No commercial clam shelling licenses have been sold since 2001. The official closure of the commercial clam shelling season will have no fiscal impact on state or local government revenues or expenditures.

The proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be reviewed and comments electronically submitted at the following Internet site: adminrules.wisconsin.gov. Written comments on the proposed rule may be submitted via U.S. mail to Joe Hennessy, Bureau of Fisheries Management and Habitat Protection, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707. Comments may be submitted until September 1, 2005. Written comments whether submitted electronically or by U.S. mail will have the same weight and effect as oral statements presented at the public hearings. A personal copy of the proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be obtained from Mr. Hennessy.

Chapter NR 58, subch. III is created to establish this new program. The program is intended for management, restoration and protection of private land with habitat for at-risk species. At-risk species are defined by the Department to include species listed as endangered, threatened, candidate or special concern at the state or federal level; species identified by the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan; or species otherwise determined by the state to be in decline. The new program will provide a 25% cost-share to private landowners and organizations who meet the criteria of the program.

The proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be reviewed and comments electronically submitted at the following Internet site: adminrules.wisconsin.gov. Written comments on the proposed rule may be submitted via U.S. mail to Ms. Jennifer Bardeen, Bureau of Endangered Resources, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707. Comments may be submitted until August 25, 2005. Written comments whether submitted electronically or by U.S. mail will have the same weight and effect as oral statements presented at the public hearing. A personal copy of the proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be obtained from Ms. Bardeen.

    Room 8F, State Office Building
    101 E. Wilson Street
    Madison

    Room 220, UW Marathon Center
    518 South 7th Avenue
    Wausau

This fiscal estimate is based on a proposed ATV registration exemption rule that would affect out of state ATV operators who bring nonresident ATVs (specifically Michigan and Illinois) to Wisconsin. Instead of requiring the display of a home-state registration, the rule would require the nonresident ATV to display only a Wisconsin nonresident trailpass on the machine, unless they opted to continue to register the ATV in WI.

Currently, nonresident ATV operators from Michigan and Illinois are required to register their machines in WI because of a legal requirement stemming from an irregularity in the law. If the states of Michigan and Illinois had a registration program, the residents of those states would not be affected by the irregularity. However, because of the irregularity, those ATVers cannot simply ride their ATVs in Wisconsin displaying only a nonresident trailpass, and at this time, the purchase of a nonresident trail pass by Michigan or Illinois ATVers is a cost that affords no legal riding benefit.

The rule change could affect Wisconsin's registration of 9,218 ATVs from Illinois and 367 ATVs from Michigan. The combined total of Wisconsin registered ATVs from those states is 9,585. Each Wisconsin registration costs $30 for a two-year period, which generates $287,550 biennially. Since all ATV registrations don't expire at the same time every two years, only about 50% of the 9,585 registrations expire annually, or 4,793 registrations, which equals $287,550 and $143,775 respectively. The proposed rule could initially be viewed as a negative impact to the registration program; however, those machines not registering in WI would in turn be required to display a nonresident trail pass. The cost of a nonresident trail pass costs $18 annually.

The proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be reviewed and comments electronically submitted at the following Internet site: adminrules.wisconsin.gov. Written comments on the proposed rule may be submitted via U.S. mail to Mr. Karl Brooks, Bureau of Law Enforcement, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707. Comments may be submitted until September 16, 2005. Written comments whether submitted electronically or by U.S. mail will have the same weight and effect as oral statements presented at the public hearing. A personal copy of the proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be obtained from Mr. Brooks.

State statute 23.33 (6m) pursuant to Wisconsin 2003 Act 251 restricted noise levels from ATVs. The Act did not prescribe a method to measure the noise. The method was to be promulgated in a rule by the department. Funding to acquire the noise measuring equipment was also provided in Act 251 as was operating dollars for patrol and training. The rule is procedural and any unanticipated costs will be absorbed by the ATV program.

The proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be reviewed and comments electronically submitted at the following Internet site: adminrules.wisconsin.gov. Written comments on the proposed rule may be submitted via U.S. mail to Mr. Karl Brooks, Bureau of Law Enforcement, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707. Comments may be submitted until September 16, 2005. Written comments whether submitted electronically or by U.S. mail will have the same weight and effect as oral statements presented at the public hearing. A personal copy of the proposed rule and fiscal estimate may be obtained from Mr. Brooks.

•   Animal units: The Department is proposing changes to animal unit equivalencies used to determine the size thresholds for CAFOs (large, medium and small). These changes are primarily the result of changes to federal animal unit numbers and mostly impact operations with heifers or veal calves or poultry operations with a non-liquid manure handling system.

•   General permits: The proposed revisions outline application and general eligibility and coverage requirements for issuance of a general WPDES permit that could be used to cover CAFOs.

•   Standard CAFO requirements: The rule changes include a number of standard requirements designed to address potential water quality impacts from CAFOs and to incorporate federal requirements. Some of these include managing areas of the operations where animals are not held in confinement (CAFO outdoor vegetated areas), mortality management, restrictions on chemical disposal in storage or containment facilities, stormwater controls and development of an emergency response plan.

