To meet their phosphorus requirements, Madison Metropolitan Sewer District (MMSD) filed an Areawide Water Quality Management Plan Amendment Modification with Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC), recommending that our 3.6 million gallons of return water into Badger Mill Creek be discontinued. In addition, our discontinued return water would be redirected to Badfish Creek. This will also result in low water levels in Badger Mill Creek, as we saw in January through February 2023, with wildlife leaving the creek.
We need your help in providing comments to CARPC, against this amendment on why keeping our water flowing in Badger Mill Creek is important to you. Community members and other experts believe that another option should be considered. That option is Adaptive Management, which utilizes credits from innovating farming techniques to reduce phosphorus on fields. Both the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, MMSD, and elected government officials have expressed interest in this plan.
The solution is to gather these organizations together to WORK OUT THE DETAILS so we can SOLVE THE PROBLEM AND KEEP THE WATER FLOWING TO THE BADGER MILL CREEK. For more information, check out the article from the Verona Press.
UPDATE: CARPC will hold another public hearing on August 8, 2024, at 6:00 pm at the MIddleton Town Hall, 7555 Old Sauk Road, Verona. Please consider submitting/resubmitting written comments, or if you haven’t done so, to CARPC to vote “NO” on the amendment of turning off the effluent water (and why) to Badger Mill Creek, by e-mail to tanyas@capitalarearpc.org.