The Political Environment
This blog opposes sprawl, and supports conservation, resource stewardship, New Urbanism and progressive politics in Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes. James Rowen has written for newspapers and served as senior Mayoral staffer in Madison and Milwaukee, WI.
Updated: 24 min 33 sec ago
Waukesha Great Lakes Diversion Application Remains In Limbo
No formal review of the application from the City of Waukesha for a Great Lakes diversion has yet begun, according to the website established by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to track the application's status.
The application was endorsed by the Waukesha Common Council in April, then edited by Waukesha Water Utility and City Attorney officials before being submitted in June to the DNR, which tabled it pending receipt of additional information it sought from Waukesha.
The DNR is still assessing that added material - - the application, the DNR's review process and other relevant documentation are also on the DNR site.
Waukesha is applying for water under the 2008 Great Lakes Compact; Wisconsin and all seven other Great Lakes states would have to approve the application, with consultation and input also obtained - - but not a vote - - from two Canadian provinces that also border the Great Lakes before the application plan could be implemented.
The application has been analyzed and criticized by a coalition of environmental organizations: that analysis is here. Other references, here.
So it's not a quick or simple undertaking - - and Waukesha has agreed in writing to meet a June, 2018 legal deadline for the provision of water to its customers that complies with Federal quality standards.
Some Waukesha water from deep wells must be filtered and blended with water from separate, shallow wells to remove naturally-occurring radium - - a process Waukesha wants to end by switching to a Lake Michigan supply.
Waukesha believes Lake Michigan water supplied by the City of Milwaukee is its best option and estimates that such a plan would cost $164 million.
Among the many answered questions:
Would water supplied by Oak Creek or Racine be less or more expensive than a City of Milwaukee supply?
Will Waukesha's plan to send its treated wastewater back to Lake Michigan via Underwood Creek and the Menomonee River - - and not through a pipeline directly to the lake or to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District - - pass an environmental review in Wisconsin, and perhaps in other states concerned about the overall health of the Great Lakes basin?
Does Waukesha have additional and viable alternatives to a Lake Michigan diversion that will meet the Federal water quality standards?
Can Waukesha clear the multitude of legal, political and environmental hurdles the application faces - - in Waukesha, in Southeastern Wisconsin, at the DNR and across the Great Lakes both in the US and Canada - - by the June, 2018 deadline?
Some of these questions may produce answers if the DNR opens its formal application review, and if and when Waukesha or the DNR releases the Oak Creek and Racine cost information.
Those estimates are believed to have been made, though Waukesha has said for competitive and negotiating reasons it intends to keep them confidential.
Milwaukee is working on a separate compilation of cost estimates covering potential Milwaukee, Racine and Oak Creek supplies - - all part of what will influence contract and negotiations should they get underway if the DNR review proceeds.
And finally, will Milwaukee and Waukesha, should the application be approved by all eight states - - and if with Milwaukee is the preferred supplier- - be able to reach a deal for water that a) meshes Milwaukee's interest in a broad agreement tying water to a comprehensive social and economic issues package, with b) objections to that kind of a broader plan already stated by a number of leading Waukesha officials?
Complicated? You bet.
Was the Lake Michigan option the right choice by Waukesha?
The application is the first of its kind, all parties are in uncharted waters, and at this point there are more questions than answers.
The application was endorsed by the Waukesha Common Council in April, then edited by Waukesha Water Utility and City Attorney officials before being submitted in June to the DNR, which tabled it pending receipt of additional information it sought from Waukesha.
The DNR is still assessing that added material - - the application, the DNR's review process and other relevant documentation are also on the DNR site.
Waukesha is applying for water under the 2008 Great Lakes Compact; Wisconsin and all seven other Great Lakes states would have to approve the application, with consultation and input also obtained - - but not a vote - - from two Canadian provinces that also border the Great Lakes before the application plan could be implemented.
The application has been analyzed and criticized by a coalition of environmental organizations: that analysis is here. Other references, here.
