WisBiz Green

12/11/2025

Wisconsin moves to require lead pipes replaced by 2037

Some groups hail the move for strengthening protections, but others voice concerns about costs

https://www.wpr.org/topic/environment

12/11/2025

More stories on this can be found in Comments section.

The lawsuit is the latest example of growing friction across the state over the pending influx of data centers coming to Wisconsin.

12/10/2025

Wisconsin’s Agriculture And Conservation Leaders Unite To Protect Our Waters And Strengthen Our Farms

PLOVER, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today announced that nearly 150 farmers, agricultural industry representatives, conservation organization members and government leaders gathered at the Agriculture & Conservation Roundtable on Dec. 9 to tackle one of Wisconsin’s most pressing challenges: keeping our waters drinkable, fishable and swimmable while sustaining the productivity of our farms.

Hosted by the Interagency Water Quality Workgroup (IWQW) at the Food + Farm Exploration Center in Plover, the event marked a major milestone in advancing Wisconsin’s next Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS), a statewide framework to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural lands through farmer-led innovation and science-based collaboration.

"Clean water and thriving agriculture depend on each other," said Karen Hyun, DNR Secretary. "This roundtable proves what’s possible when we bring farmers, researchers and agencies to the same table. Together, we’re building a future where conservation strengthens Wisconsin’s farm economy."

Why It Matters
Every Wisconsin community depends on clean, reliable water for drinking, fishing, recreation and economic vitality. Nutrient losses from agricultural land can cause algae blooms, harm aquatic life and contaminate groundwater. But they also mean lost fertilizer, soil and profits for farmers.

The roundtable underscored a powerful truth: when agriculture and conservation work together, everyone benefits. Reducing nutrient loss improves farm efficiency and profitability, enhances soil health and protects the water resources that sustain Wisconsin’s way of life.

A Collaborative Approach
The IWQW is a partnership among the Wisconsin DNR, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP); Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association; the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS); the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension; and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The roundtable was designed as a working session focused on action and collaboration.

Through facilitated discussion, participants explored five key themes shaping the future of Wisconsin’s nutrient-loss work:

Peer Networks and Local Leadership – Empowering farmer-to-farmer learning and grassroots collaboration.
Trust and Communication – Building relationships and shared understanding across agencies, agronomists and producers.
Funding and Economic Opportunities – Aligning financial incentives and market-based opportunities with measurable conservation outcomes.
Technology and Research – Expanding access to data, modeling and field-tested innovations.
Consistency and Accountability – Clarifying regulatory and program expectations, tracking progress and ensuring transparency statewide.
For each theme, participants identified both near-term actions to jump-start progress and long-term strategies to guide the 2026 NLRS update.

"The participation was really strong," said Darin Harris, who led the session design and facilitation. "Farmers, scientists and agency staff came ready to listen and solve problems, not defend positions. That’s what true collaboration looks like."

"We all want clean water and productive farms," added Duane Ducat, a participant from a producer-led watershed group. "What this meeting showed is that when we share ideas and work together, we can make real progress, one field, one stream, one community at a time."

Next Steps
The ideas and strategies developed at the roundtable will directly inform Wisconsin’s 2026 Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, aligning research, funding, policy and outreach across agencies and partners to deliver greater impact and accountability.

The IWQW will release a public summary of outcomes early next year and invites continued engagement from farmers, agronomists, conservation professionals and community leaders.

"A big nod of the head and tip of the hat to the farmers and partners who traveled from all over the state. Thank you and this is just the beginning," said Jeffrey Voltz, Director of the DNR’s Office of Agriculture and Water Quality, on behalf of the IWQW. "Our job now is to turn the momentum from this event and the support from Wisconsin’s agriculture community into measurable results on the land, in the water and for Wisconsin farmers."

Get Involved
Farmers, watershed groups, agronomists and conservation partners are encouraged to stay involved as the strategy moves forward. Visit Wisconsin.gov's Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy webpage to learn how to participate, share feedback and access resources.

