Historically, the River Alliance has paid close attention to the Wisconsin River, but we made a strategic choice to put a sharper focus on the Wisconsin system.
A young kayaker enjoys the calm of the Lower Wisconsin River.
Why the Wisconsin?  - Because of its status and importance as the state’s namesake river
- Progress made in cleaning it up is being lost
- No entity treats the river as an integrated system
- Because river protection and restoration problems across the state are found in microcosm in the Wisconsin River’s system, we could demonstrate actions and make policy suggestions for the Wisconsin River system that would apply statewide.
A view of the Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River, Sauk County.
The Wisconsin River courses 430 miles from Lac Vieux Desert to Wyalusing, and drains 12,000 square miles, or about 20% of the state. A very hard-working river, the Wisconsin has 21 hydropower dams on its mainstem alone. It absorbs industrial pollution from 15 paper plants, effluent from over 70 municipalities, and polluted runoff from some of the most intensively farmed land in Wisconsin.
Water quality has improved considerably since the passage of the Clean Water Act, but some persistent water quality challenges remain, especially from agriculture. There are a total of 33 rivers or river segments listed as “impaired waters” in the Wisconsin system; many are almost exclusively agricultural sub-watersheds.
Phosphorus and Waterparks
 Another water quality (and serious esthetic) challenge to the Wisconsin system is the subdividing of riparian land for recreational and housing development. In the high heat of the real estate boom, there were at least a half dozen very large developments planned or underway, within a stone’s throw of the Wisconsin River, with attendant challenges of erosion, pollution and aggressive recreation.
Slimy algae blooms caused by phosphorus pollution are common in the Petenwell and Castle Rock flowages of the Wisconsin River.
The Wisconsin River is not at all managed as a singular system. The river’s watershed is split into three management units by the Dept. of Natural Resources, and there’s an additional management arrangement for the Lower Wisconsin (the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board), not to mention the workings of a private entity called the Wisconsin Valley Improvement Project, which manipulates water flows through the series of hydro dams operated for electrical generation and paper making.
Given its economic importance, unique beauty and almost mystical and poetic power, the Wisconsin River – the state’s “mother river” -- deserves better than what it gets these days from piecemeal management, disregard of overall system impacts from myriad small and local actions, and no strategies to act across organizations and political boundaries.
Our Wisconsin River Initiative alone cannot improve on all these fundamental system problems, but we can get started by providing renewed focus and energy for this important river.
What We Do for the Wisconsin River
Here are the specific projects we carry out on behalf of the Wisconsin River:
- Ensure that the hydro dams on the Wisconsin River implement river protection obligations of their federal licenses - in particular, passing sturgeon and paddlefish around the Prairie du Sac dam, and managing water levels of the Petenwell and Castle Rock dams to improve fish habitat and increase phosphorus uptake of native plants.
- Coordinate a multi-partner effort with focused, concerted action to reduce phosphorus pollution in the central stretch of the Wisconsin River - in particular, organizing a citizens group, the Petenwell and Castle Rock Stewards (PACRS), to raise the profile of phosphorus pollution and other serious challenges to the beauty and integrity of the Wisconsin River.
- Watchdog big housing developments to ensure they don’t add pollution to the river and respect the river’s aesthetics. For example, we have opposed the construction of “Grand Cambrian,” a massive and ill-conceived waterfront development in the Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River that would be an unprecedented intrusion into the unique geology of the Dells.
- Support the work of local watershed and river friends groups in the Wisconsin River basin. This includes, among many support efforts, the water quality monitoring of Valley Stewardship Network, harmonizing with the voices of local river advocates such as Stewards of the Dells of the Wisconsin River, and assisting groups such as
 the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin (FLOW) to build and sustain their organizations.
Eagle’s eye view of the Lower Wisconsin, protected by the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board.
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