LRB-0023/1
MCP:ahe
2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE
January 29, 2020 - Introduced by Senators Miller,
Carpenter, Johnson, Larson
and Risser, cosponsored by Representatives Hebl,
Anderson, Pope, Sinicki,
Stubbs and Subeck. Referred to Committee on Sporting Heritage, Mining and
Forestry.
SB732,1,9
1An Act to repeal 20.370 (4) (cr), 281.34 (1) (f), 281.34 (7m), 281.34 (9), 293.37
2(5) and 293.66;
to renumber and amend 281.34 (7);
to amend 20.370 (6) (eg),
3281.34 (4) (a) 3., 281.34 (5) (a), 281.34 (5) (b) 1. and 2., 281.34 (5) (c), 281.34 (5)
4(d), 281.34 (5m), 281.34 (7) (title), 281.344 (4s) (dm), 281.346 (4s) (dm), 281.346
5(12) (a), 281.346 (12) (b), 281.348 (3) (cm) and 293.65 (3) (b); and
to create
620.370 (4) (ad), 20.370 (4) (ae), 281.34 (1) (er), 281.34 (2s), 281.34 (5) (ds), 281.34
7(5) (e) 3., 281.34 (7) (a), 281.34 (7) (b) 1. to 5., 281.34 (7) (c), 281.341 and 281.346
8(8) (cm) of the statutes;
relating to: groundwater management, approval of
9high capacity wells, and granting rule-making authority.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Groundwater management areas
Designation
This bill establishes standards and a process for designating areas in this state
as groundwater management areas. The standards vary depending on whether an
area has a confined aquifer or an unconfined aquifer. An aquifer is a water-bearing
geologic formation. A confined aquifer has a layer (of rock, for example) above it
through which water does not pass easily. An unconfined aquifer does not have such
a layer above it. The standards for designating an area with a confined aquifer as
a groundwater management area are related to groundwater and well water levels.
The standards for designating an area with an unconfined aquifer as a groundwater
management area are related to stream and water table levels.
This bill requires the Department of Natural Resources to regularly examine
areas that may qualify for designation as groundwater management areas. The
department must first consider three specific areas for possible designation as
groundwater management areas: one area in and adjacent to Brown County; one
area in and adjacent to Waukesha County; and the area known as the central sands
region. A person may petition DNR for an area to be designated as a groundwater
management area, which DNR must then consider. If DNR concludes that an area
qualifies as a groundwater management area, DNR may, by rule, designate the area
as a groundwater management area.
After DNR designates an area as a groundwater management area, it must
establish a target date by which it is reasonable to expect that groundwater
conditions in the area will improve to the point that the area will no longer qualify
as a groundwater management area. DNR must also designate conditions to balance
groundwater consumption and groundwater replenishment so that there are no
significant adverse environmental impacts to surface water or groundwater
(sustainable hydrologic conditions).
Planning
This bill requires DNR to develop and adopt a groundwater management plan
for each designated groundwater management area. The groundwater management
plan must be designed to protect surface water and groundwater and to ensure that
by the target date the area no longer qualifies as a groundwater management area.
The groundwater management plan must contain measurable goals, requirements
for reporting to DNR, water conservation measures, opportunities for public
participation in implementing the plan, and any other provision that DNR
determines is necessary to meet the designated sustainable hydrologic conditions.
If, in preparing a groundwater management plan, the department conducts
evaluation or modeling of the area, the evaluation and modeling must follow the
same parameters as the recently completed Little Plover River study, and must use
the model that resulted from the Little Plover River study, if applicable.
Rescinding designation
After the target date established by DNR for a groundwater management area,
the bill requires DNR to consider whether the area still qualifies as a groundwater
management area. If DNR concludes that the area no longer qualifies as a
groundwater management area, DNR may rescind the designation by repealing the
rule designating the area as a groundwater management area.
Grants for voluntary groundwater management areas
This bill requires DNR to provide grants to municipalities and certain other
entities that are in areas that are not designated as groundwater management areas
but that DNR determines are likely to be designated as groundwater management
areas in the future. Under the bill, grants can be made for the purposes of developing
a groundwater management plan, which DNR must assist in developing, and
implementing a groundwater management plan that DNR approves.
High capacity wells
Environmental review of proposed high capacity wells
Under current law, a person may not construct or operate a high capacity well
without an approval from DNR. A high capacity well is a well that, together with
other wells on the same property, has the capacity to withdraw more than 100,000
gallons of water per day.
This bill requires an applicant for approval of a high capacity well to publish
a notice of the application in a newspaper, identifying the owner and the location of
the well.
