Oneida Nation Vice-Chairman Brandon Stevens joined Troy Streckenbach of Brown County; Tom Nelson of Outagamie County; Mark Harris of Winnebago County; and Allen Buechel of Fond du Lac County to sign this historic agreement. The agreement signifies their long-term commitment to improving the health of Lake Winnebago and Green Bay. 

Green Bay has less than 2 percent of Lake Michigan’s water but receives more than one third of the phosphorus in the whole lake – a recipe for harmful algal blooms. And, every year, Green Bay suffers from a large deadzone, an area of low oxygen devoid of aquatic life, caused by excessive nutrients. All of these nutrients are carried into the water by runoff pollution, also called nonpoint pollution, and the largest single source comes from agricultural lands in the surrounding Fox and Wolf River watersheds, which comprise nearly one third of the state.

By signing the pact, the officials agreed to prioritize the significant reduction of nonpoint nutrient pollution entering their county’s waterways. The pact commits them to draft and adopt water quality goals, target dates, and metrics that will be incorporated into a management plan and a governance program for the watershed. 

Since singing the Pact, the Alliance has worked with the parties to set a goal of a 60% reduction in phosphorus by 2040 with a more aggressive interim goal to achieve 30% by 2030. While the 30 for 30 goal is half of the ultimate goal, scientists and watershed managers expect even then to see significant benefits to the Bay.

 “It is anticipated that achieving the significant 30 percent reduction in phosphorus in the Lower Fox River will significantly reduce dead zones, algae outbreaks, sediment plumes and nutrient pollution,” said Alliance Senior Policy Manager Todd Brennan. “In turn, regional stakeholders expect to experience healthier wildlife, improved recreation, less dredging, healthier soils and improved economic prosperity.”

The agreement was a significant step for the work the Alliance has been doing in the area. Last year, the Alliance held a series of clean water roundtables with farmers, researchers, government officials, business leaders, and more. Participants shared their perspectives on water quality and talked about what they can do to improve it. The roundtables were the first time many of the stakeholders were in the same room together and at the same table discussing Green Bay’s water quality problems. This innovative approach was a key step leading to the new water quality pact. 

The signers of the pact, who were convened by the Alliance, are all vocal supporters of clean water and improving the watershed. 

“It is our responsibility to ensure that our waterways are protected and maintained. Our Nation’s ancestors have utilized these waters since our arrival in the 1800s. The waters here were clean and pristine… a place where wild rice grew and the fish were abundant. It is our hope that one day these waters will once again be restored,” said Stevens, in a blog on Oneida Nation. 

On Facebook, Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach posted, “Today, I’m pleased to sign the Northeast Wisconsin Water Quality Pact to further highlight a shared vision for clean water in our whole region.” 

In an interview with ABC2, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said, “This is going to be good not only here in northeast Wisconsin, but working at best practices and ways in which we can show the rest of the state, the rest of the country.”

The pact is the first step on a long journey of improving the Bay, but through a diverse and regional approach, the Alliance is optimistic about our work for the blue future of Green Bay. 

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Their vision? To achieve clean water, healthy communities, and resilient economies by 2030 through coordinated, regional collaboration in the Lower Fox River and Green Bay.

Every year, Green Bay suffers from a large dead zone, caused by excessive nutrients carried into the water by runoff pollution from the surrounding Lower Fox River watershed. While there are several sources of pollution, like sewage, industrial waste, and runoff from city streets, runoff pollution from agricultural lands is the single largest contributor to the Bay’s nutrient problem.

Now, after months of education and building buy-in, a diverse coalition has agreed on a shared vision and plan of action, known as the Lower Fox River Watershed Clean Water Agenda.

Coming together for clean water

Over the past year, the Alliance has partnered with University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to hold a series of clean water roundtables with farmers, researchers, government officials, business leaders, and more. Participants shared their perspectives on water quality and talked about what they can do to improve it. For farmers, this means changing land management practices. For engineers, this means working outside the treatment plant to build relationships and find innovative solutions.

On March 6th, all those conversations, relationships, and clean water aspirations came together at Lambeau Field in a culminating Leadership Roundtable. Farmers and leaders in the agricultural community were joined by representatives from the other roundtables to create a plan of action.

This is the first time all these groups have come together on the issue of clean water, and they’ve already committed to create a collaborative action plan to reduce runoff pollution.

“The Leadership Roundtable made me a believer,” said Keith Marquardt, Water Resources Management Specialist at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Keith works with farmers to promote conservation practices. He was one of many who stepped up to play a leadership role in this work.

Creating a strategy that works

No single industry or community alone can improve water quality in Green Bay. It’s going to take a collaborative approach with leadership and support from many sectors, including some that have not traditionally worked together. Now, leaders are coming together to do just that.

“We’re not just looking at it from one community’s perspective, or even county to county. We’re taking a regional approach to the complicated issue of improving water quality,” said Troy Streckenbach, Brown County Executive. Brown County is home to the NEW Water treatment plant and a demonstration farm that educates farmers on sustainable practices. Streckenbach is calling on leaders from surrounding counties to join the effort.  

Coming out of the Leadership Roundtable, farmers, wastewater treatment plant managers, government officials, community groups, business leaders, educators and researchers have all agreed to work together to achieve clean water in Green Bay.

