(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Petty Low.
Each week we bring you stories about the people, places,
and issues in our state.
This week, yes, Halloween approaches,
enter the amazing world of bats, tens of thousands of bats,
but a slow-moving menace is threatening
these creatures of the night.
Then follow the money in the Fox River PCB cleanup project.
And find out what on earth is former UW Board
of Regents president is doing with a co-danger.
That's coming up in Wisconsin.
- Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided
by the people of a lion's energy who bring safe, reliable,
and environmentally friendly energy
to keep homes, neighborhoods, and life in Wisconsin
running smoothly.
A lion's energy, offering energy saving ideas on the web.
UW Health, providing specialty and primary care
for all ages throughout Wisconsin.
Information on UW Health Physicians and Clinics
and on University of Wisconsin Hospital
is available on the web.
Wisconsin's technical colleges, providing local education
for the crucial occupations essential to our communities.
Wisconsin's technical colleges, communities first.
- Halloween is full of scary images,
foolish monsters, hissing black cats and bats on the wing.
Most of us don't worry about the world of make believe,
but in real life bats send many people scurrying for cover.
Not Dave Vredell.
Two years ago we told you about Vredell's research on bats.
Since then he's been focusing on a new threat
to bats in Wisconsin, a threat that kills.
Producer Joanne Garrett once again joins Vredell
on a nighttime research mission.
(birds chirping)
The echolotation speeds up so fast
that it just sounds like a little buzz.
It's not a lot known about bats, so if anything you do with
them is new information.
- New information.
- They're all sitting, they're pretty relaxed right now.
- When last we saw researcher Dave Vredell
and his subjects, Vredell was toting
only like tags.
- So this is a little brown female.
And you can see we're getting into a...
- And a laptop.
- Different shape and frequency.
And this is likely the big brown bats.
- Single-handedly, this graduate student in wildlife ecology,
the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
attempted to capture bats.
- You can hear him going by now.
It picks up the bad echolotation as they fly by like that one.
- And catalog, bat calls.
- There's three pieces for the echolotation.
- The call's pitched high above our human hearing.
- Search phase and then a pursuit and then a capture.
- Also, Vredell could ID bat species and monitor behavior.
When we caught up with Vredell in 2003,
he took us to a rare place, a bat haven.
Through a highway callvert to an old abandoned iron mine
in the southern part of the state.
It's a hybrid aculum, one of the largest
in the Midwest, where tens of thousands of
bats make their winter home.
- It's become a really great place for bats to hibernate at.
It's 100% humidity.
- Population, about 143,000 bats.
Vredell counted them as part of his research.
- You know what, you don't see usually a ignore.
People rarely see bats.
They really don't know what good they do on the landscape.
- All the bats that we've discussed in our insect eaters,
so they eat a large quantity of insects per night.
- A single one of these agile hunters,
chow's down anywhere from 1600 to 6,000 mosquitoes in a night.
The math is stunning.
And mosquitoes aren't the only item that bats eat.
- Many of them are crop pests in terms of human economy.
The more bats on the landscape, the more bats eat the
bugs, the fewer pesticides you have to spray.
And I think economically they're quite beneficial.
- Vredell still works the night shift.
But Dr.
Vredell now works for the DNR,
supported by grants that he garners.
Vredell is now the state's first bat ecologist.
- Angela is checking the guidelines.
- Vredell has a crew now, and much more
sophisticated equipment.
Think of it as a bigger technological net.
For example, some of his ultrasound detectors
are now strong on towers.
It allows him to track bats at different altitudes.
- In this one's at two meters.
That one's at 22 meters, or roughly the tower's
about 73 feet tall.
We don't really have a lot of information on what
goes on the landscape.
So we're trying to fill in some of those gaps
of what altitude do these bats migrate at, forage and commute.
There are differences.
- And the pressure is on because of a growing threat
on the Wisconsin landscape, wind farms.
The number of wind farms in the state is growing
and includes a project by the Butler Ridge wind farm
that will be sighted in Dodge County near the high vernacular,
the state's most concentrated population of bats.
Turbines like these are a bone to renewable energy,
but studies have shown a tie to bat mortality.
These agile flyers can be taken down by the turbines.
- Why are they hitting them?
Some people studying the physics of sound and echolocation
are looking at the curvature of the blades,
figuring out what the returning echo looks like.
The movement, are they hitting the blades?
The turbulence behind it.
It could be an attraction, maybe associated with weather
or insect events or some other factor that's easily predicted.
Once we figure out it's like seeing a trick,
it's baffling at first, but once you figure it out,
then it's pretty easy.
So hopefully it's something real simple.
- It's baffling because bats are such great aviators,
able to dodge trees and branches and other bats with ease.
- You put up a misnet and a lot of times you watch them,
you know, it's complete dark.
