Category Archives: Madison

WI State Journal : County More Reporting on PFAS

Emily Hamer

“The Dane County Board on Thursday approved a proposal that will require additional public reporting on PFAS contamination and seek more information on much power the county has to regulate or halt airport projects if soil is too contaminated.

In another proposal aimed at supporting efforts to address PFAS contamination, the board backed a state bill that, if passed, would fund new state staff to come up with a PFAS action plan, create grants for local governments to conduct testing and remediation and other statewide initiatives to mitigate contamination due to the chemicals.

PFAS compounds are toxic, manmade chemicals that don’t break down in the environment and have been shown to increase the risk of cancer and other ailments. The “forever chemicals” have been found at the Dane County Regional Airport, where firefighters have used fluorinated foams for decades. Environmental advocates worry construction could further disburse PFAS.

Sup. Yogesh Chawla, 6th District, the author of the proposal on public reporting, said the county needs to make it “as easy as possible” for members of the community to find out about contamination levels and any remediation efforts. With the resolution’s approval, Public Health Madison and Dane County, along with county staff, will be directed to make a website for posting information on PFAS tests and minutes from any public meetings where PFAS is discussed.

The resolution also asks county staff to provide a legal opinion on “any and all ways” the county can regulate airport activities and the work to clean up PFAS. Chawla said it’s not clear exactly what the county can do to protect from PFAS contamination, and the legal opinion should shed some light on that.

“We … need to know what power the County Board has to keep our drinking water safe for our community,” Chawla said.

The resolution is the latest iteration of a series of proposals from Chawla looking to address PFAS contamination. The previous proposals failed, likely because they included language opposing the placement of F-35 fighter jets in Madison, which has faced opposition because of noise and environmental concerns. Thursday’s resolution doesn’t mention the jets at all.

Sup. Jeff Weigand, 20th District, was the only board member to vote against the PFAS resolutions. Weigand said he supported the public reporting but was against efforts to regulate airport activity. He said the proposal supporting the state bill “does nothing,” and he’s against passing a measure just “so we can all feel good.”

Car camping

Also Thursday, the board passed a resolution that directs staff in the county’s Department of Human Services to prepare a report on potential sites for lawful car camping for homeless individuals. Weigand was the only board member to vote against it, but he did not say why.

More than nine years ago, local nonprofit Madison-area Urban Ministry, now known as Just Dane, recommended that the county identify parking spots on properties owned by the county, businesses and faith communities that could be used for car camping. Just Dane also recommended creating a registration process and a community outreach program to explain the car camping to neighbors.

The new report will include ways the county could implement those recommendations and take “a fresh look” at car camping, Human Services Director Shawn Tessmann said. Staff are required to present interim recommendations no later than March 1 and a full report on the site options by June 1.

Sup. Heidi Wegleitner, 2nd District, the author of the resolution, has said implementing lawful car camping in the county is “overdue.”

The Poison is here, the poison is there. Forever Chemicals

We know the poison is here. The decision makers play a shell game and shelter the government and corporate manufacturers.

I wish the elected and appointed would speak truth, damn it. Instead, the corporate mainstream news sources and the politicians with any real power act as a filter most of the time to serve corporate government owners.

I’m no expert, but I believe that if Truax is a polluted SuperFund site that they should not be allowed to stir up the pollution with their construction projects. It seems as though government, especially federal, is above the laws and justice is ignored. They are building a new terminal now and getting ready for more weapons of war [-crimes.]

That is not how republic and representative government works. In the end, I guess, we get what we allow.

We also allow the rights of human beings around the world to be violated to serve the profits of the connected and powerful.

1) “Michael Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said his agency is taking a series of actions to limit pollution from a cluster of long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS that are increasingly turning up in public drinking water systems, private wells and even food.

The Defense Department said it is moving to assess and clean up PFAS-contaminated sites throughout the country, while the Food and Drug Administration will expand testing of the food supply to estimate Americans’ exposure to PFAS from food. The plan is intended to restrict PFAS from being released into the environment, accelerate cleanup of PFAS-contaminated sites such as military bases and increase investments in research to learn more about where PFAS are found and how their spread can be prevented.”

Associated Press

EPA unveils strategy to regulate toxic ‘forever chemicals’

EPA: PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021-2024

SHARON LERNER, INTERCEPT, OCT 19

PEOPLE EXPOSED TO PFAS CRITICIZE EPA ACTION PLAN AS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

4) Maria Powell has been writing regularly as developments come

Madison Environmental Justice Org: PFAS related

PFCs or PFAS Archives – Madison Environmental Justice

We Poisoned the Lakes

MEJO, Jan 2021

Interactive Map: PFAS Contamination Crisis: New Data Show 2,854 Sites in 50 States

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many other chemicals. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects.
https://www.safeskiescleanwaterwi.org/pfas/

WI State Journal, Hubbuch: Future noise concerns could scuttle housing along planned transit corridor

Chris Hubbuch | Wisconsin State Journal Oct 3, 2021

original link

useful links:

Alders for City of Madison

Dane County Board of Supervisors

Contact other elected officials – Safe Skies Website

“With its strip malls, auto repair shops and used car lots, the stretch of East Washington Avenue between Aberg Avenue and Stoughton Road shows no signs of the revitalization happening a couple of miles to the west, near Downtown.

