Citizen Ystad: We can't live without clean water

Update: Sevastopol and Sturgeon Bay townships in Kewaunee County have both passed no-manure spray ordinances in reaction to massive pollution of acquirers and surface waters from CAFOs, under the Walker administration's newly revamped pro-pollution DNR.
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IN central Wisconsin Scott Walker's ally, Wood County Chair County Board Chairman Lance Pliml is engaging in shady machinations to appoint a pro-CAFO county supervisor to a vacant position comes some sober commentary from a citizen of Rome.

By Don Ystad

The real shame here is that it has gotten to this point of acrimony between the dairy business and citizens of Wisconsin. Many generations of my family were dairy farmers; honest, hard working, highly respected stewards of the land. With the advent of large industrialized factory farms in the last few years, and the resulting weakening of our environmental protections through their lobbying efforts, dairy farming has taken on a negative connotation as a primary source of pollution in our state.

Citizens are being forced to take legal action to protect themselves from the effects of these factory farms, and from the effects of legislation gone wrong. Citizens fighting the Richfield Dairy CAFO have spent nearly 1/3 of a million dollars in legal fees to force the DNR to evaluate cumulative effect when permitting high cap wells. And now, Kewaunee County citizens, where 1/3 of the drinking water wells have been made unsafe through manure runoff, are forced to defend themselves through an action with the EPA.

Meanwhile, our current administration blindly supports their 30 x 20 program to expand dairy with no mention of taking any measures to control the environment effects; 2013 was a record-setting year for pollution of our waterways from agricultural sources. If you've been following the news, 2014 may surpass even that. We can't live without clean water. This has got to stop.

I'm a concerned citizen and I vote.

Don Ystad is a concerned citizens along with 10,000s others in central Wisconsin, but the bought-and-paid-for politicians have their own idea of democracy.

As citizens in Adams and Wood counties are acting locally, Scott Walker's fundamentalist and extremist brand of politics is reaching into central Wisconsin like so much liquid cow manure.

A letter from Nancy Koch of Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors calls for an open process to select a new county supervisor in this heavily-anti-Wysocki CAFO district.

Dear Wood County Board Members:

This letter is to request your full consideration of Bruce Dimick for the open position in Wood Co. District 17.

He ran for office against Mr. Allworden loosing only by 19 votes. He is clearly a people’s choice for the opening.

Past practice reveals Wood County Board positions have been filled with the alternate running candidate. Since it was such a close race during this past election, the public’s choice to fill the vacancy is obvious. Both Mr. Allworden and Bruce Dimick have similar thoughts on the issues addressing our areas of Wood County.

The peoples views would be represented by Bruce Dimick in a similar way that Mr. Allworden would be representing us. 

If other people are putting in a bid for the position, they should do the work required to run and be chosen by people’s vote in the election time, not be picked to fill a vacancy when such a good voted candidate is already available.

The most important thing to remember here when selecting a replacement for Mr. Allworden is to pick a representative for District 17 that will reflect the views of the people district 17. 

Nancy Koch