STATE WATER POLICY WEB SITE DEBUTS
The "Wisconsin Water Policies
Inventory (WPPI)" debuts this Earth Day, providing citizens with a new,
web-based tool for navigating the statešs major policies on any aspect of water
including use, protection, quality, and management. It enables Wisconsinites to
focus on State policies by topic, using keywords and browser features. The
URL is
http://www.aqua.wisc.edu/waterpolicy.
The
idea for the WPPI, whose search features will be familiar to Google users, grew
out of the statewide Waters of Wisconsin initiative spearheaded by the Wisconsin
Academy for Sciences, Arts and Letters from 2000 to 2003. The website was
developed during the Governoršs declared Year of Water by a University of
Wisconsin-Madison graduate seminar, in partnership with the UW Aquatic Sciences
Center and assisted by a network of agency, university, and nongovernmental
advisors. The site includes links to the state electronic legislative
library maintained by the Legislature, without which the WPPI would not have
been possible.
Steve Born, UW-Madison Professor of Planning and
Environmental Studies, who co-directed the project along with Elisa Graffy, U.S.
Geological Survey policy specialist, notes that the Wisconsin Water Policies
Inventory may be the first of its kind in the U.S. He adds, "This is an effort
to make the statešs current policies and policy goals more transparent. Citizens
are often surprised to discover what the many laws and rules do and donšt say,
but the hardest part is finding them in the first place. The graduate students
who put this database together put in a lot of hours on behalf of their fellow
citizens."
"Water is literally the lifeblood of Wisconsin. This
data base will be a valuable source of information about how we are using our
waters and what is being done to protect and restore this precious resource for
future generations," stated Todd Ambs, Water Division Administrator for the
Wisconsin DNR and former member of the Waters of Wisconsin Advisory
Group.
Contact for further information:
Stephen M. Born
(608-262-9985),
smborn@wisc.edu