles and sell it to consumers.

Often without any payments at all. (Well, I mean no recorded payments to the citizens of the state. But possibly payments to some official's secret bank account.)