Join us at a summer lakes workshop in Eau Claire on Friday, August 10! See the full program agenda, workshop brochure with paper registration form, and maps to the Technical College on WAL's website.

A number of workshop sessions will highlight examples of successful water quality improvement initiatives and ways to engage people in lake management decisions. For instance:

Choose among many other great sessions at this workshop:

• Looking Behind the Shore: Watersheds Influences on Lakes
• Understanding Agriculture's Impact through the Discovery Farms Program
• Water Quality Improvement Project in the Red Cedar River Basin: Understanding People, as well as the Resource
• Reflecting People's Values in Lake Plan Goals: an example from Lower Long Lake in Chippewa County
• Healthy Lawns, Healthy Lakes: Initiatives to Phase out Unnecessary Phosphorus in Lawn Fertilizer
• Tips for Controlling Runoff and Erosion on Your Waterfront Property
• Regional Coordination for Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention in the Chippewa Valley
• Tips for Sharing Shallows and Near-Shore Areas with Wildlife

The registration fee is $30, which includes refreshments, luncheon, and workshop materials. Educational exhibits will open at 8:30 AM, and the program concludes at 3:45 PM. See the full program agenda, workshop brochure with paper registration form, and maps to the Technical College on WAL's website.

The interests of thousands of lakefront property owners, anglers, boaters, tourists, and the businesses that depend on healthy lakes are served by good shoreland zoning rules that preserve the character of our lakes and quality of life.

Wisconsin's shoreland zoning rules (NR 115) contain statewide minimum standards for shoreland development in unincorporated areas. NR 115 is being comprehensively revised for the first time since it took effect in 1968 (download current proposal).

Overall, this draft of the rule has many good features to help protect the rights of property owners and the public to enjoy good water quality, fish and wildlife, lake recreation, and scenic beauty. The rule takes existing uses of properties into account, and makes it easier for property owners to maintain their property while still protecting their lake.

We encourage you to attend public hearings and send in your comments on these extremely important rules. Please visit our website for talking points, background, detailed discussion of good features in the rule and needed adjustments.

• Aug. 2, Green Bay
  Neville Museum Theater - 210 Museum Plac
• Aug. 7, Pewaukee
  Waukesha County Technical College - Pewaukee Campus - Richard T. Anderson Education Center - 800 Main St.
• Aug. 8, Stoughton
  Opera House - 381 E. Main St. (608) 873-7523
  Note: The Opera House is on the second floor of the City Hall, a red brick building at the corner of Fifth and Main (Hwy. 51)

Mail your comments to:
Toni Herkert,
Bureau of Watershed Management
P.O. Box 7921
Madison, WI 53707

Comments will be accepted by any means through September 7, 2007.

Manure is loaded with nutrients, like phosphorus, that can kill fish by sucking oxygen out of a stream, cloud water causing algae blooms, and, if a lake receives a constant supply of manure, change what plants and animals can survive in the lake. Manure can also harbor pathogens, such as e coli bacteria, that cause severe and sometimes fatal illnesses in humans.

In the past few years, manure spills have contaminated drinking water wells, caused severe fishkills, and contributed to chronic nutrient loading in lakes across the state. But the extent of chronic manure leaks and the levels of potentially dangerous bacteria in water supplies remain unknown.

Phosphorus-fueled algae blooms perpetually cover some Lake Michigan shorelines, and the swimming beach advisory rate was triple the state average last year because of potentially dangerous levels of bacteria.

A group of about 100 Manitowoc County citizens are regularly sampling the waters around their homes for bacteria and are finding readings that are at times off the charts. One weekend in June a monitor's sample from the beach below his house showed 5,000 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters of water. The state standard for swimming advisories is 235 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters. Further DNA testing revealed that close to 100% of the overall fecal pollution in the water was from cows.

Underground plumbing, called drain tiles, have been installed two to four feet below the surface of many fields to prevent slow-draining croplands from being flooded by big rains or snowmelts. The pipes carry excess water to the field's edge, dumping water into ditches or creeks. These pipes are also potential conduits for bacteria found in liquid livestock waste.

In some cases, these drain tiles are leaking manure directly into surface waters. Conventional wisdom was that two to four feet of soil would be deep enough to filter contaminants before they reached drain tiles. But Manitowoc's clay-based soil can be riddled with worm holes that run down to the drain tiles. The soil, especially in late summer, is also prone to cracks. Both worm holes and cracks can mainline manure straight into the pipes.

DNR Manure Management Rules (NR 243) passed in March 2007 tightened manure spreading regulations for Wisconsin CAFOs. But the rules don't cover small farms, which for dairies are defined as farms with fewer than 700 milking cows.

Wisconsin is poised to clamp down on mercury emissions at Wisconsin power plants. If approved to move forward by the Natural Resources Board in the fall, the regulations would restrict mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants 90% by 2020. Similar restrictions are being advanced in other states and by the federal government.

Coal fired power plants are the largest source of mercury in Wisconsin lakes. Mercury thrown into the air by power plant smokestacks settles into lakes as it floats back down to earth. Mercury reacts with bacteria and other chemicals to convert to its toxic form, methylmercury.

Tiny zooplankton pick up the methylmercury almost immediately. Small fish eat zooplankton, and as methylmercury moves up the food chain into larger species, mercury concentrations get higher. Many northern Wisconsin lakes are naturally high in acidity, and are also better at making methylmercury for unknown reasons.

In 2001, Wisconsin upgraded its fish advisory from specific lakes to a statewide warning that urges consumers--especially children and women of childbearing age--to limit consumption of fish such as walleye or northern which tend to have higher levels of mercury.

Winds bring mercury emissions from power plants across the globe into Wisconsin lakes. Wisconsin power plants contribute 10% to 20% of mercury deposition in the state--and perhaps 30% near power plants. 70% of Wisconsin's electricity is generated from coal.

In 2004, the DNR advanced mercury legislation that is viewed as weaker--in part because of an agreement with the Legislature, then controlled by Republicans, that Wisconsin law should mirror federal regulations that eventually followed.

Last summer, Governor Jim Doyle said he favored a higher 90% cut in mercury emissions because sporting groups said the state wasn't going far enough with a 75% cut by 2015 and a goal of an 80% cut by 2018.

The Wisconsin Association of Lakes is the only statewide organization working exclusively to protect and enhance the quality of Wisconsin's 15,000 lakes.

We represent citizens like you who care about Wisconsin's lakes as a natural resource, and who also recognize the value healthy lakes bring to property values, tourist economies, and overall quality of life.

• Learn about our statewide voice for strong lake policy
• Learn about our lake education events
• Learn about our lake publications, The Lake Connection and E-lake Letter
• J oin Us in working for clean, safe, healthy lakes for everyone.