I'll walk right into it, but you know, bat flying at full speed.
We'll let the last second a few inches away,
just collect that around it.
- To help unravel this mystery, Redellen crew are in
the midst of a study, the first of its
kind in the nation.
With the cooperation of the wind farm,
they will study the bats before and after the building
of the wind farm.
- There's been 12 studies with wind farms and bats,
but they've been all after the wind farms have been built.
We really need to see the tree and the post together
before you can draw any conclusions for the future.
So we're trying to develop tools here to look in the future.
- Redellen's research will hopefully lead
to some national protocols about where and how to build
wind farms that could decrease or eliminate bat mortality.
A critical issue as renewables play a bigger role
in our nation's energy needs.
- We've got some technology at our hands now
that we can start learning more about them
whereas in the past we are maybe limited
because they're flying at night and it's dark,
you can't see them.
- You can see their heat signature
and you can follow them as they fly by the edges
of a forest through a landscape with radar.
- You see some of the bats that are actually
trading back and forth in this low valley.
- That's a mobile radar unit from Panama City, Florida.
Basically what it is, it's two radar units,
one that spins horizontally and picks up the landscape movement
and then one that's vertical to get the altitude.
So you can actually tell at what height the targets are
compared to the ground and then you put the two pieces together,
overlay that with our ultrasound detectors
adding some thermal imaging and hopefully we get a pretty good
view of the bat behavior on the landscapes.
- Radar, ultrasound and thermal images.
That's how Redel and crew can see the bats on the landscape
and work for their protection.
Here's a rare view of their research subjects.
- Oh, we've got is the lower accident at the mind.
The bats are swarming around the entrance,
picking it up with the thermal imaging camera.
- The crews return to the site of Redel's first research,
the abandoned Iron Mine, the Hibernaculum.
They've returned during the fall swarm.
Redel estimates tonight's numbers at 50,000.
- It's pretty thick down there.
There'll be enough bats flying around where you can feel
kind of the wind from their wing beads
and hear them real close to you and sometimes they'll rarely.
But you get a little graze of the wing as they cut around you.
- They continually fascinate me.
- It's pretty fun.
(laughs)
You know, when decisions come up in the future
and bats we know maybe an issue, we can have the information
to start answering some of those questions.
(soft music)
- If you're interested in bats, the Department of
Natural Resources is organizing a citizen
monitoring program that will soon be underway.
Check our website for more information.
(soft music)
- Last week we reported on the PCB cleanup project
underway on the Fox River.
The cleanup will remove millions of cubic yards
of contaminated sediment from the river
between Nina and Green Bay.
The project is expected to take at least a decade
and will cost an estimated $600 million.
Although the cleanup has begun, who will pay that tab
is an ongoing debate.
Reporter Art Hackett set out to follow the money.
- Researchers have known for years that PCBs
are in the Fox River.
Around 1980 scientists started seeing birds
with deformed beaks and skeletons,
birds which fed on fish from the Fox.
The Department of Natural Resources
pointed fingers at the paper industry.
A spokesman for the Wisconsin Paper Council
set at the time the paper industry
was only a minor contributor.
- We have found that PCBs are ubiquitous
throughout the place.
- By the late 1990s scientists had learned
that not all PCBs are alike.
- They're almost fingerprintal.
- And the PCBs in the Fox River matched those used
by paper companies.
- We can understand the type of PCB
that was used in recycled paper here.
- In particular, the first generation
of carbonless copy paper.
- We believe that they began in the mid-50s
with the manufacture of carbonless copy paper.
- Two companies made the paper and five companies
recycled trimmings and waste paper from
those paper companies.
- I think we always know we were the problem.
Dennis Holtgren worked for one of the seven companies,
Appleton Papers.
He's now an environmental consultant
to the paper industry.
- The question is, have the seven companies involved
how much of each?
And it's still a debate that has to be taken place yet.
- The seven paper companies are financially responsible
for cleaning up the Fox.
They signed a consent decree in 2001
with the state and federal governments.
That decree made it possible for the cleanup
of the Fox River to begin in the summer
of 2005.
Little Lake Butymor and Near Nina
is the first stretch of the river to be dredged.
Two of the seven companies are paying $60 million
for this part of the cleanup.
But the total cost of removing the contaminated sediment
from Near to Green Bay is estimated at $600 million.
The work will take more than 10 years.
Some fear it may take longer due to a dispute
between the paper mills and their insurance companies.
Think of the seven paper companies as people
going out to dinner with their insurance agents.
They've already ordered the food.
That's the cost of cleaning up the Fox River.
The debate is over how they're going to split up the tab.
Enter the Wisconsin legislature.
- The paper industry is in a competitive squeeze.
So we're trying to figure our way to save money,
to legitimate way of saving money
through using their insurance policies.
