On October 11, Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn, Dane County Circuit Court, vacated seven high-capacity well permits issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and remanded another. Clean Wisconsin convinced the court DNR had a public trust duty to deny the permits despite no statutory language that requires such action.

Clean Wisconsin filed the suit in Dane County after losing on the same arguments in an Outagamie County court. Their positions were also rejected by the Wisconsin Attorney General, and more recently, by the state legislature when it updated Wisconsin’s high capacity well program.

It is likely this decision will be appealed. Go to the Great Lakes Legal Foundation web page for more information.