Four out of five Wisconsin lakes and rivers recently assessed by the state are healthy, continuing a trend of improved surface water quality across the state.
That news comes as after Governor Tony Evers declared 2019 as the Year of Clean Drinking Water.
DNR Surface Water Quality Assessment Coordinator Ashley Beranek says 144 waters have been moved to what is known as the restoration waters list. She says those waters now have a plan to get better water quality, and in so doing, removes them from the impaired list...
"....By changing it from all those(water bodies) are on the Impaired Waters List, we are actually aligning ourselves to our neighboring states. They don't count the waters that have a resotration plan on their impaired waters list. We wanted to have, essentially, the same metrics...."
Baranek says one pollutant tops the list...
"The most listings this cycle were from phosphorus. There's 114 phosphorus listings. Of those a portion are going right on the Restoration Waters List...."
Placing waters on the list indicates they require a restoration plan and may also make them eligible for state and federal cleanup funds, which can help speed improvements. The Restoration Waters List, has 463 listings.
The 2020 draft of the Impaired Waters List contains 1,546 listings.
Among some waters on the list is Bass Lake in Lincoln county, Amik Lake on the Pike Lake Chain in Vilas county, North Bass Lake in Iron county, Bear Lake in Forest county and others.
116 listings will be removed, including 84 waterbody segments due to a cleanup of residual mercury listings. Public comment is being sought on the impaired waters listing is due by November 22. Comments can be emailed to the DNR at DNRImpairedWaters@wisconsin.gov.
