Two court cases with local ties to water are waiting for their day in court. Last month, the Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin joined the Midwest Environmental Advocates and four other stakeholders to intervene in a Waukesha County Court case involving the Wisconsin Manufacturers Commerce and the Wisconsin DNR. The intervention charges the WMC with trying to undermine the Wisconsin Spills Law and limit the DNR’s ability to investigate spills involving hazardous substances like PFAS. CWAC Executive Director Dean Hoegger says a ruling would limit what the DNR could do about handling all hazardous substances, some of which the public does not a lot about yet.

Hoegger says it will take a number of weeks before they will find out if they will be accepted as intervenors in the case. He believes the public deserves a voice in the case since it is their health that will be affected. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to weigh in another case of local interest involving the Midwest Environmental Advocates on Thursday. The state’s high court has indicated it will issue a decision regarding how the DNR can regulate water pollution permits for large farms, stemming from a nearly eight-year-old case involving Kinnard Farms and a group of concerned Kewaunee County residents.