Notes from the West Wing
By
State Representative Garey Bies
Navigable Waters
With the summer over, the fall session is off and running.
Unfortunately, it is running right down the road of partisan games and delay.
It has led to some long nights on the floor of the Assembly.
When the political maneuvering occurs, it can be a bit frustrating and it
certainly isn’t pretty, but it is part of our democratic process.
Legislative agendas can be defeated with words but if your goal is merely
disruption and delay, partisan gamesmanship is your tool.
For this
week’s Notes from the West Wing, I would like to comment on a bill that
is getting quite a bit of attention in the district and around the state.
The bill is attempting to define what constitutes a navigable waterway.
Water
rights and laws are some of the oldest laws found in the world.
In Europe, water rights laws are hundreds of years old dating back to the
Middle Ages. Being a relatively
young nation, water laws in the United States are not entrenched with the
history of ancient kingdoms. In Wisconsin, our laws pertaining to navigable waterways
stems from the early logging industry. Laws
governing navigable waters were designed to assist the Wisconsin logging
industry as much as possible. The
essence of the early law was to declare any waterway to be navigable so long as
it could float a full-sized log at any point during the year.
This allowed the logging companies to float their logs downstream during
the high-water period of spring.
So why
has the issue of navigable waterways become so heated in recent years?
And why does this issue need legislation? As is typical of the
agency, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has decided to push the
navigable waters laws as far as possible. It
is ludicrous to me that a drainage ditch can be considered a navigable waterway.
But when two Department representatives cannot decide between themselves
whether a particular drainage ditch is navigable or not, we have an even bigger
problem.
Senator
Alan Lasee described a ridiculous example of such a scenario to me.
The situation occurred in Fond du Lac County where the management of a
strip mall wanted to pave their parking lot.
The problem arose when a dispute over the drainage ditch to the north of
strip mall came into question. One
DNR representative declared the drainage ditch navigable while another DNR
representative declared the ditch non-navigable.
Because the DNR’s own agents could not agree on whether the drainage
ditch was navigable or not, the strip mall owners were told not to pave their
parking lot while the agency resolved their disagreement.
When a
person thinks a drainage ditch is a navigable stream it disrupts the lives of
good tax paying citizens. Common sense goes out the window and the agency
digs in its heels. In turn, legislators are called and go to the scene to
point out the fact that it is a drainage ditch and always has been. To
even consider a drainage ditch a navigable stream is bad enough, but when the
DNR lacks consistency in determination of navigable waters, there is need for
the legislature to step in.
This
necessity for the legislature to act is where we are now.
Is the currently proposed bill without flaws and ready to be enacted now?
No. But it is my hope that the
committee process will produce a good, sensible proposal. During the
hearing process, the committee will listen to the input of interested parties
and will count on the cooperation of the DNR in developing a good proposal.
Hopefully the legislative process will produce new guidelines for
navigable waterways that are sensible and just. What we have now, just
doesn’t measure up anymore. Wisconsin
is not stuck in the 19th century; neither should be our navigable
waters law.
As always, if you have questions or comments on this column or any other topic you might see or read in the news, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.state.wi.us or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001.