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| Liquid
manure/waste trucks coming and going in a downpour. This is the worst time to spread because of the risks to groundwater and surface water. BUT ... the trucks just kept coming non-stop for 24 1/2 hours ... rain or shine at a stone's throw from the Ten Mile Creek trout stream in central Wisconsin, days before Memorial Day weekend. Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell |
Happy Memorial Day
Proposed Golden Sands Dairy, in Saratoga, Wood
County, Wisconsin will devastate an already
troubled region.
No time to take our eyes off what Scott Walker, Scott Krug, the Wysocki corporation and its collaborators are doing to central Wisconsin—a picturesque region of sand, dense pines, streams and lakes now dying before our eyes—under tons of liquid cow manure, high capacity wells sucking up ground and surface waters; political corruption, and apathy.
In the field on 80th Street (County Hwy. U in central Wisconsin) an injecting rig sits poised before the Memorial Day weekend just waiting for the manure trucks to start their relentless circling from two counties away (Juneau County, Town of Armenia) to pick up and deliver Wysocki/Sommers liquid manure to Portage County, Town of Grant via Saratoga, Wisconsin.
Nice way to honor the fallen, Big Ag.
Rhonda Cain-Carrell chronicled the carnage last week, taking pictures showing an effort by massive polluters to drive down property valuations and befoul the environment in an area service professionals acknowledge on background is already effectively red-lined.
One of the objectives of Wisconsin Republicans is to make Wisconsin so inhospitable and toxic that citizens objecting will leave the state.
No time to ask, but what is wrong with these people?"The Wysockies quietly buy up land, use it up, literally poison their neighbors, the hell with everyone else. These people do not live on the CAFOs; they live far-away. And, yes, there is something sociopathic about this."
—Saratoga, Wisconsin resident
Corrupt Republican government will wait until ground and surface waters are so befouled and depleted that safe drinking water in central Wisconsin is no longer feasible, and then deflect all accountability.
Shots below at bottom.
By Rhonda Cain-Carrell
The Ten Mile Creek is a beautiful trout stream that starts in Portage County, Town of Grant, Wisconsin and runs through the Town of Saratoga in Wood County. On the Portage County side, the Ten Mile has much less flow because of heavy pumping of high capacity wells for agriculture, picking up flow the further west it travels through wooded, unirrigated land of Saratoga.
In Jan. 2015, a man from Adams County named Scott Kotlowski applied for two high capacity wells for irrigated agriculture on two Managed Forest Land parcels just east of the Wood County, Town of Saratoga in Portage County, Town of Grant. I very suspiciously watched these parcels, as they are adjacent to our beloved Ten Mile Creek and were taken out of Wysocki's original footprint of the proposed Golden Sands Dairy CAFO.
I knew Kotlowski was a straw buyer and applier for Wysocki. The DNR assured us these wells would not be considered/approved until after the Wysocki project was sorted through and done. In Feb. 2016, Kotlowski applied for another high capacity well permit for a large parcel that borders State Hwy. 73 and County Hwy. U (80th St.) that he had bought. This parcel was also part of Wysocki's original footprint for the proposed crap factory they want to site in Saratoga.
THEN the horrible legislation pertaining to high cap wells begins. Transfers of well permits, rapid approvals, rubber stamping, deregulation of protections for water, wetlands and doing away with public rights stages for waters of the state. When some of the garbage did not pass, they went to the AG for his bought-and paid-for opinion on cumulative impacts not needing to be observed, (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal). What the hell?! The level of corruption!!!!
The Ten Mile Creek runs through this section where Kotlowski's wells have been applied for. In these same fields, on Thursday, May 19th, Wysocki Produce Company trucks started hauling solid manure for two days straight. On Tuesday, May 24, 21 liquid manure trucks carrying the liquid waste/manure from Central Sands Dairy to the Kotlowski field on 90th Street between Tower Road and Oak Street.
It rained so many times before, during and after this process ... literally gully-washers, (an extremely heavy fall of rain usually of short duration), ... and they still kept hauling and injecting. Approximately 490 liquid manure trucks carrying 7,000-8,000 gallons of liquid manure to one little 73 acre field ... a stone's throw from our beloved trout stream, the Ten Mile Creek. This was after two days worth of solid manure the previous week.
The part of this that you will love is that they trucked the massive amounts of waste two counties to dump it next to our creek and just across the Portage County line. They have many acres where this could have been disposed of very close to Central Sands Dairy, (Backer of Saratoga CAFO tied to tainted wells, (Anderson, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)), and thousands of acres that were not adjacent to Saratoga, a township with the second highest population density in all of Wood County and last ... but not least ... why right next to the Ten Mile Creek? What do you think the answer to this question is?
Saratoga has made it very clear industrialized agriculture and CAFOs are not sustainable in our sandy soil. Our groundwater is extremely susceptible to contamination under the best circumstances. In gully-washing rain ... wouldn't you be careful so close to our trout stream?
