How does lead contamination affect Great Lakes communities, especially marginalized ones? In this episode, Bonnie and guest host Dr. Deidre Peroff to explore the impact of lead contamination in Milwaukee. 

Special thanks to our guests:

Jamie Ferschinger, (former) Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers

Alejandra Vigil, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers

Dr. Molly Cousin, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers

Professor Melissa Scanlan, UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences 

Andrian Lee, (former) Wisconsin Sea Grant, UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences

Links:

• Resources for Milwaukee residents:
• Check if you home has a lead lateral
• Lead-Safe Milwaukee
• Milwaukee segregation map
• Coalition on Lead Emergency

• Badgers & Lead mining
• Spatialized Intersectionality: Gendered and Racialized Residential Segregation and the Milwaukee Lead Crisis by Erica Morell and Dalvery Blackwell
• The intersectional effect of poverty, home ownership, and racial/ethnic composition on mean childhood blood lead levels in Milwaukee County neighborhoods
• Lead-Safe Wisconsin: Childhood Lead Poisoning Data and Data Analysis
• Wisconsin's Black children 4 times more likely to be lead poisoned than white children in 2022
• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: A Historic Investment in Water
• Sixteenth Street’s Lead Poisoning Prevention work 

For the final episode of Public Trust, we head to the communities of Peshtigo and Marinette in northeast Wisconsin, where we meet local residents who have been engaged in a yearslong battle with a multinational company that polluted their drinking water with PFAS. We learn how community members have come together to fight for clean water and why they are committed for the long haul. 

Transcript available here.

Learn more:

Midwest Environmental Advocates

Wisconsin Sea Grant

Are PFAS in maple sap, wild rice, fish and other harvestable goods important to the Anishinaabe way of life? These are some of the questions the Voigt Intertribal Task Force asked Gavin Dehnert, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s emerging contaminants scientist, after PFAS were found in wolves. In this episode, Public Trust producer Bonnie tells Richelle about the beginnings of a tribally-driven research project testing the waters of the ceded territories of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan for PFAS.

Learn more:

Midwest Environmental Advocates

Wisconsin Sea Grant

GLIFWC - Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

More about PFAS

Firefighting foams made from PFAS have been used at airports for decades, contaminating groundwater throughout the country. In this episode of Public Trust, we return to French Island, a community near La Crosse in Western Wisconsin, to learn more about how local drinking water became contaminated with PFAS.

Listen to episode 1 of Public Trust here.

View the transcript

Midwest Environmental Advocates

Wisconsin Sea Grant

More about PFAS

Lee Donahue’s testimony audio clip courtesy of Wisconsin Eye

Public Trust is a new podcast miniseries by Midwest Environmental Advocates and Wisconsin Sea Grant. The series explores Wisconsin's response to PFAS contamination. Host Richelle Wilson visits communities impacted by these toxic "forever chemicals" to understand how local residents have been affected and what they're doing to secure their rights to clean water.

In this episode, we travel to the small town of Campbell on French Island, to find out. French Island resident and local official Lee Donahue gives us a tour of the neighborhood and tells the story of how local drinking water was contaminated with "forever chemicals" - PFAS. Along the way, we meet local residents who reveal how the crisis has changed their lives and what they're doing to secure their rights to clean water.

Read the transcript here.

Learn more:

Midwest Environmental Advocates

Wisconsin Sea Grant

More about PFAS

News clips courtesy of WXOW News 19

Today, we're talking about red pine forests, blueberries, treaty rights, and how they all converge around fire on a tiny split of land jutting out into Lake Superior - Minnesota and Wisconsin Points. Melonee Montano tells us about the importance of cultural fire for the Anishinaabe people and Evan Larson takes us on a walk in the woods to decipher the stories left by elder trees. Wildland firefighter Damon Panek shares his vision for collaboratively restoring fire to Wisconsin and Minnesota points, an end goal of the Nimaawanji’idimin giiwitaashkodeng: We are all gathering around the fire project, funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant. 