12/10/2025

GOP bill would ban local ‘rights of nature’ ordinances

More than 500 'rights of nature' laws or policies have been passed worldwide

https://www.wpr.org/topic/environment

12/10/2025

https://www.midwestfarmreport.com/2025/12/09/carbon-credits-still-a-viable-financial-option/

Agoro Carbon Alliance recently secured a flagship carbon credit agreement with tech giant Microsoft, says agronomist Clay Craighton.

12/10/2025

https://www.wpr.org/news/wisconsin-reviews-registration-epa-approved-pesticides-pfas

Wisconsin is reviewing registration of pesticides that some Wisconsin farm groups say would help manage pests and disease, but some scientists and environmentalists argue they contain PFAS.

12/10/2025

Wisconsin’s climate is generally expected to get warmer and wetter in the decades to come, according to the state climatologist, though projections for less summer rainfall could pose an issue for agriculture.

Steve Vavrus, director of the State Climatology Office at UW-Madison and co-director of the Wisconsin Iniatitive on Climate Change Impacts, discussed these and other trends during yesterday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee.

Vavrus said Wisconsin’s temperature is generally expected to continue getting warmer in decades to come, with more extreme heat and less extreme cold. The picture for precipitation is somewhat more complicated, though winter, spring and fall are all projected to get wetter over that period.

“The newest climate models are projecting that the summers will become dryer by about 10 to 15% across the state, that is kind of a new result … and that has implications for agriculture in particular, also tourism, water resources and so on,” he said.

Ancient ecological changes have shaped the state’s modern-day economy, he noted, pointing to glaciers bringing fertile soil down from Canada before receding thousands of years ago. That created the rich farmland that supports Wisconsin’s agricultural industries, Vavrus explained.

Looking ahead, he warned the effects of climate change could have further impacts on the state economy, as extreme weather events are on the rise.

While the number of billion-dollar weather “disasters” in the United States has been trending upward since the 1980s, the greatest increases were seen in the last decade or so, according to Vavrus. In Wisconsin, extreme weather has been increasing for well over a hundred years, he noted, pointing to a 25% statewide increase since the 1890s.

He referenced the recent flooding in the Milwaukee area that occurred late this summer, stemming from what he called a 1,000-year rainfall event that’s typically only expected once per millennium.

“It is going to go down as a new statewide record for most rainfall in a 24-hour period,” he said. “So we’re putting the final touches on the official notification, but it’s going to be this 14.5-inch bullseye over at Madison High School … at this point, the price tag is $76 million and it will probably climb further.”

Vavrus was referring to Madison University High School, located about 12 miles northwest of downtown Milwaukee.

Watch the video.

12/10/2025

Utilities lined up against solar developers and landowners in a Senate committee hearing for more than three hours of testimony on a bill expanding community solar development.

Wisconsin’s regulated energy market means that power generation is typically reserved for utilities and electric cooperatives.

SB 559 would allow utility consumers to subscribe to private solar facilities and receive a credit to their electric bill.

Proponents argue the bill would help meet the state’s growing energy needs and place a damper on residents’ rising power bills.

“We need an all-of-the-above approach to energy production here in the state of Wisconsin and this is a step in the right direction,” said Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, who co-sponsored the bill.

Rate adjustments for Alliant Energy, Xcel Energy and Madison Gas and Electric this year will cost some Wisconsin residents a combined $330 million over the next two years. See more in a recent story.

Proponents yesterday said the bill would expand workforce opportunities in the solar industry and offer a financial bulwark for farmers who could lease their land to solar farms.

Speakers from Xcel, Alliant, MGE and We Energies testified against the bill yesterday, with Joel Haubrich of We Energies calling it a “developer-driven subsidy scheme.”

They argued the bill would push solar users’ costs onto other consumers and hamper their own solar development efforts by making private development more attractive to solar companies than bidding on utilities’ own solar projects.

“When a company promises you a discount, someone else has to pay for it,” said Zack Hill, senior public and community affairs manager for Alliant Energy.

The battle lines remained largely the same from two prior attempts to pass a third-party solar bill, in 2021 and 2023.

