Defender
2021 SPRING
Finishing what we started Turning a corner on the bill to ban toxic pavement sealant products statewide By: Ezra Meyer, Water Resources Specialist
Since 2016, Clean Wisconsin has been working on an issue that lies at the intersection of public health and water quality in our lakes and rivers across the state. It has been a long road, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. We just need to secure sufficient bipartisan legislative support for the bill to pass, the way it was poised to do last session, in early 2020, before the pandemic hit.
Background PAHs, a toxic group of chemicals officially known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are found in extremely high concentrations in certain pavement sealant products regularly used across Wisconsin to seal asphalt driveways and parking lots. Pavement sealants slowly but surely break down over time, and toxic particles are carried by wind and shoes into our buildings, yards, and playgrounds or they run off into our streams, rivers, and lakes. Children exposed to those particles face a fourteen-
times higher risk of cancer over their lifetime and are toxic to fish and aquatic life. The good news is that alternative products, which work just as well and cost about the same, are readily available to consumers and to the contractors who businesses and institutions hire to do larger sealing jobs. Over the course of 2017-2019, we worked with local communities along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes coasts to raise awareness about this issue and to encourage them to take action to protect their residents and their local continued on Page 5
Meteor Timber Appellate Update Ruling expected from the Court of Appeals this year
Clean Wisconsin 634 W. Main St., #300 Madison, WI 53703-2500
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By: Evan Feinauer, Staff Attorney
In Clean Wisconsin’s long-running case to protect pristine and rare wetlands in Monroe County, we are approaching another crucial moment: a ruling from the Court of Appeals. In 2017, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued a wetland fill permit to Meteor Timber, an Atlanta-based company that wants to build a frac sand drying and transloading facility to ship sand to Texas for A ruling from the Court of Appeals is expected this year after a years-long case in which Clean Wisconsin is challenging a wetland fill permit issued from the DNR to Meteor Timber, an Atlanta-based company oil and gas extraction. that wants to build a frac sand drying and transloading facility to ship sand to Texas for oil and gas Their proposed project extraction. Clean Wisconsin challenged the permit in 2017, arguing that Meteor Timber’s mitigation would have permanently plan was scientifically unsound and would not compensate for the loss of such high-quality wetlands. destroyed over 16 acres of a rare and valuable provides habitat for rare species of plant wetland forest in Monroe County. Much and animal, absorbs water to reduce the of the 16.25-acre parcel consists of a incidence and severity of flooding, and unique White Pine-Red Maple wetland improves area water quality. considered imperiled by the State due In reviewing the permit application, to development pressures and because DNR’s wetland ecologist recommended there are so few wetlands like this left that the permit be denied, citing the in the world. This particular wetland continued on Page 5
Also in this issue
Nemadji Trail EnergyCenter Update | Investments in Renewables | Potential Flood Risks