Press Releases

STEVENS POINT – Following yesterday’s public hearing on Assembly Bill 463, Representative Louis J. Molepske Jr. released the following statement:

“AB 463 seems to be a bill in search of a problem. Yesterday’s public hearing on the bill did not reveal significant problems with permitting wetland development activities. Instead, it revealed that AB 463 as drafted can only lead to wetland destruction and flooding.

“The supporters of this bill are working under the presumption that something is wrong. However, we know that about 93.5% of wetland permits are already approved by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) within 22 days. AB 463 extends the permit deadline to 30 days, but the DNR is already beating that deadline under current law. How much more efficient do they want the department to be?

“It is my concern that the actual justification for AB 463 is the 7% of applicants may have wanted to fill a high value wetland and were, therefore, denied. After several hours of listening to testimony I had not heard the rationale for changing our current wetland law and why it is good for our state’s natural resources.

“Wisconsin’s wetlands play an important role in tourism, flood control and the health of our ecosystem. We should be promoting legislation that protects our water-rich state and the well-being of our natural resources. Instead of protecting our wetlands, AB 463 will increase more home flooding, wetland destruction, dirty our water, and hurt our overall ecosystem without significant amendments.

“The authors of this bill need to listen to the experts of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association. Those experts have provided detailed analysis of AB 463 and proposed solutions that all parties should be able to work with to enhance our wetlands and provide the economic development opportunities being requested by permit applicants.

“The committee was shocked to learn that Wisconsin Builders Association and Wisconsin Realtors Association drafted the current Wisconsin wetland laws, yet now they’re claiming it’s too stringent and does not allow their members to fill in more wetlands at a quicker pace. Most Wisconsinites assume the wetlands law was drafted to balance the needs of development and the needs of wetland conservation. Unfortunately, AB 463 is again a law drafted by the industry to give the industry more of our natural resource, namely wetlands, that all Wisconsinites have a vested interest in, not just industry. Wisconsin developers have filled over 50% of Wisconsin wetlands and now AB 463 want to change the requirements they have to avoid such wetlands. How many more acres of Wisconsin natural wetlands resource do they need?”