Category: Public Participation

City of Madison City of Madison Parks Department Community engagement Environmental Justice Fish Fish Advisory PFCs or PFAS Public Health Madison Dane County Public Participation Starkweather Creek stormwater runoff Toxic Chemicals Toxins Truax Water Pollution Water quality Wisconsin DHS Wisconsin DNR

PFAS Task Force RIP

December 21, 2019 Jim Powell

As we’ve experienced for twenty years in Madison, local government prefers to keep the public out of actions it takes–or does not take–regarding locally-occurring toxic pollution problems. The proposed Madison-Dane…

Air National Guard City of Madison Dane County Regional Airport Environmental Justice Fish Fish Advisory PFCs or PFAS Public Health Madison Dane County Public Participation Risk Assessment Starkweather Creek stormwater runoff Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution Water quality

Toxic PFAS in Starkweather Creek, Madison Wisconsin; What is the public health agency doing to protect people from exposures? To engage the community?

November 13, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Photo: Foam at the Starkweather Creek/Olbrich Park boat launch on October 24 (Wisconsin State Journal) Recent news about alarming levels of the highly toxic “forever chemicals” known as “PFAS” (per…

Air National Guard City of Madison Community engagement Department of Defense Environmental Justice F-35 Fighter jets Pentagon PFCs or PFAS Public Participation Racism Truax

Rep. Chris Taylor, 9 local officials: Strong community opposition needed to avoid harms of F-35s

September 18, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Photo: Protest at Air National Guard F-35 meeting, Sept. 12 2019 (Michelle Stocker). ***** The Cap Times By State Representative Chris Taylor and nine local elected officials We are honored…

Air National Guard City of Madison Dane County Environmental Justice PCBs Public Health Madison Dane County Public Participation Racism Risk Assessment Soil contamination Starkweather Creek Starkweather EJ Project stormwater runoff Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution Water quality Wisconsin DNR

Report: Watchdogs not looking hard enough for public health hazards in lakes, fish

April 30, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Touyeng Xiong, MEJO Vice President, at Starkweather Creek tributary in April 2019 (Photo by John Hart, WSJ) By Steve Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal Madison and Dane County are neglecting to…

Air National Guard Department of Defense Environmental Justice EPA F-35 Fighter jets PCBs Pentagon PFCs or PFAS Public Participation Racism Risk Assessment Starkweather Creek Starkweather EJ Project stormwater runoff Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution

Truax ANG to weaponize base ahead of F-35 deployment

April 24, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Public engagement tokenized, environmental justice ignored According to an April 2019 Draft Environmental Assessment (EA), Truax Air National Guard is planning major demolition, construction, and renovation projects from 2020-2027 at…

City of Madison Madison Water Utility PFCs or PFAS Public Participation Risk Assessment Toxic Chemicals

Madison Water Utility withheld PFAS data because the public “wouldn’t understand”

April 17, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

At an April 15 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting, the Madison Water Utility admitted that it kept PFAS test data from the public, and the committee agreed with the approach,…

Air National Guard City of Madison Community engagement EPA Madison Water Utility PFCs or PFAS Public Health Madison Dane County Public Participation Risk Assessment Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution Wisconsin DNR

Madison officials lead PR public meeting about PFAS in drinking water: Nothing to worry about!

March 17, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

On Saturday, March 16, at the East Madison Community Center, Madison Water Utility (WU) and Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) staff gave presentations about the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances…

Air National Guard City of Madison Community engagement Environmental Justice EPA Madison Water Utility NRDC PFCs or PFAS Public Health Madison Dane County Public Participation Racism Starkweather Creek Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution Water quality Wisconsin DNR

Madison water utility hears demands on PFAS-tainted well

January 29, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Photo: Madison Well 15 at Reindahl Park By Steve Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal As citizen groups prepared to ask the Madison Water Utility Board on Tuesday for a more aggressive…

Air National Guard City of Madison Community engagement Environmental Justice F-35 Fighter jets Madison Water Utility PFCs or PFAS Public Participation Racism Starkweather Creek stormwater runoff Toxic Chemicals Truax Water Pollution

Are we spiritually dead? What would Martin Luther King Jr. say?

January 21, 2019 Maria C. Powell, PhD

“Giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism” dominate even in liberal Madison “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we…

Air National Guard City of Madison Environmental Justice EPA Fighter jets Public Participation

Madison Alders Will Host Listening Session on Environmental Impacts of F35s, February 28

February 21, 2018 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Madison Alder Marsha Rummel announced a listening session about the proposal to locate F35s at Madison’s Truax Air National Guard Base on her website. Information below is directly from Alder…

Environmental Justice EPA Fish Public Participation stormwater runoff

Community dinner kicks off new EPA-funded environmental justice project

October 7, 2017 Jim Powell

MEJO and the East Madison Community Center held a community fish dinner on September 30 to close out the Center’s Hunger Action Month activities and kickoff MEJO’s new USEPA-funded Starkweather…

City of Madison Public Participation

City’s Priorities Out of Order; Citizens Punished for Doing the Right Thing (a new series)

November 12, 2016 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Above: The city has prioritized replacing a paved segment of terrace with grass, over repairing a pothole where children slip on ice (see story below). MEJO introduction to series: City…

Madison Water Utility Madison-Kipp Corp. Public Participation Toxins Water Pollution Wisconsin DNR

Madison-Kipp’s pollution cleanup is nowhere near complete: Part I–Groundwater

January 6, 2016 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Photo: Toxic permanganate discharge from Kipp groundwater extraction and treatment system (GETS) on Aug. 9, 2015 ***** On December 20 2015 the Wisconsin State Journal published a front page article…

Madison-Kipp Corp. Public Participation Toxins

“Sound-blocking fence” at Kipp still does not block sound!

January 2, 2016 Jim Powell

A year later, it remains a puzzle how this piddly wooden fence is considered a “sound-blocking” fence by the City of Madison when it obviously just does not block sound!…

Dane County Parks ecological restoration Public Participation

This is what “Conservation” looks like in Dane County Parks…

September 4, 2015 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Seventeen 80-year-old trees were cut down in Lake View Hill Conservancy County Park in ten hours of one day, Sept 3, 2015….VIDEO 1 …and ground up on the spot…. VIDEO…