Walker and WisGOP chose ALEC and other donors over Wis local govts. Record flooding is a result

As my area deals with flooding resulting from record rain and record-high lake levels, and as Ozaukee County sees I-43 shut down and have record flooding on their part of the Milwaukee River, this was the picture of the weekend.

The guy with the sign is right, except he's soft-selling it. Scott Walker, GOP legislators, and their campaign donors colluded on policies that made the Madison area more vulnerable to the recent severe weather events in Dane County.

Let me go back 3 weeks, to a sadly prophetic article by the Wisconsin State Journal’s Steven Verburg titled “Climate, policy changes pose risk of major flooding on Madison's Isthmus.”

In the article, Verburg talks to Ken Potter, a UW-Madison emeritus professor in civil and environmental engineering, and Potter notes the increased flooding risk that exists in the Madison isthmus area due to higher water levels, climate change and increased numbers of people living in the area.

Since 1970, the Yahara River’s volume has been 30 percent higher than it was in the previous four decades, and annual average precipitation for the Madison area has been 13 percent greater.

Water running off streets and rooftops not only increases flood risk; it also carries pollutants, including those that cause beach closings, tangle boats in weeds and make the lakes smell bad.

“Without major changes in stormwater policy, damages from Yahara lakes flooding will increase dramatically in the future,” Potter said.

That reality has led to a meme in the last week by right-wing hacks in Wisconsin claiming, “what’s going on in Madison is a local development issue and has nothing to do with Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP.” Which leads us to another episode of that long-running GOP show: “LYING OR STUPID?”

That’s because Dane County and Madison have wanted to take steps to lessen the flooding-related challenges that result from having a big city on an isthmus. But it’s the donor-bought ALEC crew at the Capitol that kept them from doing so.

Last year, Potter led a panel of private consulting engineers and representatives of state and local government agencies that called on Dane County to adopt stricter standards to control the volume of runoff allowed from new developments, and to set fees to help pay for designs that ensure water would soak into the ground, evaporate or be used in some way.

Builders have resisted higher costs in the past. This year they were among the groups that persuaded Gov. Scott Walker and a majority of state lawmakers to forbid ordinances that are tougher than state standards. State standards allow developments to roughly double runoff, Potter said.

In particular, the Legislative Council memo for that new (ALEC) law removing local control for many development-related issues creates a “one-size-fits-all” system that doesn’t allow for the needs and wishes of a local community to be put into place. In addition to several parts that keep local communities from having stronger work standards or other regulations regarding construction sites and affordable housing requirements, here are the areas that are most related to the flooding issue.

Making or enforcing an ordinance that applies to a dwelling and is more restrictive than the state Uniform Dwelling Code or that is contrary to an order of the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) with respect to the enforcement of the Uniform Dwelling Code.

· Imposing more stringent requirements on a developer relating to the installation of a water meter station than are required to ensure the proper functioning of such a station….

Subject to certain exceptions, under state law, a city, village, town, or county may not enact an ordinance relating to stormwater management unless the ordinance strictly conforms to uniform statewide standards. [s. 281.33 (3m), Stats.] The Act revises an exception for ordinances relating to flood control to instead apply to ordinances relating to peak flow to address existing flooding problems or to prevent future flooding problems, except an ordinance may not require more than 90% of the difference between pre-development and postdevelopment annual runoff volume to be retained on the site.

This bill seems to have been jammed through the GOP-controlled Assembly on a voice vote during its closing days of session, blasted through the Senate without a public hearing a week later (with all GOPs voting for these local control restrictions, and all Dems voting against it), and then run through the Assembly again to concur with some minor Senate changes to the bill. Walker then quietly signed the bill on the day of Wisconsin’s April elections.

One month after that ALEC bill was signed into law, Prof. Potter wrote an editorial for the Wisconsin State Journal and noted that the overriding of local stormwater ordinances and the "90% runoff" rule change could lead to very bad things.

For example, land development has greatly increased water levels in Stricker, Tiedeman, and Esser ponds in Middleton. To prevent local flooding, all three ponds have been equipped with the capacity to drain into Lake Mendota during wet periods, increasing the flood risk in the Yahara lakes. Middleton’s current stormwater ordinance requires new developments maintain the pre-development runoff amount. This requirement is no longer allowed by Act 243.

Given that most of the Yahara Lakes watershed is now undeveloped, it is critical we wisely manage the impacts of development on flooding. For the most common soils in Dane County, requiring only 90 percent of the difference between the amount of pre- and post-development runoff results in about a 100 percent increase in runoff.

Flood risks are increasing throughout the world. Wisconsin has always been a leader in managing flood risk. A local municipality’s ability to protect the public safety and property of its residents requires the ability to control storm water quantity and flooding, based on local conditions.

The recent stormwater management legislation is counter to this tradition. Section 61 of Act 243 should be repealed.

And now in several parts of the state (and more likely to come this week), we see how the choice of the ALEC-GOP crew to prevent local communities to take actions that protect their communities from the increasing number of “once-in-a-generation/lifetime” severe weather events is causing real harm and distress for large numbers of Wisconsinites.

You’re damn right it's not too soon to talk about the legislative kickbacks Scott Walker and other WisGOPs gave to their scummy friends at the Realtors' and Builders' associations. Thoughts and prayers won’t stop people from suffering through the damage that has been made worse by their corrupted choices. But putting better politicians at the Capitol and in the Governor’s Office will.