- And so is born AB 222, also known as the
Fair Claims Bill.
Fair Claims as in insurance claims.
The Fair Claims Bill says the paper company's agreement
with the federal government is the same as a lawsuit.
Insurance policies normally cover
the cost of legal judgements.
The Fair Claims Bill passed the assembly
by a for-of-a-vote margin and was passed on
to a Senate committee for a hearing.
- It is critical that legislation clarifies
the insurance industry's obligation
to cover damages of general liability policy holders,
who in this case are the paper makers.
- We want to clean up the Fox.
- Jack Kelly is vice president of one of the seven paper
companies, Georgia Pacific.
- We feel strongly having bought general liability policies
from the insurers over a long period of years
that we are entitled to ask the insurers
to come to the table with us and to help pay for the cleanup
that they and their own insurance policies
agreed to pay for.
- But environmental groups charged the Fair Claims Bill,
which has occupied the time of legislators
and paper company officials for six months,
is itself holding up planning for the rest of the cleanup.
- Because it assumes then that the government
will go after the insurance companies to get the money.
They will fight tooth and nail against that.
- The insurance industry did fight tooth and nail.
Eric Englund of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance argues
the Fair Claims Bill would in effect rewrite the contracts
which determine payments.
- This is legislation that its core is a direct attack
on the property and casualty insurance contract.
- Insurance normally covers things that happen
while the policy isn't effect.
It's hard to determine exactly when
a particular company dumped PCBs into the fox.
- At its core, it says that if I buy coverage for one year,
Wisconsin legislature can make it into coverage for 30 years.
It's an enathema to who we are and what we do.
It scares the dickens out of the full spectrum
of the insurance industry.
- The Senate hearing on the Fair Claims Bill went on
for seven hours.
It was packed with lobbyists for paper companies
insurance companies and environmental groups.
- This is guaranteed full employment for lawyers.
This bill is apparently guaranteed full employment
for contract lobbyists, but that's peanuts.
- Actually, the money spent on lobbyists
is more than peanuts.
The Wisconsin ethics board reported the Fair Claims Bill
was the single most lobbied piece of legislation
during the first half of 2005.
The hours logged by lobbyists were nearly three times
those of the nearest competitor.
Georgia Pacific paid lobbyists $337,000.
The insurance alliance spent more than $400,000.
- This is really another example of a battle
of special interest groups and lobbying organizations
going at it.
- Jay Hack is director of common cause of Wisconsin.
The group follows the role of money in politics.
- That comes at the expense of the attention of legislators
who should be paying attention to maybe issues
that cross the, that affect the entire state of Wisconsin.
- Ultimately, the Senate committee killed
the Fair Claims Bill.
Senator John Urpinbach of Middleton
voted with the majority.
- You're talking about something that the court
should have been handling.
And I think you were talking about one side
wanting to get the way to the legislature behind it.
So when they do go to court, 'cause I think both sides
agree they're going to court.
One side would be able to stand up
and say, well, the state of Wisconsin believes this.
- Fair Claims Bill is now dead.
Okay. - So it might be a mood point,
but what we were trying to do was expedite,
a representative cough, or my self were trying
to expedite the cleanup.
- Inviron metal groups, meanwhile,
we're happy to see the Fair Claims Bill die.
Rebecca Cateres of the Clean Water Action Council
says the federal superfund law, which governs the Fox cleanup,
is designed to avoid disputes like this.
- Under superfund, the government can present the bill
to the seven responsible companies,
and it's up to them to work it out
with their insurance companies.
Go to court if necessary.
But in the meantime, the work is supposed to be getting done.
- The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
can trigger the superfund option if it feels the paper
companies aren't carrying out their obligations under
the consent decree.
If the consent decree is the good cop,
superfund is the bad cop.
- No one likes to have.
It's not a good tourist attraction.
The day designated as a 39 mile stretch of superfund.
- And paper mills felt it was cheaper to do the work
under a negotiated settlement.
- Private industry steps in and can generally do things
a lot cheaper and can get things done without having
to go through a lot of the bidding process
with the federal government may have to do.
- The dredging of little lake butamor continues,
and so does the debate over who should pay
and the fair claims bill.
Paper company lobbyists are now circulating
a different version of the measure.
The superfund designation is still a hammer waiting to drop.
(upbeat music)
? ?
- We turn now from the world of money and politics
to something, well, equally hard to explain.
One of Wisconsin's most influential figures
has a little known secret.
Well, it's not really secret, but he doesn't
broadcast it either.
That is until tonight.
As producer Frederica Freiberg has defined,
it has to do with two rods like these made of co-hangers.
- Call the meeting to order and I ask
the Secretary Call the roll.
- Recently retired, but long time UW Board of Regents
president Toby Markovich has presided over
many important meetings, deciding urgent
university policy.