So it's not a quick or simple undertaking - - and Waukesha has agreed in writing to meet a June, 2018 legal deadline for the provision of water to its customers that complies with Federal quality standards.
Some Waukesha water from deep wells must be filtered and blended with water from separate, shallow wells to remove naturally-occurring radium - - a process Waukesha wants to end by switching to a Lake Michigan supply.
Waukesha believes Lake Michigan water supplied by the City of Milwaukee is its best option and estimates that such a plan would cost $164 million.
Among the many answered questions:
Would water supplied by Oak Creek or Racine be less or more expensive than a City of Milwaukee supply?
Will Waukesha's plan to send its treated wastewater back to Lake Michigan via Underwood Creek and the Menomonee River - - and not through a pipeline directly to the lake or to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District - - pass an environmental review in Wisconsin, and perhaps in other states concerned about the overall health of the Great Lakes basin?
Does Waukesha have additional and viable alternatives to a Lake Michigan diversion that will meet the Federal water quality standards?
Can Waukesha clear the multitude of legal, political and environmental hurdles the application faces - - in Waukesha, in Southeastern Wisconsin, at the DNR and across the Great Lakes both in the US and Canada - - by the June, 2018 deadline?
Some of these questions may produce answers if the DNR opens its formal application review, and if and when Waukesha or the DNR releases the Oak Creek and Racine cost information.
Those estimates are believed to have been made, though Waukesha has said for competitive and negotiating reasons it intends to keep them confidential.
Milwaukee is working on a separate compilation of cost estimates covering potential Milwaukee, Racine and Oak Creek supplies - - all part of what will influence contract and negotiations should they get underway if the DNR review proceeds.
And finally, will Milwaukee and Waukesha, should the application be approved by all eight states - - and if with Milwaukee is the preferred supplier- - be able to reach a deal for water that a) meshes Milwaukee's interest in a broad agreement tying water to a comprehensive social and economic issues package, with b) objections to that kind of a broader plan already stated by a number of leading Waukesha officials?
Complicated? You bet.
Was the Lake Michigan option the right choice by Waukesha?
The application is the first of its kind, all parties are in uncharted waters, and at this point there are more questions than answers.
Categories: Environment
Obama's Infrastructure Bank A Good Idea; On The Right (Correct) Track
Getting the pork out of highway-building is probably impossible, given its centerpiece in the economy - - a point reiterated in the President's address in Milwaukee today - - but a rationalized process that includes rail and other transportation projects funded by an infrastructure bank is a good organizational change.
I loved the administration's commitment in his Labor Day speech to a national passenger rail system; jobs and growth for Milwaukee will be and already are the local outcomes - - white-collar as well as construction and equipment assembly- - and that point needs to be emphasized throughout the campaign.
If Walker or Neumann campaign against rail, that needs to be framed for what it is - - opposition to good jobs and meaningful growth in Milwaukee and Wisconsin - - including rail-induced development, worker paychecks, business services, and tax-base - - that would be lost to neighboring states if the high-speed train, an Amtrak upgrade, is blocked between Chicago and Madison.
Chicago is going to be hub for a regional train network that will offer connections for medium-length travel, on wi-fi equipped cars, that will be a boon to business and vacation travelers.
Not everyone has car, or wants to drive, for example, from Milwaukee to St. Paul, or St. Louis to Madison, with intermediate stops, airline cancellations or various issues or stresses with highway driving over several hundred miles or more.
Obama's plan will keep road-building at a very high pace, so the highway lobby and its allies in both parties, in all legislators, have nothing to fear from the train alternative getting some funding.
I loved the administration's commitment in his Labor Day speech to a national passenger rail system; jobs and growth for Milwaukee will be and already are the local outcomes - - white-collar as well as construction and equipment assembly- - and that point needs to be emphasized throughout the campaign.
If Walker or Neumann campaign against rail, that needs to be framed for what it is - - opposition to good jobs and meaningful growth in Milwaukee and Wisconsin - - including rail-induced development, worker paychecks, business services, and tax-base - - that would be lost to neighboring states if the high-speed train, an Amtrak upgrade, is blocked between Chicago and Madison.
