Clean water bills headed to Capitol this week

By: Raymond Neupert, Wisconsin Radio Network 

A package of bills focused on improving water quality will be introduced in Wisconsin Wednesday. 

Republican State Representative Scott Krug says one big part of the bill will be support for an already successful farm conservation program.

 “Giving folks a chance to locally collaborate on their own watersheds to fix their problems back home, I think is the best bang for our buck.”

Democrat Katrina Shankland says she’s pushing for a state cleanup fund to support best farming practices as well as septic and well remediation.  

“I think if we want for clean water for everyone in Wisconsin, we have to be willing to pay for prevention and enforcement, as well as best practices. And I think the Clean Water Fund is something that we should be able to get behind, but it might take some time.” 

The package of bills comes out of several months worth of public hearings with the state’s Water Quality task force. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos created the task force shortly after Governor Tony Evers declared 2019 as the Year of Clean Water.