Kewaunee County in Wisconsin: Urgent Message to Wood County, Wisconsin, and Country

Kewaunee Cares

The M-word Is MOO as Big Ag and Its Political Cover Destroy Wisconsin Waters -
May 2014: 556 Water Wells Are Tested; 30 Percent of Wells Are UNDRINKABLE

- Nobody is on the beaches anymore today. Trout streams are dying or gone -

Many in Wisconsin know the story of the families in Kewaunee County in northeast Wisconsin and the ecoli contamination in 2004 from a Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) that leaked liquid cow manure, hospitalized many, and nearly killed several children.

Today, water aquifers are contaminated with virus, bacteria, and other pathogens typically found in third-world countries—bad for tourism and recreation; horrible for the environment; and tragic for Wisconsin families who are afraid of their children brushing their teeth or washing out a small cut or scrape with water from a faucet.

The "carrying capacities" of the Green Bay and Fox River Valley watersheds have been exceeded, warns Gordon Stevenson, Chief of Runoff Management for Wisconsin DNR (2001-2011). And that goes for the Golden Sands region in central Wisconsin as well.

'How do you know that? How do we quantify empirically the carrying capacity of a region,' I asked Stevenson over an early August breakfast in Madison.

"Look at the water," replied Stevenson firmly. "Measure for pathogens, oxygen levels; and inspect the topography of the region."

Stevenson, a rigorous empiricist to the point of being turgid, said Wisconsin will eventually see "dead zones" in lakes become dead lakes because of oxygen deprivation and toxic pathogen saturation.

Even as Scott Walker, along with every Republican and way-too many Democrats, acclaim the 30-20-Initiative, market-driven, setting targets for yields and profits for Wisconsin Diary operations, existing 'nutrient management plans' are a disgrace and are a guarantee for turning Wisconsin lakes, streams, ponds, and aquifers into dead zones and potentially deadly zones.

Wood, Adams, Juneau, Portage and Waushara counties in central Wisconsin are on a trajectory that residents and scientists agree can be changed from where Kewaunee is now and the direction in which Kewaunee is racing ahead; as politicians and the DNR do NOTHING with numerous CAFO permits pending and Scott Walker promising swift action on moving the permits forward.

From Kewaunee: Kewaunee's Message to Wood County and Wisconsin: