Claims Board hears dispute between plumber, WisDOT

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When William Ludwig saw flood waters had submerged a quarter of his property in the town of Vernon, his experience as a plumber told him to start looking for a drain tile that might have been clogged by nearby highway work.

Three years and 25 dead trees later, he was finally able to show that his suspicions were well-grounded. Now he wants the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to compensate him $16,700 for the damage.

Ludwig took his request on Thursday before the Wisconsin Claims Board, a panel charged with hearing grievances brought against state government. Ludwig told board members that a large part of his property had been submerged in nearly 6 feet of water for three years. The money he is seeking would pay both for landscaping and replacements of the trees that died.

“I’d like to bring my yard back to what it was,” Ludwig said. “My main thing is if they had found this thing right away, there’d be no problem. But it took three years and 25 trees.”

Ludwig said the flooding — which also affected three neighbors — started in 2012. When the water didn’t subside, he reached out to officials at the state Department of Transportation, thinking the culprit lied in work done to resurface a part of Interstate 43 between Highway 164 and Highway 83.

When state officials could find nothing amiss, Ludwig turned to the town engineer. Having worked as a plumber, Ludwig was almost certain that a drain tile had been clogged during the resurfacing project, he said Wednesday.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2015, though, that the cause was discovered. Sure enough, it was a clogged drain tile at the I-43 construction site.

WisDOT officials insisted on Wednesday, though, that the I-43 work was not to blame. Rather, they said the pipe in question — which was buried six feet under ground and built in 1969 — had become clogged with tree roots.

WisDOT officials also contended that state law, Wis. Stat. 88.87 in particular, would not allow Ludwig to collect damages even if he had a solid claim. If Ludwig wants to pursue some sort of relief, WisDOT officials maintained, he could either sue the state for in effect “taking” the property that was damaged or he could try to obtain a court order  that would compel the state to take some sort of remedial step.

Lawmakers on the Claims Board expressed disbelief that private citizens have so few means of obtaining redress.

“What if his house was in the middle of that thing?” said Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon. “The state doesn’t pay any damages?”

Others wondered about the state’s delayed response.

“I’m struggling with why it took three years,” said Rep. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma.

WisDOT officials noted Wednesday that Wisconsin is full of drain tiles that do not show up in state records. Many of these are privately owned and were put in without anyone’s seeing a need to tell WisDOT.

That was the case with the drain tile in question in Ludwig’s case, WisDOT officials said. Private owners are typically responsible for maintaining tiles they’ve installed.

But because the owner couldn’t be found in this instance, and because the tile lay in a WisDOT right of way, state officials eventually stepped in to clear away the clog.

In the absence of complete records, the only way WisDOT officials can know about drain tiles of this sort is to ask farmers in a particular area.

“So you’re on a scavenger hunt,” Felzkowski said. Follow @erikastrebel