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In response to a campaign by WNPJ member group Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, Wisconsin State regulators have ordered the U.S. Army to improve soil test methods for a carcinogenic explosive that has contaminated groundwater and drinking water wells in rural communities near Badger Army Ammunition Plant. The precedent-setting decision by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is expected to prompt similar requirements at other military bases where dinitrotoluene (DNT) contamination has been found.
Thanks to decades of informed advocacy by Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) and others, the WI Department of Natural Resources is supporting the most thorough clean-up option for contaminated soil at the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.
"Keeping in mind the future use of the site as the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area, this cleanup is protective of human health for even the most sensitive populations," a DNR official told the Wisconsin State Journal.
The DNR will hold a public open house on June 26 at 6 p.m. at the Ruth Culver Library, 540 Water St., Prairie du Sac. "We are taking the extra step of holding this open house because of the widespread interest and the long history of public involvement in the Badger cleanup effort," explained the DNR's regional director.
A resolution to repeal the Iron Mining Bill (SB/AB 1) submitted by WNPJ members and allies at the April 8 Conservation Congress passed by wide margins in all four counties in which it was introduced. The total vote was 49-6 in Clark County, 221-67 in Dane County, 32-6 in LaCrosse County, and 158 to 79 in Milwaukee County. Total 460 yes, 158 no. The vote tallies are especially significant considering the resolution did not come to the floor for discussion until the end of the formal agenda, around 11:00 p.m. in Dane County.
| Just days after a ten-thousand-strong protest that completely surrounded the White House, President Obama announced that a controversial pipeline project previously approved by the State Department would be sent back for a second review. |
The pipeline project would have transported Canadian tar sands oil to refineries in Texas, crossing environmentally sensitive areas and potentially threatening the Oglalla aquifer. The Canadian tar sands represent the largest unexploited pool of carbon remaining, causing climate scientist James Hansen to describe the Keystone XL project as the equivalent of "lighting a fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet." More than 1300 people were arrested at a civil disobedience action against the pipeline in August, an action that many Wisconsinites participated in. Read more...
In a sort of Alice in Wonderland version of the debate now going on in the Wisconsin Legislature, one of the biggest supporters of nuclear power declares that the Clean Energy Jobs Act is "anti-nuclear" and written to please "fringe groups" like WNPJ. That comes as news to WNPJ and others who have been working to strengthen the bill, which would open the door to more nuclear reactors in the state.
WNPJ member group Citizens Climate Lobby was featured with organizer Madeleine Para, in Madison's Isthmus newspaper. The group is promoting the Save Our Climate Act, which would establish a Carbon Fee and Divident Program.
WNPJ board member Chuck Baynton writes in the Journal Sentinel about the cost of nuclear power:
WNPJ board member Carl Sack, a member of Madison for the Penokees, a grassroots group supporting those in northern Wisconsin working to protect the Penokee hills from mining, writes in an opinion column in the Miilwaukee Journal Sentinel about a new legislative committee:
608-250-9240, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, 122 State Street, Suite 405A, Madison, WI 53703, Send an email to the office diane@wnpj.org.
WNPJ is a member of the Community Shares of Wisconsin.