That could soon change with the addition of a planned bus rapid transit system.

Bill Connors, who heads a coalition of real estate developers, envisions three- and four-story buildings with ground-floor retail stores below apartments, much like those that have sprung up on the Isthmus.

City plans call for high-density housing that would both provide equitable access regardless of income and support a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system that’s expected to begin shuttling commuters between the city’s East and West sides in 2024.

But with the Air National Guard expected to begin flying a fleet of new F-35 fighter jets from nearby Truax Field in 2023, this ¾-mile strip is expected to be subject to noise levels considered too loud for residential development without significant soundproofing.

The conflict has created a dilemma for leaders of a fast-growing city in desperate need of more housing: By allowing the type of high-density development that would support rapid transit, Madison could also subject thousands more people to unhealthy levels of noise.

Connors argues the market will solve the problem, as builders who don’t do enough to muffle the sound will struggle to keep their buildings full.

City Council president Syed Abbas has appointed a council workgroup to explore possible alternatives, including a development moratorium or zoning changes, in an effort to prevent a situation where poor and minority people bear a disproportionate share of the environmental impacts.

“I have to see the situation with the lens of environmental justice,” Abbas said. “If you go historically, the market decided to put all the people of color there — Black and brown folks.”

Military decision

The Air Force last year selected the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing as one of the first Guard units to fly the military’s new F-35 fighter jets.

There is disagreement on just how much louder the F-35s will be compared to the F-16s that currently fly out of Truax. But there would be more takeoffs and landings, at least initially, which would increase the overall noise exposure for those living near the airport.

In its environmental study, the Air Force estimated at least 1,019 homes would be subject to average daily noise levels above 65 decibels, a level deemed “incompatible” with residential use. Poor and minority residents would be disproportionately affected.

Noise models created for the study show that the 65-decibel zone would extend south into the Carpenter-Ridgeway, Darbo-Worthington and Hawthorne neighborhoods, enveloping a section of East Washington considered ripe for redevelopment.

Areas to the west of the airport would also be subject to more noise, including several parcels being eyed for development such as the 63.6-acre Raemisch Farm, where the council earlier this year nixed a development proposal over noise concerns.

Within the new noise zones, the city’s planning staff has identified a total of 10 sites considered ripe for development that could support up to 1,600 housing units, including as many as 1,200 on BRT routes.

Potential noted

That’s not to say that there are proposals on the table or that the sites are even for sale, though many along East Washington are identified in the neighborhood plan as targets for redevelopment. Yet most have changed little since that plan was adopted 20 years ago.

“The East Washington corridor is important,” said Heather Stouder, the city’s director of planning. “It’s an important piece of the puzzle in regards to accommodating a large amount of growth … in a way that’s fiscally and environmentally responsible and puts more people in easy reach of sustainable transportation options.”

Connors, executive director of Smart Growth Greater Madison, envisions the same type of construction boom that has revitalized parts of East Washington on the Isthmus.

“It just keeps spreading north and east,” Connors said. “The next area that’s probably going to go would be out by the airport.”

As an example, Connors points to the Ella Apartments, a $30 million development under construction just a couple of blocks to the west at 2902 E. Washington Ave.

“At a minimum I would see a bunch of buildings like that in this stretch. Some possibly larger, like the ones closer to the (Capitol) Square,” Connors said. “There’s a lot of very underutilized properties there.”

Buyer beware?

Touyeng Xiong lives in the Truax Apartments, a public housing complex a couple of blocks north of East Washington. Even outside the 65-decibel zone, Xiong said the noise can be “unbearable” when F-16s take off, shaking the building and making it impossible to talk or concentrate.

“You cannot do anything until the sound goes away,” Xiong said. “It’s not just one. It’s one taking off followed by another, for a good minute or two. It’s extremely uncomfortable.”

As long as developers build market-rate housing, Connors said no one would be forced to live there.

“Why don’t you just let renters and developers figure this out?” he said. “Renters are free to go. Maybe not to a place with similar amenities and conveniences, but that’s how the world works: You’re always making these tradeoffs.”

But Xiong questions why anyone would choose to live near the airport and is dubious of claims that people who don’t like the noise would be able to move away given the current cost of housing in Madison.

“It’s not that easy,” Xiong said.

For Abbas, whose district includes the neighborhoods just west and south of the airport, the noise exposure is a matter of public health policy, which he says should be set by elected leaders and not the market.

Research has shown prolonged exposure to noise disrupts sleep and can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease and impair cognitive development. And while buildings can be insulated to dampen noise, there’s no way to mitigate sound outdoors.

Leaders of the council workgroup did not respond to interview requests, but at a recent meeting Ald. Tag Evers said markets aren’t always transparent.