Wisconsin Clean Water Advocates Are in Fighting Mood

'Why do we, as a democratic society, allow the rich and powerful to trample over the rights and health of the average rural citizen!'

Updated - Commenting on children drinking manure-laden water caused by factory farms, Janet McConaughey of Ixonia, Wisconsin, (Jefferson County), said:

"What I'm concerned about is (5-year-old grandson) Jordan's world. So, I want to know that when he's grown up, he'll have a decent place to live. He'll have clean air, clean water," (Bowden, Wisconsin Public Radio).

Ms. McConaughey is not alone as Gov. Scott Walker has ceded rural Wisconsin as a colony to Big Ag, without regard to the consequences to families and communities.

Walker's brazen give-away of private homes and public communities is a major political fight that is bearing electoral fruit.

But a major battle is the Wisconsin courts.

In central Wisconsin, 10,000s of residents are waiting to hear what the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide to do with their communities and homes in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case, awaiting opinion and decision.

Golden Sands is a name of a proposed factory farm of the infamous Wysocki corporation.

The stakes are high.

1. The Court can eliminate the democratic capacity of families to protect local conditions, property values, drinking water, health, and local character.

2. The Court can decide to impose onto Wisconsin a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights.
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Clean water advocates have built a movement in Wisconsin.
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On April 3, Big Ag's candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Michael Screnock, Scott Walker's candidate, was decisively defeated by Rebecca Dallet who campaigned in part on protecting clean water as a value.

Consider the unofficial results from four central-Wisconsin counties, much of which would be devastated by an adverse Court decision in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case.

Next to each county below is the Trump victory margin in 2016, and the Democratic swing.

Adams County: (Won by Trump 58 to 36 percent)

Rebecca Dallet       - 1892 votes (49 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 1912 votes (50 percent)
—Democratic swing of 21 points

Wood County (Won by Trump 56 to 37)

Rebecca Dallet       - 6471 votes (52 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 5933 votes (47 percent)
—Democratic swing of 24 points

Juneau County (Won by Trump 60 to 34)

Rebecca Dallet       -  2157 votes (45 percent)
Michael Screnock  -  2600 votes (54 percent)
—Democratic swing of 17 points

Portage County (Lost by Trump 44 to 49)

Rebecca Dallet       - 7455 votes (62 percent)
Michael Screnock  - 4435 votes (37 percent)
—Democratic swing of 20 points

[Trump figures are rounded. Dallet-Screnock figures omit scattering votes.]

Conclusion: The Blue Wave is building in Wisconsin, and clean and safe water advocates are energizing the momentum.
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The Wysocki corporation has a factory farm in Juneau county, and it is polluting families unfortunate to live near the shit-emitting monstrosity, the Central Sands Dairy, LLC.

Central Sands is applying for a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit.

An update from central Wisconsin residents, Bruce Dimick and Doreen Dimick follows:

Hello all,

On March 22, 2018 there was a WPDES public renewal hearing for the Wysocki CAFO, Central Sands Dairy, in Armenia, Juneau County. This public hearing was conducted by the DNR as are all these public hearings. Wysocki has been in frequent violation of his current WPDES permit, but that appears to be of no great concern to the DNR.

I did not have any great expectations about how this hearing would go, but I was greatly encouraged by the outcome.  First of all at least 9 citizens from Saratoga showed up and 5 of those citizens spoke in opposition to renewal of Wysocki's WPDES permit. But what was the biggest surprise was that at least 50 people showed up for the hearing and an additional 13 people, all from Armenia and the surrounding area spoke up against.  No one spoke in favor of granting Wysocki a renewal.  The people from Armenia spoke from the heart. They had had their wells contaminated, their property devalued, and their way of life degraded.

Sheri Red Fox, who can't use her water for much of anything, spoke of having to distill enough water just to brush her teeth and have enough to drink and cook with.  She lives quite close to the CAFO.  A former employee of Wysocki spoke of how he had been ordered to spread manure on frozen ground and on snow covered fields, all of which is illegal.  When he complained he was fired by Wysocki's managers and threatened if he ever told anyone about what was going on.  One member of the Armenia Town Board spoke up on how the contaminated water was adversely affecting his constituents.

Many people from Armenia thanked those of us from Saratoga for standing with them.

I could not identify anyone from the Wysocki organization being at the hearing, but I am sure they had at least one plant to report back to "Jimmy".

No one is under any illusion that the DNR will not renew the WPDES permit, but the testimony given is now a matter of public record and could be used in court proceedings in the future.
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WPDES PERMIT HEARING FOR CENTRAL SANDS DAIRY – MARCH 22, 2018

Geologically speaking, the Central Sands area was a large lake called Glacial Lake Wisconsin formed after the last ice age.  There was a large ice dam in the Wisconsin Dells area that allowed the lake to persist for 5 or 10,000 years. During those years, the lake filled up with sand from the Wisconsin River and its tributaries. Once the ice dam gave way, the lake drained and our current environment was slowly established. We might envision that we are living over a huge washtub of sand filled with water. The sand is quite porous, so this washtub is continually replenished with rainwater and snowmelt. There is no real distinction between surface water and ground water in this porous environment.

 Most of us who live in the Central Sands in rural areas have our own private wells, whether they be drilled wells or sandpoints.  For the most part we are all drinking from the same aquifer.  This aquifer is both plentiful and vulnerable to pollution due to the porosity of the sandy soil. It is incumbent on all of us that live here and use this aquifer to protect it for the good of all. 

Excessive nitrates are a particular pollutant that easily are dissolved in rainwater and flow down into the aquifer. The EPA limit for dissolved nitrates in drinking water is 10 ppm for municipal water supplies for health reasons. Colorectal cancer, blue baby syndrome, and other deadly ailments are among the diseases linked to nitrates in drinking water.

The Central Sands Dairy has a total of 9 monitoring wells strategically placed around the CAFO.  Many of these monitoring wells have consistently exceeded the EPA limit of 10 ppm by wide margins.  The worst reading that I have seen recorded was 88 ppm for CSD 7S in October 2017.  Think of that – almost 9 times the EPA limit!

So all this contaminated water flows in a predominately southeasterly direction on its way to the now highly contaminated Lake Petenwell. Along the way it contaminates the water supplies of the rural residents in its path.

All of us siting here today know that the DNR will renew the WPDES permit for the Central Sands Dairy. The question is why do we, as a democratic society, allow the rich and powerful to trample over the rights and health of the average rural citizen!
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WPDES PERMIT HEARING FOR CENTRAL SANDS DAIRY,
Mar. 22, 2018

The hearing today centers on the DNR’s decision whether or not to give the Central Sands Dairy a permit to continue operations for the next five years and under what conditions it may operate. One would think that this permit would be based on what effect the dairy has and has had on the groundwater in the area of and around the dairy. 

The EPA standard for maximum nitrogen in the groundwater is 10 ppm, yet almost all the monitoring wells in and around Central Sands Dairy show levels well above that standard. So it is very concerning that it seems that there have been  no real efforts to enforce that standard. There is no way that the houses around the CSD have drinkable well water and must choose expensive bottled water and/or a reverse osmosis system.  Indeed one would wonder where the dairy is accessing the water that is given to the cows that produce the milk. 

Municipal water supplies must stay within the 10 ppm limit. Restaurants or other service businesses that rely on water must stay within that limit. Central Sands Dairy is not even close. I would urge the DNR to deny the permit under present business practices and enforce some meaningful limits.

Doreen Dimick
Wisconsin Rapids, WI