Sarah Moon of solar developer Fieldworks highlighted changes third-party solar proponents had made to the latest version of the bill to appease utilities, including adding a $20 price floor to consumers’ electric bills to cover utility transmission costs and cap third-party solar capacity at 1.75 gigawatts statewide.

For reference, the old Oak Creek Power Plant could generate 1.14 gigawatts at its peak.

Utility representatives acknowledged those changes but indicated they did not go far enough.

Hill claimed the bill would cost utility consumers who did not subscribe to third-party solar some $8.75 billion over the next 25 years.

Karl Rabago, an energy consultant and former Colorado utility commissioner, called that figure “histrionic” and suggested that consumers would only bear that added cost if utility providers did not share cost-savings on reduced transmission needs.

“The utility position sounds like, ‘let us do it all, and no one gets hurt,’” Rabago quipped.

12/10/2025

WARF is spotlighting an altered form of soybean plant as a top licensing prospect, with potential applications in food dye production as an alternative to more harmful synthetic chemicals.

The soybean plant was engineered to produce large amounts of a natural red pigment called betalain in hopes of replacing synthetic dyes like Red Dye No. 3, which have come under fire by the FDA due to possible health concerns.

It was created by a group of scientists including UW-Madison Prof. Hiroshi Maeda, graduate student Soyoung Jung and Ray Collier, a department manager within the university’s Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center.

While natural alternatives already exist, such as beet juice extract, Maeda says it can be as much as 10 times more expensive than the synthetic options.

“Our lab has been interested in plant chemical pathways or plant metabolism, when we heard about the issues or the challenges of producing natural color in an affordable and scalable manner, we thought we could appy our expertise to help address this societal problem,” he said in remarks provided by WARF.

To create the modified plant, the scientists introduced a betalain-producing chemical pathway into the soybeans, while also giving the plants more of the “building blocks” needed to create the pigment. They explored other options but found the soybean plants worked best due to being more tolerant to the induced change.

Collier says “we haven’t hit the limit” for increasing this pigment production within soybean plants.

“The potential to really ramp this up in [soybeans], it’s real … that’s why Jung’s work is so important, because to make that a sustainable increase that doesn’t, you know, negatively impact the health of the plant or the ability of the seeds to germinate, those are critically important for producing a commercial product,” he said.

In addition to the potential use in making better food dyes, the altered soybean plants also include other chemicals with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, Jung said. They produce a compound called L-DOPA that’s used in brain health supplements, an overview from WARF notes.

“In our soybean, because we are producing these chemicals in all of those leaves and seeds and all of those tissues, so they’re pretty abundant everywhere in our soybeans,” she said, adding the team aims to work with industry partners on pilot-scale experiments geared toward commercialization.

See more here.

12/10/2025

Gov. Evers, DNR Announce More Than $159 Million to Ensure Clean, Safe Drinking Water for Wisconsinites in 29 Municipalities

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), today announced more than $159 million has been allocated for financial assistance through the Lead Service Line Replacement Program to 29 municipalities across the state to ensure Wisconsinites have access to clean, safe drinking water that is free of lead. The funding will help municipalities replace lead service lines, with a special focus on small and disadvantaged communities.

“There is no safe level of lead, period, and getting these harmful contaminants out of our water systems once and for all has been a top priority of my administration since Day One,” said Gov. Evers. “Wisconsin has been a national leader in spearheading lead service line replacement efforts, and thanks in part to the bipartisan, pro-kid 2025-27 Biennial Budget I signed earlier this year, in which we were able to increase borrowing for the Environmental Improvement Fund by over $730 million to help meet statewide demand for low-interest financing for clean water and safe drinking water loans, dozens of municipalities across the state are getting a much-needed boost to continue this important work.”

Passed by the U.S. Congress in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) included $50 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen and rebuild the nation’s water infrastructure. This historic investment provided $15 billion for lead service line identification and replacement nationwide.