Current law requires DNR to conduct an environmental review of applications
for approval of a high capacity well that is located within 1,200 feet of a trout stream
or outstanding or exceptional resource waters (a groundwater protection area); a
high capacity well with a high water loss, in which less than 5 percent of the water
withdrawn is returned after use to the basin from which it is withdrawn; and a high
capacity well that may have a significant adverse impact on a qualifying spring.
This bill eliminates the environmental review requirement relating to springs,
and instead requires DNR to conduct an environmental review of an application for
approval of a high capacity well that may have a significant adverse impact on waters
of the state.
Conditions in well approvals
Under current law, if DNR determines, while conducting an environmental
review of a proposed well that meets one of the criteria listed above, that an
environmental impact report must be conducted, DNR must generally include
conditions in the well approval to ensure that it does not cause significant adverse
environmental impact. If a proposed well will be used to provide a public water
supply, DNR must include conditions in the approval to ensure that the water supply
of the public utility will not be impaired. If it is not possible to ensure that a proposed
well will not cause significant adverse environmental impact or impair a public
utility water supply, DNR must deny the approval. Current law states that these
conditions may include conditions relating to the location, depth, pumping capacity,
rate of flow, and ultimate use of the well.
This bill specifically includes monitoring as one of the potential conditions that
may be included in such an approval. This bill also provides that, in any high
capacity well approval, DNR may require the well owner to implement a monitoring
program to evaluate the impacts of the well and may modify the approval based on
the results of that monitoring program.
Cumulative impacts
Current law provides that a high capacity well approval, or application for
approval, cannot be challenged based on DNR's lack of consideration of the
cumulative impacts of the proposed well and existing wells. This bill requires DNR,
when considering whether a high capacity well may have a significant adverse
environmental impact on waters of the state, to consider the cumulative impacts of
that high capacity well together with existing withdrawals.
Expiration of approvals
Under current law, a high capacity well approval generally remains in effect
indefinitely, unless modified or rescinded by DNR. This bill provides that an
approval issued after the effective date of the bill may not remain in effect for more
than ten years. An approval issued prior to the effective date of the bill remains in
effect for a longer period, depending on how long before the effective date of the bill
it was issued.
High capacity wells in groundwater management areas
Under this bill, after DNR develops a groundwater management plan for a
groundwater management area, DNR may not approve a high capacity well in the
groundwater management area unless the high capacity well is consistent with the
groundwater management plan for the area.
This bill also requires DNR, after it develops a groundwater management plan,
to review approvals for high capacity wells in the groundwater management area
that were issued before the plan went into effect. The bill authorizes DNR to modify
these approvals to ensure that they are consistent with the groundwater
management plan.
High capacity wells and mining operations
Current law generally prohibits DNR from approving a high capacity well, for
mining purposes, that will result in the unreasonable detriment of public or private
water supplies or of public rights in the waters of the state. However, current law
allows DNR to approve such a high capacity well if DNR is able to include conditions
in the approval or the mining permit that ensure that these detriments will not occur.
These conditions may include providing a replacement water supply, providing
additional water to the harmed water supply, or temporarily augmenting the
quantity or quality of the harmed waters of the state. This bill removes DNR's
authority to approve a high capacity well, for mining purposes, that will result in the
unreasonable detriment of public or private water supplies or of public rights in the
waters of the state.
Other provisions
Fees for certain withdrawals
Current law imposes an annual fee of $125 on a person whose water supply
system has the capacity to withdraw an average of 100,000 gallons per day in any
30-day period from the waters of the state. This bill increases that annual fee to
$250.
DNR has also established, by rule, water use fees for users who withdraw more
than 50,000,000 gallons per year from the Great Lakes basin. This bill directs DNR
to establish such fees for users who withdraw more than 50,000,000 gallons per year
from any waters of the state.
Water conservation
This bill also requires DNR to include water conservation requirements in the
approvals required for certain withdrawals from lakes or streams or relating to
water or sewerage systems or sewage and refuse disposal plants, if the withdrawal
is in a groundwater management area, and requires those conservation
requirements to be consistent with the groundwater management plan for the
groundwater management area.
Hydrologic study
The bill also eliminates the provisions under current law that require DNR to
study and recommend special measures relating to groundwater for adoption by the
legislature.
Groundwater and mining operations
Current law prohibits DNR from requiring a mining permit applicant to
generate a hydrologic model of the proposed mining waste site that examines a
period of more than 250 years after closure of the mining waste site. The bill
eliminates this prohibition.
The bill also eliminates the current law provision that prohibits DNR from
applying groundwater enforcement standards at a mining operation at any point in
the Precambrian bedrock below which the groundwater is not reasonably capable of
being used for human consumption.
For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be
printed as an appendix to this bill.
