Take this poor river off life support!

Rat has talked about the Little Plover River for years. It's a lovely little trout stream in Portage County being sucked dry by excessive groundwater pumping from the nearby village of Plover and from irrigation for farming. None of the big water users in the area have taken this very seriously, despite gabbing about it in a "stakeholder process" for over three years.

The river dried up again this week -- which it would every year, except for this fact, kept as a wet little secret -- they pump water from an irrigation well into the river to keep it from drying up completely and to perpetuate the myth the river has water in it.

Rat's had enough of what they euphemistically call "augmentation." This will sadly result in the death of trout and other creatures (look at that grim photo), but let's have the truth come to the dried-out surface.

UPDATE: A letter to the editor of the Stevens Point Journal regarding pumping water into the Little Plover.