Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' task force to begin gathering water information

MADISON — A task force that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos formed to study water pollution is set start gathering information.

The panel is slated to hold a listening session Wednesday with the state Department of Natural Resources as well as the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

The panel has scheduled another listening session April 3. Farmer advocates, including the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, and environmentalists from Clean Wisconsin and Wisconsin Conservation Voters are slated to speak at that meeting.

Vos formed the panel in January after a study showed wells in Iowa, Grant and Lafayette counties exceed federal standards for bacteria originating from animal or human waste or a toxic fertilizer residue.