When former President Donald Trump last held office, he rolled back more than 100 environmental rules that regulated air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and toxic chemicals — and as he prepares to re-enter the White House, experts anticipate he’ll draw from the same playbook.

That could have ripple effects in Wisconsin, which in recent years has received close to a billion dollars from a landmark climate law Trump seeks to unwind. Experts worry some of those effects could be on the safety of drinking water.

Like other states, Wisconsin has used the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to “police” environmental problems, said Sara Walling, water and agriculture program director at Clean Wisconsin. She pointed to an August proposal to bring the state drinking water standard for PFAS in line with more stringent federal regulations, and also to the EPA’s updated lead and copper rule, which pushes communities to replace all lead pipes by 2037.

“I’m extremely concerned that really well thought-out, science-based standards … are going to be pretty quickly pulled back,” Walling said.

Wisconsin, and Milwaukee in particular, has thousands of lead pipes yet to replace and has received millions of federal dollars to expedite the process. If the mandate is rescinded, Walling said, that pressure is off.

Shead added that pulling funding back would only slow the process down, “pushing it off to the next generation.”

Under President Joe Biden, the EPA also restarted a human health assessment of nitrate, which had been suspended in 2018 after the Trump administration deemed it no longer a priority for evaluation. Nitrate is Wisconsin’s most widespread contaminant of groundwater, the source of the majority of residents’ drinking water.

“We were really hoping to use the health assessment as another strong human health pillar to underpin additional nitrate regulation,” Walling said.

More: Great Lakes, PFAS, lead pipes: How Trump’s policies could impact Wisconsin’s environment

Here are other environmental issues that could be affected by the Trump administration:

Sustainable, climate-smart agriculture

Wisconsin farmers are feeling the effects of climate change, and at the same time, agriculture accounts for about 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated nearly $20 billion to U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that help farmers protect their operation and reduce its environmental impact.

In Wisconsin, that investment is set to nearly double funding for popular farm conservation programs through 2026. Although Trump has declared his intention to claw back unspent Inflation Reduction Act funds, experts say rescinding farm conservation money could irritate the agriculture industry.

“One of the biggest truths about those dollars is they’ve served so many farmers who were having such a hard time getting (conservation program) contracts,” said Margaret Krome, policy director for the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. “You don’t have to be a climate believer, don’t have to be a scientist … farmers of all stripes have said, ‘Oh good, here’s my chance to finally get funding.’”

Sara Walling, water and agriculture program director at Clean Wisconsin, said its broad benefits may make it hard to dismantle the funding entirely, especially because these practices often make farms more resilient and productive in addition to mitigating climate change.

Krome pointed to a number of other sustainable agriculture developments that she hopes will be protected, including money for beginning farmers and programs that support managed grazing of livestock.

She also pointed out that during Trump’s previous term, what she called “one of the most innovative programs to support sustainable agriculture in years” came into being — the Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant program, which has funded projects in Wisconsin to support transformation in agriculture.

“Sometimes, new innovations can come from administrations that you would not have expected to support those innovations,” Krome said. “It’s important not to assume that we cannot find that practical common ground.”

Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline

Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline has been a contentious issue in the Great Lakes for years, as it is locked in legal battles in Wisconsin and Michigan. The Canadian company’s 645-mile pipeline carries oil products from across northern Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas to Sarnia, Ontario. 

In 2019, northern Wisconsin’s Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued the Canadian company to get the pipeline off its land as the right-of-way easement expired more than a decade ago. Tribal officials have long feared the consequences of an oil spill to its land, water and way of life.

A federal judge found the company had been illegally operating on the tribe’s land, and ordered the pipeline be removed or rerouted by June 2026. That decision was appealed and both parties are awaiting a decision from a federal appeals court. 

The Biden administration largely remained silent on the issue, until it submitted a long-awaited brief that pushed multiple deadlines. The brief was mixed, providing support for both parties. 

The Bad River Band, along with environmental groups and other Great Lakes tribes, are trying to stop a 41-mile reroute project around the Band’s land, hoping the pipeline is removed from its watershed entirely. 

While the president-elect has not made public statements about the Canadian-owned pipeline, the Republican 2024 platform championed lifting restrictions on oil, natural gas and coal as Trump has repeatedly vowed to “drill, baby, drill” during the campaign. 

Whether the new administration will speak up on the issue is unclear, but environmental groups say they are committed to making newly elected leaders in Wisconsin and Michigan aware of the pipeline’s environmental dangers. 

For now, the issue will remain in the courts.

Environmental justice

During Biden’s presidency, he launched the Justice40 Initiative, which requires 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate and clean energy investments to reach communities that have been disproportionately affected by environmental harms.

Trump has promised to reverse Biden’s equity measures, which experts say puts Justice40 at risk.

Language around diversity, equity and inclusion has been demonized by the far right, Shead said, which is especially troublesome for Milwaukee, where a lot of work is centered around environmental justice.