And at the end of the day, we make decisions based 100%
for the best interest of the university Wisconsin system.
I have never-- - The superior trial attorney
has friends in high places.
Tommy Thompson appointed Markovich
to the Board of Regents in 1997.
- Do most of these fancy people that you hang around with
have any idea that you come out with co-hangers
and find water?
- I don't think so.
I've had enough trouble with those people as it is.
- He does water again.
(upbeat music)
At locations across the Northland,
like on the Paul and Ginny Walker sheep farm
outside Superior, Toby Markovich, man of letter,
witches for water.
- Is it switch crowd?
- He finds water under the ground using divining rods.
With suit coat flapping, his big farm boots trudge
slowly toward the spot.
- It's strictly taboo.
Oh, here we go.
Right here.
That was pretty good strong pull.
As you can see, those rods just crushed.
- Do that again.
- Using what he calls the cheap and easy method,
Markovich cuts a coat hanger into two L-shaped pieces
to serve as his divining rods.
- Blaine.
- These flower pots cover the working well head
where Ginny Walker dug for water at Markovich's divine direction.
- I talked to enough people, reputable people,
like bankers and things, who said, have Toby
witch your well.
And they told me stories about how they couldn't find water
at their houses.
And they had Toby come out and he found water for them.
- Skeptics abound, of course.
- Like a little slower, I think.
- I gave it a shot.
It didn't work.
- Some people got it and some people don't.
You probably don't believe in Santa Claus either, Ben.
- What do you attribute that to your ability?
I mean, I tried it.
I didn't have it.
What is it?
- Oh my good looks and intelligence probably.
(laughing)
I don't have a clue.
I have no idea.
- But theories about what it is abound too.
- Some people think that the underground subterranean water
that flows may create an electrical charge
either positive or negative that would then,
by magnetism, move the rods.
I don't know that that's a fact.
(upbeat music)
- I could drill anywhere in the property and get a well.
- For most professional well-drillers,
it's open and shot.
- I'd rather rely on what I know.
Because I know what formations the water comes on of.
And I know how to find it.
And all us drillers in the area know how to find it that way.
- In fact, the unknown surrounding water witching
or dousing, as it's also known, creates an aura of mysticism
that makes many drillers just plain nervous.
- Have you ever tried it?
- No.
I won't touch the sticks.
- Why?
- Scared of them.
- Water dousing is thought to be as old as biblical days.
The term water witching reportedly derived
from a dousers use of sticks pulled off witch hazel trees.
But some believe it's more sinister.
- A lot of people get really concerned
about the witch part of witching.
And is a witch crop.
Is a witch crop.
- It said, "Do you expect me to come in on a broom
or something and land on a spot?"
- Would you have any other powers?
- Yeah, but I don't want to get on camera with those.
(laughing)
- For fourth generation well-driller Keith Lynn,
this is a serious and sensitive matter.
Still, he's ready to extend a branch if not a stick
to reputable dousers and work with them.
- I've heard of a lot of cases where water duds
over the come end where drillers could not get water.
And then stories are all up there too.
It doesn't happen to me.
- In fact, Toby Markovich is batting a thousand.
He has successfully divine the spot to dig the well.
All 75 times he's been called on to witch for water
over the past 35 years.
- Water.
(laughing)
- Teach is on.
- Indeed.
(upbeat music)
- Wing.
- There is an American society of dousers,
including a Wisconsin chapter.
Toby Markovich is not a member.
Next week, we begin a series of special reports
on in Wisconsin, a look at the growing problem
of meth and phetamine.
Frederica Freiberg takes us inside the destructive world
of meth to see the drugs devastating human toll
and the toll on taxpayers pocketbooks.
Here's a preview.
- I had to have it to get out of bed.
I was addicted.
- What were you doing in that crash?
- I was cooking meth.
- And people call it the poor man's cocaine.
- I think people need to see it.
They need to see what really happens.
The effects of what really happens to somebody on meth.
Our series on meth begins Thursday, November 3rd.
We hope you join us as we explore the
problems and solutions.
And on a much lighter note, we leave you tonight
with an artist's take on the face of Halloween.
For in Wisconsin, I'm Patty Lo.
See you next time.
(upbeat music)
Major funding for in Wisconsin is provided
by the people of a lion's energy,
who bring safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly energy
to keep homes, neighborhoods, and life
in Wisconsin running smoothly, a lion's energy,
offering energy-saving ideas on the web, UW Health,
providing specialty in primary care for all ages
throughout Wisconsin, information on UW
Health physicians and clinics and on University
of Wisconsin Hospital is available on the web.
Wisconsin's technical colleges, providing the
people of Wisconsin with the knowledge and
skills they'll need for the economy of tomorrow.
Wisconsin's technical colleges, communities first.
(upbeat music)