County land & water conservation committee considers PFAS, enhanced wake resolutions

The Oneida County land and water conservation committee delved into a pair of hot-button issues during its February meeting — PFAS and enhanced wakes.

Several members of the public expressed their thoughts on the county’s enhanced wake resolution and the changes that had been made to that resolution.

Enhanced wakes

When the resolution first left the committee to head to the full county board for approval, it stipulated wake enhancing boats and activities should not be allowed within 500 feet of a shoreline nor should those activities take place in water depths less than 30 feet. The resolution was modified by the county board when supervisor Tommy Ryden, who sits on the land and water conservation committee, pulled the matter off of the consent agenda to initiate changes to those restrictions. The resolution was ultimately sent back to committee with a 300 foot from shore restriction and the acceptable operating depth moved up to 15 feet.

Eric Rempala of Oneida County Clean Waters Action said he would prefer to see a 30 foot depth in the resolution, but would accept 20 feet versus the 15 which the full county board had agreed before sending the resolution back to committee. This sentiment was echoed by others who spoke.

Jeff Verdoorn, executive director of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation, spoke about the impact of lakes on the county. 

Lakes are a large economic driver of tourism in the county, generating $362 million annually in revenue for the county and its small businesses, he said. Lakes are also responsible for $22 million in state and local taxes. Twelve percent of all employment in the county comes from tourism as well, it was noted.

“Our lakes are our most important economic driver in Oneida County,” he told the committee. “Yet we often forget just how fragile our lakes are. Tourism is what drives Oneida County, and our lakes drive tourism.” Scouring of lake bottoms, he said, happens with wake enhancing boats at any depths below 20 to 25 feet. These wakes, Verdoorn said, have been shown to take up to 500 feet to subside to the size of a “normal” wake. He mentioned these things in order to show the potential damage that could be done to a lake.

County conservationist Michele Sadauskas spoke about the amended resolution that came back from the county board to the committee. She provided the committee members with eight studies regarding enhanced wakes for their edification.

The county board, she said, changed the original resolution to the 300 foot from shore and 15 foot depth that was now in front of the committee. 

She also noted that the word “excessive” had replaced “enhanced” wake in the resolution. She recommended going back to using the word “enhanced,” as that is a common term and is also used in proposed legislation. There was some discussion as to why this change was made. Ryden said he wanted the word “excessive” because he felt “enhanced” meant the person modified the boat or the boat was somehow modified to make a bigger wake.

“If I wanted to wake surf right now on Boom (Lake), I could go out there with a 20-foot Boston whaler and wake surf and I don’t have to do anything to it,” he said. “It’s still going to throw a really big wake. So I feel like it will actually encompass all wakes.” 

He said the word “excessive” lumped all boats together and meant no boat could throw a large wake.

Committee chairman Jim Winkler said the recently approved Town of Newbold’s enhanced wake ordinance was worded in such a way as to lump all boats together also. He told the committee they should take a look at that resolution as an example.

“One thing we are not doing here, is we are not writing legislation,” said supervisor Linnaea Newman. “This is an advisory resolution, which means it can be ignored or not ignored, but at least when we are using the enhanced wake terminology, everybody knows what we are talking about.”

The discussion went on for some time before supervisor Robb Jensen offered a compromise of using both words as enhanced/excessive.

“Whatever changes we make, let’s send it on to the county board and we’ll have a discussion about it there as well,” he suggested.

Winkler said there was likely time to work further on this resolution, as it was unlikely there would be a vote on it in the legislature before the current session was complete. With that, he said he also wanted the most up-to-date science on potential damage from enhanced wakes before making a decision on depth and distance from shore.

Tom Jerow of Wisconsin’s Greenfire was present at the meeting as well. He told the committee that a PhD candidate had completed a peer-reviewed study looking at the science of enhanced wakes and how to prevent damage to lakes. 

That study, he said, was set to be released soon. He said he would ensure a copy was forwarded to the committee members.

PFAS

The committee also discussed PFAS. 

Winkler said the health department was involved, but he also felt the land and water conservation committee should take up the matter. 

He brought it to the committee for further the discussion. 

The department, he said, has a model that could provide the full county board with a visual representation of how PFAS  move through the water table. Newman said she had seen a study showing a PFAS plume could reach up to 14 miles, leading to the belief that the problem will get worse before it gets better, affecting all of the surface and ground waters in that area.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of human-made chemicals used for decades in numerous products, including non-stick cookware, fast food wrappers, stain-resistant sprays and certain types of firefighting foam. These contaminants have made their way into the environment through accidental spills of PFAS-containing materials, discharges of PFAS-containing wastewater to treatment plants and certain types of firefighting foams, according to the DNR. 

These chemicals are known to accumulate in the human body, posing several risks to human health including certain cancers, liver damage and decreased fertility. 

Jensen said he would like to see an ongoing dialogue with the state, which would allow residents impacted by PFAS in their wells to know more about possible funding that may be available to dig deeper wells in the hopes of finding better water. 

He said work should continue at both the state and federal level as well.

Verdoorn said that, to his knowledge, the only testing the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had done was on current paper mill sludge, which contained no detectable levels of PFAS. Winkler found it worrisome that sludge has been sprayed on fields for years. 

“That concerns me that we’ve allowed for distribution of stuff on the land, now knowing what’s in that sludge,” he said. 

All of this activity, zoning director Karl Jennrich said, is permitted by the state. There were certain setbacks to municipal and other wells and spreading was only allowed on certain soil types. Even now, this type of nutrient spreading is desirable and is asked for, Verdoorn reminded the committee.

Newman asked whether the conservation committee should be working with the health department so as to not duplicate efforts. Chair Winkler agreed. He said he wanted to see the topic stay on the agenda for the committee moving forward. 

He also said he would talk with county board chairman Scott Holewinski about bringing an education piece to the full county board after the spring election to make sure new and old board members alike, have the best available information and could see how PFAS might move through the groundwater using the department’s model.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].