UW Likely to Recommend Statewide Task Force to Tackle Karst Issue More Comprehensively

By Jane Fyksen, Crops Editor
Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:26 PM CST

The controversial Karst Report has caught the attention of UW-Extension and scientists at multiple campuses in the state. At Agri-View’s Tuesday press deadline, the UW was formulating a response to environmental issues drawn into the limelight by the Karst Task Force. It appears the outcome will likely be a call for an ad hoc task force of scientists, community leaders, producers, industry, environmental stakeholders and state agencies for a more comprehensive statewide look at land use activities related to Karst topography, which puts groundwater at risk of contamination by nitrate and bacteria.

A UW System point person on this issue is Robin Shepard, state program director for community, natural resources and economic development at UW-Extension. Officed on the Madison campus, he is also an associate professor in life sciences communication.

Shepard says 12 research and outreach specialists from four campuses (Madison, Stevens Point, Green Bay and Oshkosh) as well as staffs of UW Discovery Farms and the Geological and Natural History Survey met last month to look at the known science related to Karst topography (from groundwater work done at UW-Stevens Point, some by Discovery Farms and also science cited in the report itself).

What’s mounting within the university system as a result of that meeting is an official response to Karst n and, as noted, a likely call for a wider task force within the state to look comprehensively at land activities in Karst areas. In other words, the UW sees a need to look beyond the several counties in northeast Wisconsin targeted by the Karst Report, and go statewide with an assessment of land use and environmental issues over carbonate bedrock that makes groundwater more vulnerable to contamination.

Further, Shepard confirmed that the soon-to-be proposed task force should go beyond just farming and manure management to include other land uses in these sensitive areas of the state.

Points from last month’s meeting of UW experts are presently being summarized and will be circulated among the group so they can sign off on a letter that’ll “elevate this issue” in the public eye, notes Shepard, and likely be presented to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, DNR and NRCS.

The “UW reponse” will call on the statewide task force to focus on four areas:

- What needs to be done to address known problems in Karst areas (i.e. nitrate and bacteria and drinking water)

- Assess and categorize management strategies related to carbonate bedrock (i.e. land activities on top of Karst and more than just agriculture)

- Assess and prioritize scientific knowledge gaps related to Karst

- Identify a range of policy options.

Any seating of a task force would be at the discretion of state agencies, notes Shepard.

Last week, the secretaries of DNR and DATCP, the head of Wisconsin NRCS, the deans of UW-Extension and the College of Agriculture and the head of the new office of energy independence met to discuss issues. Karst was among them. Rick Klemme, dean of UW-Extension, says that “scientifically” the Karst Report appears sound. Where he finds fault is singling out agriculture. Klemme and others within the UW system think Karst deserves a “more comprehensive look” that includes land use by industry, even homeowners.

Klemme confirmed that the UW’s response to the Karst Report will be a recommendation that a larger task force be seated to examine the issue statewide. That, however, is still in the formulation stage.

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