A subprogram of the federal Safe Drinking Water Loan Program, the Lead Service Line Replacement Program, utilizing federal BIL funding, provides funding to municipalities for both public and private lead service line replacements and related lead service line inventory work to protect public health. Since the first version of the Lead Service Line Replacement Program began in state fiscal year 2017, the DNR and the Wisconsin Department of Administration have provided more than $267 million in financial assistance to Wisconsin municipalities for lead service line replacement projects. Additional information about the current Lead Service Line Replacement Program can be found online here.

“Every family, every business, every school, and every community needs to know when they turn on their tap, it’s clean water coming out. Sadly, that is just not the case in too many of our communities, and the consequences of lead poisoning, especially for our children, are dire,” said U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). “That’s why I am so proud to have voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace dangerous lead pipes, delivering clean water to families across the state and creating good-paying jobs in the process.”

Funding requested for the current cycle totaled over $182 million. Any project that was not fully funded will be offered base Safe Drinking Water Loan Program funds that will be at the standard subsidized loan interest rate at either 55 percent or 33 percent of the market rate, rather than the 0.25 percent rate offered for loan funds from the BIL Lead Service Line capitalization grant. See the DNR’s Interest Rates webpage for more information.

According to the DNR, throughout the state, there are more than 132,000 known public side lead service lines, more than 128,000 known private side lead service lines, and more than 208,000 service lines of unknown composition that may contain lead. This funding will help municipalities continue their efforts toward the goal of replacing the remaining lead service lines.

Examples of preliminarily approved projects include:

Milwaukee | Over $50 million
The city of Milwaukee was allocated over $50 million in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which more than $19 million of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Racine | $40 million
The city of Racine was allocated $40 million in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which more than $21 million of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Manitowoc | Over $14 million
The city of Manitowoc was allocated over $14 million in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which nearly $7.3 million of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Oshkosh | Over $6 million
The city of Oshkosh was allocated over $6 million in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which more than $2.7 million of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Chippewa Falls | Over $1.9 million

The city of Chippewa Falls was allocated over $1.9 million in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which $957,750 of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Thorp | Over $733,000

The city of Thorp was allocated over $733,000 in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which more than $366,000 of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

Rice Lake | $732,500

The city of Rice Lake was allocated $732,500 in Lead Service Line Replacement funding, of which nearly $550,000 of these funds are lead service line principal forgiveness, with the remainder through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.

The 2026 Lead Service Line Replacement Program funding list is available here. Additional information on Lead Service Line Replacement funding is available here.

Gov. Evers has made efforts to replace lead service lines across the state a top priority. Earlier this year, Gov. Evers announced the Wisconsin Department of Health Services finalized a new rule, making permanent an emergency rule that the governor approved in January, to combat lead poisoning statewide by lowering the lead poisoning threshold to 3.5 µg/dL. By lowering the lead poisoning threshold, more kids and families will be eligible for lead poisoning and intervention resources, including education programming, screening, care coordination or follow-up services for kids not covered by a third-party payer, and other activities related to poisoning or exposure.

Additionally, the governor’s 2025-27 Biennial Budget proposal included an investment of more than $300 million to help get lead out of Wisconsinites’ pipes, bubblers, schools, homes, and child care centers for good. Unfortunately, Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature gutted the governor’s efforts to clean up lead, PFAS, and other harmful contaminants statewide and rejected hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to ensure kids, families, and farmers have access to safe and clean drinking water. Despite this setback, Gov. Evers maintains that replacing lead service lines and ensuring Wisconsinites have access to clean and safe water is essential.

ADDITIONAL EVERS ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS TO ENSURE WISCONSINITES HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN, SAFE DRINKING WATER
Gov. Evers declared 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water, and for the past six years, the governor has prioritized efforts to invest in clean water infrastructure and ensure Wisconsinites have access to safe, clean water statewide. Earlier this year, Gov. Evers declared 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin and announced several new efforts to address childhood lead poisoning and ensure clean drinking water for all, many of which were included in the 2025-27 bipartisan, pro-kid budget that the governor signed earlier this year.