Chicago is going to be hub for a regional train network that will offer connections for medium-length travel, on wi-fi equipped cars, that will be a boon to business and vacation travelers.
Not everyone has car, or wants to drive, for example, from Milwaukee to St. Paul, or St. Louis to Madison, with intermediate stops, airline cancellations or various issues or stresses with highway driving over several hundred miles or more.
Obama's plan will keep road-building at a very high pace, so the highway lobby and its allies in both parties, in all legislators, have nothing to fear from the train alternative getting some funding.
Categories: Environment
In Walker-Neumann MudballFest, Xoff Gets The Last Word
Read down the comments until you get to - Sep 05, 2010 5:24 PM - - when Xoff brings the historical context.
Boom! Too funny.
Boom! Too funny.
Categories: Environment
A Labor Day Report Card: SEWRPC Minority Hiring Still Skimpy
Let's take a Labor Day look at how the best jobs at the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission are distributed statistically, by race.
You still can't take a bus to SEWRPC's Pewaukee offices, and it's a long ride from Milwaukee and Racine, where most of the region's minority residents live, but since the agency deals with housing, transit and other hot-button issues in minority and low-income communities, it's fair to see what kind of record the agency has when it comes to race.
These are the current employment-by-race figures taken from the SEWRPC 2009-2010 affirmative action plan currently posted on the agency website (You can read the entire report,which has additional information, here.)
Total number of employees: 69.
Total number of managerial and professional employees, including the Executive Director: 46.
Total number of whites in those categories: 42; non-whites, four.
Total number of clerical and technical employees: 23. In those categories, 16 are white, seven are non-white.
So of 69 employees, 58 are white, 11 are non-white.
Here is how SEWRPC rates its performance, using more than one measuring stick, as you will see:
"On general, the Commission is meeting a fundamental goal of achieving a level of nonwhite employment in the managerial, professional and technical categories, exceeding such levels found in the available labor force of the Region. Moreover, the Commission’s level of nonwhite employment in the technical category exceeds such levels found in the available labor force of Milwaukee County. The Commission is not reaching the level of nonwhite participation in the clerical category evidenced in the Region. Accordingly, the Commission will continue to enhance its activities toward achieving a diverse workforce, including a focus on clerical and professional categories of its labor force as positions become available."
Compared to earlier data, the number of minority employees is marginally improved (with such a small sample, it's silly to talk in percentages) but the actual number of minority employees, especially in the higher-paying professional ranks - - 4 of 46 - - is nothing to write home about.
Little wonder that SEWRPC is still facing formal civil rights complaints on hiring and other matters.
Final note: The report says SEWRPC annually updates the document:
"This affirmative action plan will be updated in July each year. This will consist of an update of the workforce analysis, together with comments relative to progress in reaching the Commission’s diversity employment goals, changes in those goals as may be appropriate, and any desirable modifications to activities."
But I don't see it on the website at the line at the bottom of the page about the agency's Affirmative Action plan.
So how would you rate SEWRPC on these matters?
I'd give the agency a "D."
You still can't take a bus to SEWRPC's Pewaukee offices, and it's a long ride from Milwaukee and Racine, where most of the region's minority residents live, but since the agency deals with housing, transit and other hot-button issues in minority and low-income communities, it's fair to see what kind of record the agency has when it comes to race.
These are the current employment-by-race figures taken from the SEWRPC 2009-2010 affirmative action plan currently posted on the agency website (You can read the entire report,which has additional information, here.)
Total number of employees: 69.
Total number of managerial and professional employees, including the Executive Director: 46.
Total number of whites in those categories: 42; non-whites, four.
Total number of clerical and technical employees: 23. In those categories, 16 are white, seven are non-white.
So of 69 employees, 58 are white, 11 are non-white.
