SB 685

This bill requires the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

to fund a freshwater collaborative among no more than six UW institutions that has

the following purposes: 1) studying the challenge of agriculture water management,

including a focus on nutrient runoff, farm policy impacts, and other issues and 2)

studying the challenge of water quality and safety, including a focus on treatment,

contamination, and other issues. The bill requires the freshwater collaborative to

do all of the following to accomplish those purposes: 1) devise new watercentric

training programs focused on undergraduates; 2) provide an opportunity for

students to participate in a work-study internship program in a state office that

coordinates state water policy; 3) provide scholarships and student support to retain

and attract new talent; 4) amplify marketing and recruiting relating to Wisconsin's

role in freshwater science; 5) enhance workforce development programming; 6)

recruit new faculty and staff for training programs, research, and innovation; 7) act

as a liaison to the Blue Accounting initiative of the commission created by the Great

Lakes basin compact; 8) create a user-friendly dashboard for the public to easily

access municipal water quality reports, private well data, and surface water quality

information that must be compiled from information from the Public Service

Commission, the Department of Health Services, the Department of Natural

Resources, campuses of the UW System, the Division of Extension of UW-Madison,

and other credible organizations; and 9) divide the state into areas to better

understand each area's diverse and localized water quality issues and prepare a

report on each area's unique water quality challenges, each area's known levels of

specific contaminants, and the overall success of state and federal water quality

programs in each area.

The bill requires the Board of Regents to establish metrics for determining the

success of the freshwater collaborative and submit those metrics to the Joint

Committee on Finance. The Board of Regents may expend the moneys appropriated

under the bill if JCF does not schedule a meeting to review the metrics. However,

if JCF schedules a meeting, the moneys may be expended only after JCF approves

or modifies the metrics.

The Board of Regents must appoint a nine-member committee to advise the

board on how to allocate the funding among UW institutions. One member is the UW

System president or his or her designee. The Board of Regents must appoint two

members who are nationally recognized objective experts who have shown expertise

in the field of water science. Those two members must be selected from a list of five

individuals recommended by the UW System president or his or her designee. The

senate majority leader and assembly speaker each appoint two members, with one

representing the agricultural industry and the other representing a private sector

nonagricultural industry. Finally, the governor appoints two members, with one

representing a private sector nonagricultural industry and the other representing