•   Nutrient management and NRCS 590: The Department is proposing to incorporate an updated version of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) technical standard for nutrient management (NRCS 590, November 2004) as well as other nutrient management requirements.

•   Surface Water Quality Management Area (SWQMA) restrictions: The proposed revisions identify conservation practices to be implemented within the SWQMA (1,000 feet of a lake, 300 feet of a stream) to protect against acute manure runoff events and long-term nutrient delivery to surface waters. These provisions are also intended to address federal requirements mandating a 100-foot setback from navigable waters/conduits to navigable waters (or equivalent) or a 35-foot vegetated buffer.

•   Manure application restrictions on frozen or snow-covered ground: Key proposed revisions include: (1) A prohibition on surface applications of liquid manure on frozen or snow-covered ground at all times; and (2) A prohibition on surface applications of solid manure on frozen or snow-covered ground in February and March. Proper incorporation or injection of liquid and solid manure would be allowed under frozen or snow-covered ground conditions at all times. These liquid manure restrictions would become effective on January 1, 2010 for existing source CAFOs and upon permit issuance for new source CAFOs.

•   Phosphorus delivery: All CAFOs would be required to implement phosphorus-based nutrient management. In addition to the phosphorus requirements in NRCS Standard 590, the proposed revisions add additional restrictions intended to address phosphorus delivery to surface waters.

•   Groundwater protection: The proposed revisions include increased setbacks from karst features, drinking water supply wells and additional application restrictions based on separation distances to groundwater and bedrock.

•   Manure stacking: The proposed rule revisions allow for the temporary unconfined stacking of solid manure with 16% solids or greater during winter months in lieu of storage in a designed storage facility.

•   Responsibility for CAFO manure: The revisions identify the circumstances under which CAFOs are not considered to be responsible for the disposal/land application of the manure they generate.

•   Monitoring/inspections/reporting: The revisions reflect federal monitoring, self-inspection and reporting requirements as well as additional requirements for maintaining and determining compliance with nutrient management requirements.

•   Small/medium CAFOs: The revisions reflect federal and state authority to define and designate small and medium size animal feeding operations that have discharges to navigable waters as CAFOs and to issue WPDES permits for those discharges. The revisions also outline permit requirements for permits issued to small and medium CAFOs.

a. Types of small businesses affected: Animal feeding operations

b. Description of reporting and bookkeeping procedures required: In accordance with revised federal rule requirements, permittees must conduct frequent inspections of water lines (daily), storm water diversions (weekly) and storage facilities and runoff control systems (weekly) at the animal production area. These inspections are then summarized in a quarterly report and these quarterly reports are submitted to the Department on an annual basis. For land application activities, the proposed code requires periodic manure and soil sampling, daily spreading logs documenting spreading activities, and a weather log. Permittees summarize this information and submit it to the Department as part of an annual report. In general, the required bookkeeping procedures are designed to document that an operation is complying with the regulations. For permitted operations, the revised code proposal does not significantly alter current code requirements, aside from the addition of certain types of self-inspections that are required and the maintenance of a weather log. The Department is in the process of creating standardized reporting forms that will increase the ease and consistency of reporting. Permitted operations must keep all records on-site for five years. Since these are federal requirements, the Department may not waive or provide less stringent requirements.

c. Professional skills necessary: The requirements of the proposed rule changes are similar to the type of requirements currently in the rules, so the type of professional skills required to comply with the rule are not expected to be significantly different. Depending on the knowledge, training, qualifications and time available of an owner or operator of a given permitted operation, a nutrient management plan may or may not require involvement of a hired certified agronomist or other qualified professional. Most large CAFOs already have professional agronomists develop their nutrient management plans. Smaller operations are more likely to need outside assistance given time and resource restrictions. Many, if not most, large CAFOs hire professional engineers to design their structural facilities and systems. Given the size, complexity and technical nature of the design of systems and structures, it is difficult for permittees to comply with design requirements associated with the permit, short of basic earth-moving, without the involvement of a professional with expertise in the area of design and construction. For example, a manure storage facility for a 2000 animal unit dairy designed to provide six months of storage has a volume of approximately 5.5 million gallons. All size operations may, if available, have access to design and technical assistance from counties or NRCS staff free of charge.

The Department's Small Business Regulatory Coordinator may be contacted at:
  SmallBusinessReg.Coordinator@dnr.state.wi.us
  or by calling (608) 266-1959.

August 15, 2005   Roosevelt Room
Monday at 6:00 p.m.   Ramada White House
  1450 Veterans Drive
  Richland Center

August 17, 2005   UW-Extension
Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.   Jefferson County Office
  864 Collins Road
  Jefferson

August 18, 2005   Room 103
Thursday at 6:00 p.m.   Chippewa Valley Tech. College,
  Business Education Center
  Clairemont Campus
  620 West Clairemont Avenue
  Eau Claire

August 22, 2005   Room E101/E102
Monday at 6:00 p.m.   Northcentral Tech. College
  1000 W. Campus Drive
  Wausau