Here is how SEWRPC rates its performance, using more than one measuring stick, as you will see:
"On general, the Commission is meeting a fundamental goal of achieving a level of nonwhite employment in the managerial, professional and technical categories, exceeding such levels found in the available labor force of the Region. Moreover, the Commission’s level of nonwhite employment in the technical category exceeds such levels found in the available labor force of Milwaukee County. The Commission is not reaching the level of nonwhite participation in the clerical category evidenced in the Region. Accordingly, the Commission will continue to enhance its activities toward achieving a diverse workforce, including a focus on clerical and professional categories of its labor force as positions become available."
Compared to earlier data, the number of minority employees is marginally improved (with such a small sample, it's silly to talk in percentages) but the actual number of minority employees, especially in the higher-paying professional ranks - - 4 of 46 - - is nothing to write home about.
Little wonder that SEWRPC is still facing formal civil rights complaints on hiring and other matters.
Final note: The report says SEWRPC annually updates the document:
"This affirmative action plan will be updated in July each year. This will consist of an update of the workforce analysis, together with comments relative to progress in reaching the Commission’s diversity employment goals, changes in those goals as may be appropriate, and any desirable modifications to activities."
But I don't see it on the website at the line at the bottom of the page about the agency's Affirmative Action plan.
So how would you rate SEWRPC on these matters?
I'd give the agency a "D."
Categories: Environment
Obama, Barrett, Should Tout Menomonee Valley/Jobs' Success
Mayor Tom Barrett and President Barack Obama need look no farther Monday than Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, or the former Tower automotive plant-turned-train assembler, for a good Labor Day stories.
Years of hard work to reclaim the once-polluted and oft-ignored Valley have led to high-profile plant openings or commitments: Palermo's Pizza, for one - - and the two exciting and clean/alternative energy innovators - - Helios USA, (solar panels) and Ingeteam (wind turbines).
Talgo, the Spanish train maker, is also opening in Milwaukee at the Tower plant on the west side, assembling train sets for the high-speed rail initiative that is a centerpiece of Obama's infrastructure focus.
Local, state and federal investments have helped bring about these new plants, their production jobs and the spin-off white collar employment - - all in an older part of the city with sizable numbers of low-income and minority residents living close to these workforce opportunities.
Call it a green revolution with a blue collar: The new Milwaukee honoring the tried and true.
Barrett and Obama can also say that Republicans in Wisconsin are hostile to some of the public programming that helped bring these high-paying jobs, and their tax-base support, and the overall added value to Milwaukee - - the economic driver for Southeast Wisconsin and the entire state.
It's a strong and positive political and economic message.
It can be delivered with pride and conviction.
The environmental cleanup, alternative energy, economic growth and jobs connections evident in the Valley, and not far away at Tower, are a model for the rest of the country, and they illustrate a real path out of the recession to a cleaner, greener and recovered economy.
There's your new paradigm.
There's the change we hoped for.
Years of hard work to reclaim the once-polluted and oft-ignored Valley have led to high-profile plant openings or commitments: Palermo's Pizza, for one - - and the two exciting and clean/alternative energy innovators - - Helios USA, (solar panels) and Ingeteam (wind turbines).
Talgo, the Spanish train maker, is also opening in Milwaukee at the Tower plant on the west side, assembling train sets for the high-speed rail initiative that is a centerpiece of Obama's infrastructure focus.
Local, state and federal investments have helped bring about these new plants, their production jobs and the spin-off white collar employment - - all in an older part of the city with sizable numbers of low-income and minority residents living close to these workforce opportunities.
Call it a green revolution with a blue collar: The new Milwaukee honoring the tried and true.
Barrett and Obama can also say that Republicans in Wisconsin are hostile to some of the public programming that helped bring these high-paying jobs, and their tax-base support, and the overall added value to Milwaukee - - the economic driver for Southeast Wisconsin and the entire state.
It's a strong and positive political and economic message.
It can be delivered with pride and conviction.