Pictures of Devastation in Central Wisconsin. All photos by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
Ten Mile Creek on Tower Road, east of Hwy. U (80th St.). —
Portage County, Town of Grant, Wisconsin
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
A dozen liquid manure/waste trucks sitting in Ellis Industries field (90th Street)
adjacent to Kotlowski field (Wysocki may have bought from Kotlowski, who purchased
the land after Wysocki pulled it from the original proposed Golden Sands Dairy plan).
The others sit at the Central Sands Dairy in Juneau County, Town
of Armenia ... two counties away. Notice the ponding? Liquid cow manure.
A stone's throw from Ten Mile Creek, a trout stream.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
Ponding. Too much liquid manure and rain.
— at Portage County, Town of Grant, Wisconsin
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
Liquid manure/waste trucks coming and going in a downpour. This is the worst
time to spread because of the risks to groundwater and surface water.
BUT ... the trucks just kept coming non-stop for 24 1/2 hours ... rain or shine.
— at A stone's throw from the Ten Mile Creek. This hazardous waste, the
trucks are carrying, make no mistake.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
It took approx. 2.5 minutes to dump the liquid manure waste contents of a tanker.
— at Portage County, Town of Grant. Across the street from Saratoga.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
Risk of runoff HIGH for much of Wisconsin that day and they were spreading
in the rain.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
A, center pivot pump, chemical tank and power box in the
Ellis-Wysocki field with new center pivot rig in background.
Why would 2 systems the same age look SO different?
— at Across the road from Saratoga in Portage County.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
In the field on 80th Street (County Hwy. U) the injecting rig sits
poised before the holiday Memorial Day weekend just waiting for the manure
trucks to start their relentless circling from two counties away
(Juneau County, Town of Armenia)
to pick up and deliver Wysocki-Sommers liquid manure to Portage County,
Town of Grant via Saratoga.
Notice the draglines? —
Pic taken from Oak Street.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
New center pivot irrigation rig in a field in which Scott Kotlowski, of Adams County,
applied for the high capacity well permit. This parcel and the one on
90th Street were part of Wysocki's proposed Golden Sands Dairy
project that asked for 40 hi cap wells. He scaled back to 33 wells and
Kotlowski bought the property and did the same thing
Wysocki had planned on doing.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
90th Street is the field Scott Kotlowski applied for one of the two high capacity
wells in this section. Until last year, this was Managed Forest Land.
Portage County, Town of Grant, Wisconsin.
Image by Rhonda Cain-Carrell
Both Republicans and Democrats are contributing to a water and CAFO crisis in central Wisconsin due to bipartisan endorsement of free water from high-capacity wells and farm subsidies.
ReplyDeleteE.M., The AG is a Republican. The Gov. is a Republican. The High Cap bills have proceeded on party-line votes. State Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) is facing an election from a Wysocki-funded Republican opponent. The only elected officials pushing high cap wells, and calling for no consideration of cumulative effects are Republicans acting on behalf of Big Ag. The evisceration of the DNR is uniquely a Republican operation.
ReplyDeleteNeither Democrats nor Republicans endorse a volumetric tax on high-capacity wells. The duopoly is more concerned about politics than water. Bipartisan politics dictate that free natural resources and subsidies are a government-given right.
ReplyDeleteTaxes are not the solution. A first-order concern is the protection of water, air and land. This should be the purview of the Wisconsin DNR which is why the Republicans have eviscerated the DNR and made the Dept. protector of polluters.
DeleteFour years ago the DBA endorsed my primary opponent Manitowoc Alderman Jim Brey even though I was the only farmer and ex dairy farmer running on either side.
ReplyDeleteBrey openly ran against the Clean Water Act saying that its requirement on cities to control run off into Lake Michigan was "an unfunded mandate".
But when Brey won they quickly shifted to Republican Paul Tittl.
So, yeah... it has been bi-partisan.
That does not make the case that there is bi-partisan support for the unprecedented attack on the DNR, on depleting water through HC wells, and the assurance from the DoJ and DNR that CAFOs are protected. One DBA primary endorsement, which as you point out changed to a Republican endorsement, does not disconfirm unanimous Republican support for Big Ag.
DeleteMore Republican crap, to hell with people as long as you keep funding my campaign. Disgusting, tea party Walkerthugs. Vote Krug out, we can do that!
ReplyDeleteIt is time to vote out all who are working against Wisconsin's clean water act and the environmental safeguards that have made Wisconsin a great place for tourism and for living. Wisconsin has a long history of leaders who worked to preserve its natural resources, but the future looks bleak for those of us who do not have big money to influence our current state government officials. I am appalled by the corruption we are seeing and think we need to become loud against it. Wisconsin leaders,especially city and town officials,large and small businesses, wildlife enthusiasts, nature lovers, tourism industry workers and courts need to step up and get involved to stop what is happening to our state. Agriculture helps all of us but Big Ag like CAFO's help only a few. And those few care only about themselves at the expense of everyone else. It is time to reduce the power of our Republican led state government and Scott Walker. Wisconsin environment should not be political. The DNR should not be under state leaders but have autonomy (and resources) to do what it was established to do.
ReplyDelete