To continue building upon the governor’s work to ensure Wisconsin’s kids and families have clean, safe drinking water, the 2025-27 Biennial Budget increases borrowing for the state’s Environmental Improvement Fund by $731.6 million to secure federal clean water and safe drinking water capitalization grants over the next four years. This will help meet the increasing demand from local communities who need support to upgrade local water systems and infrastructure to ensure every Wisconsin kid, family, and community has clean, safe drinking water.

In addition, the 2025-27 Biennial Budget provides:
$2 million for the development of a remedial action plan for the remediation of arsenic-contaminated sediment in the Kewaunee Marsh;
$4 million to be used for remedial action at the Amcast Superfund site;
$6 million in bonding to be used for the Kenosha Dunes restoration project;
$7.5 million for contaminated sediment removal from sites in the Great Lakes or its tributaries that are on Wisconsin’s impaired waters list to continue protecting this resource;
$4 million for Urban Nonpoint Source cost-sharing and the Municipal Flood Control Program;
$6.5 million to counties for capital projects that implement land and water resource management plans under the Targeted Runoff Management Program;
$7 million for grants to counties for implementation of land and water resource management plans, including cost-share grants to landowners that install conservation practices on their land, such as erosion prevention strategies, through the Soil and Water Resource Management Program;
$4 million for the repair, reconstruction, and removal of dams;
Over $1.8 million over the biennium to update the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ systems and improve customer service for Wisconsinites; and
More than $12 million to support county conservation staff around the state.
Additionally, Gov. Evers has been clear that his top priority in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget would be to pass a pro-kid budget that makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin’s kids at every stage and every age, from early childhood to K-12 to our higher education institutions, as well as ensuring kids and families have access to safe, clean drinking water. More information about the bipartisan pro-kid budget signed by Gov. Evers is available here. More on Gov. Evers’ efforts to ensure Wisconsin’s kids and families have clean, safe drinking water is available here.


An online version of this release is available here.
# # #

12/09/2025

DNR Releases Its 2024 Water Withdrawal Report
Report Examines Role Of Water Use In Wisconsin’s Energy Production

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently released its 2024 Report on Water Withdrawals, which gives an overview of the past 10 years of water withdrawals throughout Wisconsin.

Since the onset of the Great Lakes Compact, Wisconsin requires water users to register and annually report on any surface water or groundwater withdrawals that have the capacity to pump 100,000 gallons per day. Data reported to the DNR revealed that:

The largest water withdrawals were for power production, municipal water supply and crop irrigation.
In 2024, Wisconsin cities, agricultural operations, businesses, industry and power generation facilities withdrew almost 1.7 trillion gallons from groundwater and surface water sources – the equivalent of just over 1% of the volume of Lake Michigan.
Power production was the largest water use category at 73% of the total water in 2024, with municipal supply following at 11%.
“While Wisconsin’s overall water use has remained relatively consistent over the past decade, shifts in local demand often require careful consideration of water efficiency, as well as resource availability and long-term sustainability. Water withdrawal data continues to play an essential role in informing those discussions,” said Adam Freihoefer, DNR Water Use Section Manager.

Though electricity-generating facilities withdraw the largest volumes of water of any user group in Wisconsin, their water use has been steadily declining over the past 10 years. Wisconsin has a diverse energy landscape with renewable, fossil fuel and nuclear generating stations. Depending on the cooling technology used, each power plant has different water use needs. Recirculating cooling systems generally withdraw less water but have a higher percent consumptive use, while once-through cooling systems use greater volumes of water but have lower proportional consumptive use.

Read the full 2024 Water Withdrawals Report and visit the DNR's Wisconsin’s Decade of Water Withdrawals story map to learn more about the state’s water use reporting and trends.

12/09/2025

https://www.wpr.org/news/invasive-sea-lamprey-comeback-great-lakes-federal-funding

Journalist Katie Thornton took a deep dive on the invasive sea lamprey that once wreaked havoc on the Great Lakes fish population. The ‘vampire fish’ kills aquatic life by stabbing its prey with a razor sharp tongue. She says it could be making a comeback.