Money? Sure, we’ll take some!

On Thursday, the Marathon County Executive Committee directed administrator Lance Leonard to press state representatives for $610,000 in each of the next six years to pay for a Fenwood Creek Subwatershed Project, a top conservation priority within the county’s strategic plan.

The money would be used to pay farmers within the subwatershed to reduce tillage, plant cover crops, switch to managed grazing and, in doing so, reduce algae-producing phosphorus run-off.

We are skeptical that state leaders are going to write a check with so many zeroes to Marathon County for conservation projects in such a relatively small, 24,958 acre subwatershed. State leaders would understand that funding this project would set a precedent. Extending the Fenwood model across the state’s 14.3 million farmland acres would cost roughly $350 million a year for six years. We don’t see legislators rushing to sign up for this.

But, given the Executive Committee’s ease in asking Madison for conservation dollars, we’re a bit disappointed that supervisors didn’t also ask for some cash for village and cities who are rebuilding their wastewater treatment plants in order to meet the same Wisconsin River Basin water quality standards the county is seeking to address.

Locally, the village of Edgar and Marathon City are committed to multi-million dollar sewer plant upgrades, while a few miles to the east, the City of Wausau just received a $74 million low bid on its wastewater treatment plant project.

These municipalities plan to charge homeowners and businesses to pay for all these major construction projects, but that wouldn’t be necessary with enough state money. Heck, the cities and villages could pay residents for each toilet flush.

The county needs to remember that improving the environment is everybody’s responsibility, both town and country folk, and that any financial assistance from the state should help all of us do our part to minimize pollution.