Monday, December 25, 2017

UPDATE. Rising to the level of her incompetence: Cathy Stepp takes her Scott Walker-approved, chamber-of-commerce natural resources management act to the federal level




Other Ms. Stepp posts:
UPDATE.  Person with zero qualifications and haziest of background keeps moving up the EPA food chain.  (12/20/2017)
Dear climate denier Cathy Stepp, Maybe your should crawl out of your shell.  (1/16/2017) 
Scott Walker's dismantling of DNR gets some informed pushback.  (1/11/2017)
Cathy Stepp's holiday gift to Wisconsin: An end to climate change.   (1/2/2017)
UPDATE. In so many words, Cathy Stepp sez these boots are made for walkin' all over you, Kewaunee County.  (12/16/2016)
UPDATE. New Year's resolution: Kewaunee County voters just don't get it.  (12/16/2016)
Ach du lieber! WI DNR head(case) Cathy Stepp compares environmental regulation to flippin' burgers.  (6/22/2016)
Scott Walker abides -- in his own fashion.  (6/21/2016)
CYA time: Wisconsin DNR board members shocked! shocked! about state's lack of enforcement.  (6/15/2016)
The public trust betrayed: Scott Walker's chamber of commerce agenda for Wisconsin's environment.  (6/11/2016)
Update:  Dear Rob, This is what happens when you run government like a business.   (6/5/2016)
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources takes an environmental violations holiday.  (5/19/2016)


9/22/2016 update, "Wisconsin DNR secretary in so many words:  Clean air and water? A healthy environment?  Meh.  Overrated!", starts here.

Reported in EPA to inspect DNR records in Madison.  ( Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 92/1/2016)

What's been goin' on of late:
  1. List of bodies of waters that do not meet state water quality standards, i.e., are impaired, cinreased by 200 in 2 years
  2. Enforcement actions have fallen to lowest level since 1994.
  3. Legislative Audit Bureau report found problems in state's pollution discharge program

Read the Wisconsin Department of Natural  Resources mission statement here.  (You won't find the words 'property' and 'business' here.)


6/5/2016 update, "Dear Rob, This is what happens when you run government like a business", starts here.



As quoted in Audit: DNR doesn't follow own policy on enforcement.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/4/2016)

To his credit, Cowles was the only state senate Republicans to vote against 2015-17 budget bill.


Original 3/1/2016 post, "Misstep?  Wisconsin DNR secretary takes the high road", starts here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/politics/william-barr-robert-mueller-donald-trump.html As quoted in DNR chief Cathy Stepp ends use of 'do not respond' list.  (Madison.com, 3/1/2016)

Here's an example of Stepp's responsiveness and transparency -- before she was appointed to the position in 2010.

And in a post on a conservative blog last year, Stepp said the people who work at the DNR tend to be “anti-development, anti-transportation, and pro-garter snakes, karner blue butterflies, etc.” In the same post, she called agency employees “unelected bureaucrats” who tend to “come up with some pretty outrageous stuff that those of us in the real world have to contend with.”

Yup, 'some pretty outrageous stuff', such as.,.,..
  • To protect and enhance natural resources
  • To provide a healthy, sustainable environment


Governor-elect Walker set the tone with this comment.


The 3/1/2016 Madison.com article explains why Kewaunee County resident Nancy Utesch was classified as a pest by DNR staff.
Utesch, an activist in Kewaunee County, said she was unable to prepare fully for a public hearing Thursday on a large dairy farm’s permit request because the DNR for months failed to respond to her request, first made last summer, for access to public records.

In other words, she was seeking information.  Bad, bad woman!

Never mind that one-third of wells in Kewaunee County are unfit for drinking due to high levels of E. coli, nitrates, and other pollutants caused by the runoff of 16 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Related posts:
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and well pollution are in the news again.  (12/21/2015)
Dear Kewaunee County, You voted for him, now you're paying the consequences.  (11/15/2015)
Kewaunee County's CAFO concentration.  (10/23/2014)

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