Special thanks to our guests:

Melonee Montano, University of Minnesota

Evan Larson, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Damon Panek, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Mocha, Valerie, Ashla, Emily, Project research team

Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

Links:

Listen to the Wisconsin Water News episode The Stories Trees Tell

Read more about this project

Cultural fire returns to Stockton Island

Native fire management returns to Apostle Islands

Ojibwe history on Wisconsin Point is complicated, painful, beautiful

Wisconsin Point Restoration Site

Hear an update about season two and a farewell message from Hali, co-creator of The Water We Swim In and former Wisconsin Sea Grant intern.

People experiencing houselessness are amongst those most affected by extreme cold, extreme heat, wildfires, and other weather exacerbated by climate change. The Water We Swim In team wanted to learn more about houselessness and its ties to the environment - especially because Wisconsin’s already frigid winters and hot summers might become more erratic. We sat down with 7 community leaders and researchers from Boston to Portland to talk about the housing crisis, climate, and community. Finally, we visit Porch Light, Inc, right here in Madison, Wisconsin.

Special thanks to our guests:

Tony Shu, Breaktime

April Ballard, Emory University

MyDzung Chu, ADAPT, Tufts Medical Center

Lisa Fay, Right 2 Survive, Resting Safe

Ibrahim Mubarak, Right 2 Survive

Erin Goodling, Right 2 Survive, Resting Safe 

Karla Thennes, Porch Light, Inc

Looking to support our guests’ work?

Breaktime

Right 2 Survive

Resting Safe

Porch Light, Inc

Links: 

Erin Goodling’s zine House on Fire: Housing and Climate Crisis, Housing and Climate Resistance

More on climate change in Wisconsin

Spidey Senser

More about Spidey Senser: We Keep Us Safe: Building a Web of Social Action (Chris L. Hawn)

Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin’s largest inland lake, is important to many - the Indigenous people who live there now, the Indigenous people who have a long history on its shores, the non-Indigenous residents of the Fox valley, and the local plants and animals. On this episode, we talk to one inter-tribal team that is looking to unite all of these groups for the health of the lake and for Indigenous sovereignty. From leaders at the Brothertown Indian Nation and UW-Madison, we hear about the Water Walk movement, the history of wild rice on Lake Winnebago, the outlooks for rice restoration and the importance of strong partnerships.

Special thanks to our guests:

Jessica Ryan, Brothertown Indian Nation

Skip Blanc, Brothertown Indian Nation

Dr. Jessie Conaway, UW-Madison

Ashley Gries, UW-Madison (former)

Links:

Brothertown Indian Nation (Eeyamquittoowauconnuck)

Meet Josephine Mandamin (Anishinaabekwe), The “Water Walker”

Ho Chunk history of Lake Winnebago

Menominee Place Names in Wisconsin

The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary: wiinibiigoo 

Oneida pronunciation: kanyataláheleˀ

Northern wild rice

Southern wild rice 

Manoomin Education and Outreach Toolkit

For this episode, we criss-cross Wisconsin to talk to ten young people about the future. These young individuals, between middle school and post-college, are all passionate about the environment; whether that is focus on the Great Lakes, sustainability, waste, water or environmental justice. In the current era of climate crisis and intense change, these young advocates speak to their experiences, concerns and hopes for the future and encourage everyone, no matter the age group, to make a difference. 

First, we visit Henry and Charlotte in Pulaski, Wisconsin, and Madison. Then, Bonnie speaks to TRUE Skool students from Milwaukee about their concerns about lead in drinking water, food security, agriculture, and environmental justice. We speak to UW-Madison students Jumana and Paige about Indigenous water priorities and the environment in our backyards. Finally, we talk with Wisconsin Student Climate Action Coalition founding members CJ and Natalie, who are finding their place in the environmental movement after college.

Special thanks to our guests:

Henry, Pulaski, WI

Charlotte, Madison, WI

Chassidy, TRUE Skool, Milwaukee, WI

Eli, TRUE Skool, Milwaukee, WI

Jada, TRUE Skool, Milwaukee, WI

Stephanie, TRUE Skool, Milwaukee, WI

Jumana Tanner, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Paige Skenadore’21, University of Wisconsin-Madison (alum)

Natalie Brunner’20, University of Wisconsin-Madison (alum)

CJ Koepp’21, University of Wisconsin-Madison (alum)

Links:

TRUE Skool, INC

“Liquid Gold”

Hidden Currents Episode

WSCAC

Somalia Drought crisis aid

Find CJ on TikTok