281.68 Lake management planning grants and lake monitoring and protection contracts.

(1) Definitions. In this section:

(ag) “Lake" includes a flowage.

(b) “Qualified lake association" means an association that meets the qualifications under sub. (3m) (a).

(c) “Qualified school district" is a school district that meets the qualifications under sub. (3m) (c).

(1m) Purposes of grants and contracts. The department shall develop and administer a financial assistance program to provide lake management planning grants and to award contracts under sub. (1t) for projects to provide information and education on the use of lakes and natural lake ecosystems and on the quality of water in lakes and the quality of natural lake ecosystems.

(1r) Uses of grants. Lake management planning grants shall be used to improve water quality assessment and planning and to aid in the selection of activities to do any of the following:

(a) Prevent pollution from entering into lakes or into natural lake ecosystems.

(b) Protect or improve the quality of water in lakes or the quality of natural lake ecosystems.

(1t) Lake monitoring and protection contracts. The department may award contracts to public groups or persons for the creation and support of a statewide lake monitoring network. The contracts may include payments for the costs of all of the following:

(a) Training, equipment, and supplies necessary for water quality sample collection, lake surveys, and watercraft inspection.

(b) Handling, shipping, and laboratory analysis of water samples.

(c) Developing, maintaining, and managing a statewide database system for entering, tracking, evaluating, and reporting water quality and lake survey results.

(d) Producing and distributing water quality and lake survey results and reports.

(2) Amount of grants and contracts.

(a) The department may provide a grant of 67 percent of the cost of a lake management planning project up to a total of $25,000 per grant. In each fiscal year, the total amount of moneys awarded as grants for lake management planning projects may not exceed $50,000 for any one lake.

(b) The total amount of lake monitoring and protection contracts for each fiscal year may not exceed 25 percent of the total amount appropriated under s. 20.370 (6) (ar), (as), and (av).

(3) Rules for grants and contracts.

(a) The department shall promulgate rules for the administration of the lake management planning grant program which shall include all of the following:

1. Eligible recipients to consist of nonprofit conservation organizations, as defined in s. 23.0955 (1), counties, cities, towns, villages, qualified lake associations, town sanitary districts, qualified school districts, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation districts, and other local governmental units, as defined in s. 66.0131 (1) (a), that are established for the purpose of lake management.

2. Eligible activities, which shall include all of the following for lakes and natural lake ecosystems:

a. Data collection.

b. Assessments of water quality and of fish and aquatic life and their habitat.

c. Assessments of the uses of a lake and the uses of the land surrounding the lake.

d. Nonpoint source pollution evaluation.

e. Informational or educational programs and materials.

f. Providing programs and materials that promote the monitoring of private on-site wastewater treatment systems, the reduction in the use of environmentally harmful chemicals, water safety, and the protection of natural lake ecosystems.

(bg) The department shall promulgate rules for the administration of the lake monitoring and protection contracts program, which shall specify the eligible activities and qualifications for participation in the statewide lake monitoring and protection network. Eligible activities shall include providing technical assistance to public or private entities that apply for, or have received, a grant under s. 23.22 (2) (c). Qualified participants shall include counties and public or private entities that manage aquatic invasive species under a management plan approved by the department.

(3m) Qualified entities.

(a) To be a qualified lake association, an association shall do all of the following:

1. Demonstrate that it is incorporated under ch. 181.

2. Specify in its articles of incorporation or bylaws that a substantial purpose of its being incorporated is to support the protection or improvement of one or more inland lakes for the benefit of the general public.

3. Demonstrate that the substantial purpose of its past actions was to support the protection or improvement of one or more inland lakes for the benefit of the general public.

4. Allow to be a member any individual who for at least one month each year resides on or within one mile of an inland lake for which the association was incorporated.

5. Allow to be a member any individual who owns real estate on or within one mile of an inland lake for which the association was incorporated.

6. Not have articles of incorporation or bylaws which limit or deny the right of any member or any class of members to vote as permitted under s. 181.0721 (1).

7. Demonstrate that it has been in existence for at least one year.

8. Demonstrate that it has at least 25 members.

9. Require payment of an annual membership fee as set by the department by rule under par. (b).

(b) For purposes of par. (a) 9., the department shall set by rule the maximum amount and the minimum amount that may be charged as an annual membership fee.

(c) To be a qualified school district, the board of the school district shall adopt a resolution to conduct a lake management planning project that will do all of the following:

1. Provide information or education on the use of lakes or natural lake ecosystems, on the quality of water in lakes, or on the quality of natural lake ecosystems.

2. Allow another eligible recipient of grants under this section to cooperate with the school district in the project.

(4) Eligibility for lake management planning grants. At the completion of a lake management planning project, upon request of the recipient of a grant under this section, the department may approve recommendations made as a result of the project as eligible activities for a lake management grant under s. 281.69.

History: 1989 a. 31; 1989 a. 160 ss. 1, 3, 4; 1989 a. 359; 1991 a. 39, 269; 1995 a. 27; 1995 a. 227 s. 430; Stats. 1995 s. 281.68; 1997 a. 79; 1999 a. 9; 1999 a. 150 s. 672; 1999 a. 185; 2001 a. 16; 2003 a. 275; 2009 a. 28; 2011 a. 32, 146; 2015 a. 250.