Great Lakes cleanup efforts

Federal funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has been key to cleaning up legacy pollution, restoring habitat and updating unsafe drinking water infrastructure throughout the Great Lakes. Since 2010, the landmark program has funded more than $4.1 billion across roughly 8,100 projects.

Milwaukee’s waterways are designated as an “area of concern,” or one of the most degraded places in the Great Lakes region. 

Milwaukee received $450 million from a boost through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is helping to rid toxic contamination from the city’s three rivers and Lake Michigan. It’s also advanced projects that restore habitat and recreational access, like the new fish passage around Kletzsch Dam and the project to relocate South Shore Beach. 

The Lower Fox River and bay of Green Bay; Sheboygan River; and St. Louis River are three other sites in Wisconsin benefiting from this program. 

While Trump attempted to gut the program during his presidency, Vice President-Elect JD Vance, of Ohio, co-sponsored a bill to reauthorize and increase funding to the program in February. The bill has stalled in committee. 

Kirsten Shead, a co-executive director of Milwaukee Water Commons, said she wouldn’t be surprised if the new administration puts pressure on environmental issues. 

But “I’m hopeful that with advocacy and continued work, we can keep the area of concern program prioritized under the new administration,” Shead said. 

Madeline Heim and Caitlin Looby are Report for America corps reporters who write about environmental challenges in the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes, respectively. Contact them at mheim@gannett.com and clooby@gannett.com.

MADISON – Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, UT Rio Grande Valley coach Kahil Fennell, as well as John Tonje, Max Klesmit and John Blackwell spoke to the media on Monday following the Badgers’ 87-84 win over the Vaqueros.

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MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell was preparing his team to play Purdue a day after Boilermakers coach Ryan Walters fired his offensive coordinator four games into the season. Although Fickell said at the time that he didn’t want to speculate on what happened at another program, he did offer one nugget about his feelings: “I think it’s a bad part of our game.”

Seven weeks later, Fickell explained his decision to do the same thing amid an ongoing season. On Sunday, Fickell fired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Phil Longo 23 games into his tenure following a 16-13 loss to No. 1 Oregon in which the Badgers averaged a season-low 3.6 yards per play. The move came with two regular season games remaining, beginning Saturday at Nebraska and culminating at home against Minnesota.

“This is never something I ever, ever envisioned doing or wanted to do and especially doing it when there are still games to be played in a season,” Fickell said. “But I felt like for all involved and most importantly for our program and the kids in that locker room, what we needed to do right now was to move forward.

“That’s a very tough thing. It’s an unusual situation that everybody is going to have to be able to handle.”

Fickell arrived for his weekly news conference intent on shifting the conversation to Wisconsin’s game against Nebraska, where bowl eligibility for both 5-5 teams is on the line. However, given the magnitude of Fickell’s decision and the uncertainty of the offense’s future, his hope to change gears did not materialize. He seemed to grow more frustrated with the line of questioning as his 18-minute session progressed.

Fickell declined to address specifics about who would call plays for the remainder of the regular season during one of his testiest exchanges when he asked: “Why does it matter?” Fickell then said it would be a collaborative effort and he didn’t want to give people “the ability to point a finger at somebody.” He later said it was part of his philosophy not to make a big deal of the play caller, citing his time as co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State when he called plays but never publicly discussed it despite being repeatedly asked.

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic tight ends coach Nate Letton will call the plays for the remainder of the regular season. Letton worked on Fickell’s staff at Cincinnati in 2022 and joined Wisconsin’s program initially as a quality control coach in January 2023. He took over as the tight ends coach a month later after Gino Guidugli left to become the quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame.

Longo also was responsible for coaching the quarterbacks and signaling plays from the sideline. The source said wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton likely will help signal plays and there is the potential for more huddling between plays to avoid confusion at the line of scrimmage.

Fickell said Guiton would “be a guy that’s kind of running” the quarterback room and that the quarterbacks and wide receivers would work together. Guiton was a quarterback for Ohio State when Fickell coached there. Guiton also was the interim offensive coordinator at Arkansas for the final four games last season. Fickell said he took into consideration that his staff does not have an experienced play caller and noted of his team, “it only matters what those guys in that room believe and will go out and do.”

“Getting prepared for Nebraska is the thing that’s on our mind … We got a job to do and that’s to finish this thing, especially for the seniors.”@CoachFick meets with the media ahead of Saturday’s matchup at Nebraska.

Full presser: https://t.co/26W089XFtR pic.twitter.com/f4vH6KKQ0p

— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) November 18, 2024

While the timing of Longo’s firing may come as a surprise, Fickell’s decision to move on certainly wasn’t considering the offense seemed disjointed and was nowhere near good enough in two seasons. In six previous seasons as an FBS offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and North Carolina, Longo’s teams never scored fewer than 32.8 points per game or ranked worse than 33rd nationally in scoring offense. His Wisconsin teams never sniffed those marks as he transitioned away from the Badgers’ long-time pro-style system to his variation of the Air Raid.