They’ve formed a diverse leadership team to set priorities and advance their clean water vision. Others signed up for action teams to execute strategies participants came up with at the Leadership Roundtable. These action teams are pursuing a number of great ideas such as hosting a clean water summit to convene regional leaders and keep up momentum, designing an education initiative that focuses on the waterfront including programs, events and materials that build an appreciation of water as a community and cultural asset, and creating a “clean food and water” marketing campaign to encourage consumers to buy sustainably farmed food that aims to improve the water as well.    

At the Alliance, we’re excited to see so many people from across the watershed so committed to cleaning up the Lower Fox River and Green Bay. And we look forward to supporting a collaborative, innovative approach to tackling the area’s runoff problem as this watershed-wide effort moves into a new phase of action.

“It can’t be solved by a simple legislative policy or even an influx of funding,” Steckenbach said. “It’s going to take education, a culture change, and broad support—we need all these folks at the table.”

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Every time it rains, runoff pollution carries excess nutrients into the streams and rivers that flow into Green Bay. While runoff comes from urban and suburban sources, like sewage treatment plants, nearly 46% of harmful runoff pollution comes from sediment, fertilizer, and manure running off of agricultural land.

In the greater Green Bay area, we’re working with our partners to implement a combination of tactics to solve the watershed’s runoff problem.

An innovative approach to water treatment

Wisconsin has water quality standards in place, but the Fox River is a huge watershed with many sources of nutrients and sediment. So managing water quality is a challenging task.

The NEW Water (Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District) wastewater treatment plant sits at the mouth of the Lower Fox River, where it flows into Green Bay. NEW Water has been in compliance with Wisconsin water rules for years, but the state is ratcheting down pollution limits for NEW Water to try to improve water quality in Green Bay. Further reducing nutrients and sediment discharged from the plant is becoming increasingly costly, with diminishing returns. In fact, the plant would have to spend upwards of $100 million to remove a small proportion (9,832 lbs.) of the estimated 1.2 million pounds of phosphorus delivered annually from all sources to the plant and discharged to the river.

NEW Water is examining better ways to treat it’s effluent and a unique, innovative approach to improving water quality called the Adaptive Management Option. If approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, NEW Water will begin deploying this new approach next year. The “Adaptive Management Option” essentially means changing land management practices to stop runoff pollution at its source.

This approach allows the people at NEW Water to step outside the treatment plant and into the fields and meeting rooms with agricultural experts and other partners to address the runoff problem. To this end, NEW Water is working with the Alliance, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, County Government, the Oneida Tribe and others to promote conservation approaches for land management to farmers.

“We’re promoting profitable, and sustainable conservation approaches for farmers,” said Bill Hafs, Director of Environmental Programs at NEW Water. “This is an economic opportunity for agriculture, a savings for NEW Water rate payers, and a way to focus water quality efforts on the largest sources of nutrients and sediment—non-point runoff.”

Our solution starts by building strong relationships with agriculture

“Over the 3 years we’ve had the farmer roundtable, we’ve worked with over 100 individual farmers, which is more than half of farmers in the basin,” said Molly Meyers, who holds a joint position with UW-Green Bay and the Alliance and leads our agricultural outreach efforts.

Since 2016, Meyers has spearheaded the team that organizes the annual Farmer Watershed Roundtable. The roundtable is an opportunity for farmers to hear from their peers and crop consultants—trusted experts who advise farmers on crop and land management. They talk shop and share best practices for reducing runoff.

In addition to working with farmers on an ongoing basis and leading the roundtable, Meyers and her team work with about 30 crop consultants who cover about 90% of the watershed. Over the past three years, the number of participants at the Farmer Watershed Roundtable has doubled from 70 farmers in 2016 to 140 in 2018. And it’s having an impact.

“We’ve seen farmers that attend the roundtables make changes, which collectively has a big impact,” Meyers said. She explained that the farmers she works with are changing their ways to favor proven methods that reduce runoff, “It’s exciting to see the uptick in cover crops and no-till practices.”

Bringing people together for clean water

Over the past year, the Alliance has partnered with University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to hold a series of clean water roundtables with farmers, researchers, government officials, business leaders, and more. Participants shared their perspectives on water quality and talked about what they can do to improve it. For farmers, this means changing land management practices.

On March 6th, all those conversations, relationships, and clean water aspirations came together at Lambeau Field in a culminating Leadership Roundtable. Farmers and leaders in the agricultural community were joined by representatives from the other roundtables to create a plan of action.

This is the first time all these groups have come together on the issue of clean water, and they’ve already committed to create a collaborative action plan to reduce runoff pollution. We’re excited that so many people from across the watershed are committed to cleaning up the Lower Fox River and Green Bay. And we look forward to supporting a collaborative, innovative approach to tackling the area’s runoff problem as this watershed-wide effort moves into a new phase of action.

The post How We’re Working to Solve Green Bay’s Pollution Problem appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

In Green Bay, a handful of farmers are taking the lead on curbing nutrient runoff from their fields. The Alliance has been helping bring together farmers, county land managers and others on the front lines of nutrient pollution to share practices and encourage dialogue that links land conservation and water quality.

Those efforts have culminated in a series of roundtables that connect and support farmers who are committed to improving water quality in the watershed. The Alliance has seen unprecedented level of interest from area farmers, some of whom are emerging as local leaders in the effort to restore clean water in Wisconsin and Green Bay.

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