The environmental cleanup, alternative energy, economic growth and jobs connections evident in the Valley, and not far away at Tower, are a model for the rest of the country, and they illustrate a real path out of the recession to a cleaner, greener and recovered economy.
There's your new paradigm.
There's the change we hoped for.
Categories: Environment
What Not To Have In Your Campaign Archive
"Ariz. governor says she was wrong about beheadings"
From Saturday''s Washington Post.
I mean, it's not like there's a middle ground, beheadingwise.
Definitely not one for the grandkids' scrapbook.
From Saturday''s Washington Post.
I mean, it's not like there's a middle ground, beheadingwise.
Definitely not one for the grandkids' scrapbook.
Categories: Environment
Language Reminder For Comment Writers
I won't be posting comments containing ethnic or stereotypical slurs,.
Categories: Environment
Koch Brothers, Big Businesses, Using Money To Deflate California Clean Air Act
The Koch brothers - - those anti-big government, pro-big-government contract conglomerate - - join the California dirty air parade.
In Wisconsin, the parallels are at the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which is the center of the fight to weaken air quality in Wisconsin.
Remember these folks the next time you hear that the Dairy State is again the Dirty Air state.
In Wisconsin, the parallels are at the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which is the center of the fight to weaken air quality in Wisconsin.
Remember these folks the next time you hear that the Dairy State is again the Dirty Air state.
Categories: Environment
MMSD Continues Green Innovation
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, already cleaning streams with riverbank purchases and reconstructed wetlands, moves another step towards burning methane captured and piped from a landfill to treatment facilities.
Cue the irrelevant, snarky comments at 3...2...1...
Cue the irrelevant, snarky comments at 3...2...1...
Categories: Environment
The Appointed Governor Of Arizona Continues To Self-Destruct
Jan Brewer, having beheaded her candidacy in a debate, decides the solution is...no more debates.
Oh, Arizona, poster-state for the GOP: keep it up!
Oh, Arizona, poster-state for the GOP: keep it up!
Categories: Environment
Koch Industries Hates Big Government - - Loves Its $84.5 Million In Contracts
As, yes, Koch Industries - - privately owned by the infamous Koch brothers - - leading financiers of the far-right that wants to restore small government while taking back the country...well, except for the $84.5 million in federal contracting Koch Industries is hauling in, federal data show.
Hat tip, Patrick McIlheran, whose blog started a chain of URL's that landed me on the federal spending site.
Hat tip, Patrick McIlheran, whose blog started a chain of URL's that landed me on the federal spending site.
Categories: Environment
Walker Still Nervous About Neumann
Scott Walker has been behaving like the GOP's presumptive primary winner - - even like an incumbent-elect planning an administration - - but that he needed to lash out at Mark Neumann today suggests Walker still has an eye on Neumann.
Given the national successes that some conservatives have had running as independents/Tea Partiers against Republican regulars this year, Neumann is probably kicking himself for going after the nomination as a Republican.
That's it for today's unsolicited consulting advice from me to the Neumann camp.
Given the national successes that some conservatives have had running as independents/Tea Partiers against Republican regulars this year, Neumann is probably kicking himself for going after the nomination as a Republican.
That's it for today's unsolicited consulting advice from me to the Neumann camp.
Categories: Environment
Rethink That Marquette Interchange Award
It won this award for a so-called big project coming in under budget.
Closing one of the ramps for an unsafe design sort of undermines that award.
And contractor HNTB is still bragging on its website about another honor for the Marquette.
Closing one of the ramps for an unsafe design sort of undermines that award.
And contractor HNTB is still bragging on its website about another honor for the Marquette.
Categories: Environment
Outsized Madison Development On Hold As Too Suburban
New Urbanists, environmentalists and others helped shelve this project slated for a major West side intersection.
I've been at that location hundreds of times over the years, and I can tell you that the development's scale and impact would overwhelm the area.
And I understand there were concerns that a project of this size above a Madison well could lead to groundwater contamination problems.
So good for the activists and the city's Urban Design Commission slowing this down, for now.
