The Fight For Water Rights: An Interview with Nancy Stencil

The idea that you deserve clean water isn’t new. You’ve probably heard comments similar to this one a lot in recent years; but when Nancy Stencil joined UpNorthNews Radio host Pat Kreitlow for a special segment on Bull Falls Radio in Wausau, it became the main topic.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xRu57dteuTAeu16aiTUeA

“Water is a source, it’s not a resource,” Nancy says. “It won’t last forever. What we have is what we have, and we need to take care of it.”

Nancy is a long-time activist and currently works on environmental topics related to the threats of sulfide mining and how it impacts our water supply. She’s the co-founder of Women for Women, an issue-related group based in Wausau. Nancy has also worked with the Marathon County Labor Council and the Marathon County Democratic Party in the past. 

She talked with Pat about continuing threats to water cleanliness even as the Wausau area, and Wisconsin, get ready to welcome in a new year. “It’s been quiet, but at the same time we are relentless with our continuing education in asking everyone to consider the potential damage any drilling could cause to our drinking water and the environment as a whole,” Nancy says.

2023 has been a year of some progress around central Wisconsin, and we’re going to keep holding people accountable, including the biggest steps – cleaning up the water, and keeping it clean.

Nancy Stencil

“We’re following exploratory drilling for gold in the Easton Reef Deposit of Marathon County. But a newer focus is on Copperwood where they want to put a mine in the Porcupine State Park, if you can believe that? It would contaminate Lake Superior.”

“So, if you are coming here, just looking at the short-term, and just to extract and pollute the water while doing this, that’s not a great thing,” Pat says to Nancy as part of this conversation. 

“We need to get back to having these companies prove the work won’t wreck the water supply,” Nancy says. “We can’t let companies come in and destroy property. And for what?”

And Nancy has a real concern about test-drilling sites.

“There are some ingredients used and the companies behind these tests don’t have to disclose all of what’s being used here,” She says. “But now some states are no longer allowing it.”

There were just five mines in Wisconsin, going back to 2010. Today, around one hundred mines and processing facilities are operating at any given time. Local officials report that 60 municipal drinking systems in the state now have some level of contamination. This growth is why you’ll continue to hear more about our right to clean water.

“2023 has been a year of some progress around central Wisconsin,” Nancy says. “And we’re going to keep holding people accountable, including the biggest steps – cleaning up the water, and keeping it clean.” 

Listen to the full interview:

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