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 use readily available tools for tracking down significant sources of toxic pollutants in the fish and waters of the Yahara chain of lakes, a conservation group says.
A two-year study by the Madison-based Midwest Environmental Justice Organization found that local governments aren’t fully using their powers to find sources of industrial contaminants, including PCBs and metals that have impaired the use of the lakes and made eating too many fish a health hazard.
MEJO executive director Maria Powell said that if the city and county traced the paths contaminants take through storm drains, they would document the sources of the pollution and trigger costly cleanups for businesses — and for the local governments themselves.
“They don’t really want to go up to the source,” Powell said. “If you don’t find it you don’t have to clean it up.”
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