I've been at that location hundreds of times over the years, and I can tell you that the development's scale and impact would overwhelm the area.
And I understand there were concerns that a project of this size above a Madison well could lead to groundwater contamination problems.
So good for the activists and the city's Urban Design Commission slowing this down, for now.
Categories: Environment
WisDOT Delivers The Marquette Interchange On Time, Under Budget, And Below Par
Well, that didn't take long, did it?
The fancy-shamncy Marquette Interchange, touted by the state as being finished on time and under budget, has cracks and a fundamental design flaw on one ramp so severe that it's closed for emergency repairs.
What was the project built to - - a 30-year design standard? Fifty years? I really do forget, but the hype was endless.
The Wisconsin DOT in SE Wisconsin has had a lot of these problems:
A big section of the Hoan Bridge slipped and buckled a few years ago; smaller pieces are still falling - - into nets.
And there were those emergency repairs to three bridges in the Zoo Interchange earlier this year - - so should we think that when WisDOT gets around to spending $2.3 billion on that project, and the $1.9 billion in the I-94 North-South leg from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line that the government-road-builder complex will deliver us anything close to the new and rebuilt lands, bridges and ramps with shelf lives as promised?
All these so-called freeway (not so-free) improvements were sold to the public as safety upgrades, with the added lanes - - 127 miles total - - as mere throw-ins.
We knew going in that all that concrete would need repairs down the road, but after such a short period - - two years to be found unsafe?
As with the collapse at Milwaukee County's O'Donnell Park, this is hardly a confidence builder in government officials and inspectors who supervise well-paid contractors for jobs apparently not well done.
The fancy-shamncy Marquette Interchange, touted by the state as being finished on time and under budget, has cracks and a fundamental design flaw on one ramp so severe that it's closed for emergency repairs.
What was the project built to - - a 30-year design standard? Fifty years? I really do forget, but the hype was endless.
The Wisconsin DOT in SE Wisconsin has had a lot of these problems:
A big section of the Hoan Bridge slipped and buckled a few years ago; smaller pieces are still falling - - into nets.
And there were those emergency repairs to three bridges in the Zoo Interchange earlier this year - - so should we think that when WisDOT gets around to spending $2.3 billion on that project, and the $1.9 billion in the I-94 North-South leg from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line that the government-road-builder complex will deliver us anything close to the new and rebuilt lands, bridges and ramps with shelf lives as promised?
All these so-called freeway (not so-free) improvements were sold to the public as safety upgrades, with the added lanes - - 127 miles total - - as mere throw-ins.
We knew going in that all that concrete would need repairs down the road, but after such a short period - - two years to be found unsafe?
As with the collapse at Milwaukee County's O'Donnell Park, this is hardly a confidence builder in government officials and inspectors who supervise well-paid contractors for jobs apparently not well done.
Categories: Environment
Scott Walker Finally Tells Us How He Spends His Time
"Im tired of sitting in a deer stand all day."
Maybe being on the job full-time at the Courthouse dealing with County business would have been a better choice.
Maybe being on the job full-time at the Courthouse dealing with County business would have been a better choice.
Categories: Environment
GOP's Johnson: Another Rich Man Of The People
$4.4 million into his own campaign, and counting.
Interesting that he is running against the co-sponsor of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
And it's something of a trend in this the year of the aggrieved everywoman/man of tea party persuasion.
Interesting that he is running against the co-sponsor of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
And it's something of a trend in this the year of the aggrieved everywoman/man of tea party persuasion.
Categories: Environment
Arizona's Political Environment Gets Wackier
Here's incumbent Governor Jan Brewer's opening debate, televised statement.
Yipes.
Yipes.
Categories: Environment
River Success In Milwaukee
A lot of people and groups were involved in the Milwaukee River upgrade. Details from River Alliance of Wisconsin.
Categories: Environment
League Of Conservation Voters 2010 Endorsements Posted
The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters website shows which candidates it has endorsed so far this year. Here is the link.
Categories: Environment