Wisconsin ranks 57th in rushing offense (169.3 yards), 91st in total offense (363.1 yards), tied for 97th in scoring offense (23.9 points per game) and 102nd in passing offense (193.8 yards) in the FBS. The Badgers are averaging 5.37 yards per play.

For perspective, consider those marks are worse in every category other than passing offense to Wisconsin’s team two seasons ago, during which time coach Paul Chryst was fired and first-time offensive coordinator Bobby Engram was calling the plays.

Longo was hampered, in part, by the fact that backup quarterback Braedyn Locke started or played meaningful snaps in 12 of Longo’s 23 games because of injuries to the starter. Locke’s career completion rate is 53.1 percent, and Wisconsin is 4-6 in his 10 career starts, with losses in three straight games. He has thrown at least one interception in all seven of his starts this season. Fickell said Locke’s performance didn’t significantly factor into deciding Longo’s fate. He said Locke will continue to be the starter ahead of true freshman backup Mabrey Mettauer.

“It’s a really tough situation,” Fickell said. “We all understand that and we’ve seen that I’m not going to dive as much into it but I’ll just tell you the basic gist of what I told the team. It’s not about play calls. It’s not about points scored. It’s not about touchdowns. It’s moving forward with leadership, and that’s to me what we have to do and why we’re doing it right now.”

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As the season progressed there were clear philosophical differences between what Fickell and Longo wanted, with Fickell repeatedly stressing the need to lean on the offensive line and run game more. And while Longo’s offense emphasized the run, he failed to mesh his concepts with Wisconsin’s roster. Perhaps his most notable quote occurred when pressed about the lack of results earlier this season when he said: “I’m here to please coach Fickell.”

Longo did not respond to a cell phone request for comment this week from The Athletic.

Fickell offered his most telling comment Monday off a question that wasn’t specifically related to Longo and instead was about maintaining team morale.

“I think maybe that was one of those issues that was not as good as where we wanted it offensively that it was more about an individual,” Fickell said. “Like, that’s what the program is — it’s complementary ball. It’s so much everybody relying upon each other that any one person shouldn’t matter all that much.

“It’s hard to say, ‘Well they’re the coordinator.’ I hope that it wouldn’t be that much different if somebody else was calling the plays on offense or on defense. That’s my vision for where I want the program to grow.”

Fickell, who is 12-11 overall and 8-8 in the Big Ten since the start of last season, has shown he’s willing to change course when something doesn’t work. He fired offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr, who was hired along with Longo from North Carolina, at the end of last season. Fickell replaced him with A.J. Blazek, who has been a strong addition to the staff for his enthusiasm and coaching acumen.

Fickell said he didn’t make the move now with anything other than a view toward what was best for his current team. However, at least part of Wisconsin’s roster could hang in the balance depending on how Fickell moves forward. Wisconsin has 22 scholarship commits in the 2025 recruiting class with the early signing period beginning Dec. 4. The transfer portal window runs from Dec. 9-28. Fickell declined to provide a timeline for when he hopes to hire his next offensive coordinator, saying he was focused on preparing for Nebraska and “the rest of the timelines will probably just be in the back of my head.”

Who could replace Longo?

Several names have surfaced as potential candidates to replace Longo, including Guidugli. He was with Fickell at Cincinnati from 2017-22 as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator and spent his last season there as offensive coordinator. Guidugli briefly followed Fickell to Wisconsin before accepting the Notre Dame job.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock was Fickell’s offensive coordinator at Cincinnati from 2017-21. His annual salary is $2.1 million, which makes him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the country. Longo had one more year remaining on a three-year deal that paid him $1.25 million annually.

Another name that could be in consideration is Idaho coach Jason Eck, a former Badgers offensive lineman who played with Wisconsin assistant offensive line coach Casey Rabach for three seasons. Eck is 24-12 in three seasons at Idaho and has led the Vandals to the FCS playoffs in his first two seasons. Eck would represent more of a return to Wisconsin’s roots and give Fickell a staffer with previous ties to the program that has been missing outside of Rabach.

Other popular names include Ohio State co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline, Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, among others.

“I do like what we do,” Fickell said. “It’s not like we want to go back and think we’re going to be in 22 personnel. We’ve got to have variety. We’ve got to be able to spread the field. But we’ve got to continue to build upon the things that we’ve done. … Regardless of who’s actually calling the plays, the progression is how you continue to evolve the offense in particular for what best fits Wisconsin. And what best fits Wisconsin is using the things that you do have.”

Fickell said that because he spent 20 years at just two schools (Ohio State and Cincinnati), he doesn’t necessarily have as many relationships with coaches as others have. He said he wouldn’t hesitate to hire someone he hasn’t directly worked with before, as was the case with Longo. But he also valued working with many of the same people for so long.

“I can tell you this,” Fickell said. “It’ll be the right one, the right person.”

Fickell can’t afford for it not to be.

(Photo: Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)