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Phosphorus pollution in our nation’s surface waters causes harmful algal blooms that impair water quality, harm aquatic life, reduce recreation, and pose a threat to public health. Considered among the most widespread and costly water problems, phosphorus pollution comes from a variety of sources, ranging from municipal wastewater treatment plants to agriculture. In the United States, the federal government, states, and Tribes share the responsibility of controlling phosphorus pollution by setting water quality standards, regulating pollution discharges with permit programs, and managing nonpoint runoff.  

Phosphorus pollution is most effectively managed through numeric water quality criteria, which offer a way to more clearly evaluate reductions of phosphorus pollution in water. As of 2023, however, only five states have established nutrient criteria for two or more water types.  

This law review article: 

• analyzes and compares the five states with the most comprehensive nutrient criteria to evaluate phosphorus management strategies, emphasizing Wisconsin’s approach, as it is considered a leader in the nation; 

• offers regulatory context by discussing the cooperative governance between the Environmental Protection Agency, states, and Tribes in phosphorus management under the Clean Water Act;  

• provides an overarching scientific grounding in the phosphorus paradox, problems with legacy phosphorus that linger long after over-applying fertilizer on agricultural lands, and climate change’s role of intensifying runoff problems; and 

•  argues solving the phosphorus paradox requires transformative approaches to agriculture that go beyond the current legal framework.

Read the research:

Anya Janssen and Melissa Scanlan, Solving the Phosphorus Paradox: Five States’ Approaches to Restoring Nutrient Impaired Surface Water,

Joe Bevington, Master’s candidate and the Center for Water Policy’s Water Policy and Science Communication Fellow at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, conducted thesis research focused on bridging communication gaps between shoreline anglers and policymakers. This study surveyed Milwaukee County’s diverse shoreline angling community, their preferences, motivations, and sources of information, aiming to enhance their involvement in DNR policy processes. The results of this study reveal surprising findings and valuable strategies to improve communications between diverse stakeholders and natural resource policymakers.

Read the thesis .

You can view the thesis presentation .

Citation:

Joseph Bevington, Building Communication Bridges Between Shoreline Anglers and Natural Resource Policymakers, Master’s Thesis, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Publications (2024).

Humans have no known safe level of exposure to lead. Blood lead levels have devastating consequences, especially for children, affecting their brain development and almost every organ in their bodies. Various government organizations have enacted measures to combat lead contamination in drinking water and its dangerous human health consequences by replacing lead service lines. At the federal level, the Lead and Copper Rule has set deadlines for identifying lead lines and taking remedial action over extended periods of time. At the state level, governments have programs to fund the replacement of lead service lines in their communities, but these funds often fall short of their needs. While these efforts have reduced the problem of lead contamination in drinking water, many of the remaining lead service lines in the U.S. are found buried under aging cities, often with low-income populations.  Litigation brought by public interest groups has spurred faster replacement, but this has only been deployed in a handful of cities.  The greater leverage point is increased federal funding to eradicate the problem. In 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by President Biden. It included a historically large increase in supplemental funds for the replacement of lead service lines over five years. In early 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a campaign to get lead out of water and accelerate the pace of the solutions. 

Seven out of the top ten U.S. states with the most lead service lines are Great Lakes states. Because the Great Lakes are ringed by cities with a high concentration of lead service lines for drinking water and tend to have high poverty rates, we focused research on this region to explore the national issue of identifying and replacing lead service lines to protect drinking water quality.

Our law review article examines the:

• scope of the problem of replacing lead service lines in states in the Great Lakes region,
• cost estimates of financing their replacement,
• significant gap between federal funding and estimated costs, and
• decisions states need to make now to access and effectively spend federal money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to remove lead from the water of the nation’s disadvantaged communities.

*Update* In October 2024, the final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements that require all lead pipes to be removed within 10 years of the compliance date. This is a significant change from current policy.

Read the research:

Andrian Lee and Melissa Scanlan, Got Lead in Your Water? The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law May Be Poised to Help,

In 2023, the Water Policy Program at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences continued it’s development with the publication of five peer-reviewed articles and five scholarly reports and legal policy briefs. In recognition of the production of these publications, we have developed a 2023 report of Water Policy Publications summarizing and highlighting the cutting-edge research from the program.