Wisconsin Factory Farm Polluter and Republican Donor Dead in Plane Crash

A Google Earth view of Pagel's Ponderosa factory farm in
Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. The late owner, John Pagel, was
a member of the Kewaunee County Board and chair of
the county's Land and Conservation Committee. Pagel has
acknowledged that large factory operations such as his
can contribute to groundwater pollution but said industry can
 lead the way toward a solution. From Wisconsin Watch

"I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction," wrote Clarence Darrow in his 1932 autobiography, The Story of My Life, (p. 92).

Darrow, were he living today, could be referring to the death of factory farm polluter, John Pagel, killed when a Cessna 441 Conquest Turboprop plane crashed in a muddy field in Carroll County, Indiana on Feb. 22, (WSAW).

Pagel is a major poisoner of families and an unrepentant polluter of communities in Wisconsin's peninsula.

"It would have been fitting if Pagel drowned in a million-gallon vat of cow shit, instead of falling from the sky," said a Door County citizen this weekend. "You want a quote, how about, 'you reap what you sow,' John Pagel."

That is fitting.

Pagel did had other pursuits besides poisoning area families by vectoring cow manure into their water wells.

Pagel gave $1,000s to Scott Walker and other Republicans who in return transformed Wisconsin water pollution law and regulations so Pagel and factory polluters could get away with poisoning children, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Wisconsin media ran statements this weekend saying Pagel left behind a "legacy."

Wisconsin needs no more such legacies.

"Safe drinking water is a prerequisite for protecting public health and all human activity," reads the Unites States Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), website on our Water and Wastewater Systems sector.

Don't think John Pagel died knowing the value of water for human life and public health.

I note with satisfaction that Pagel may have died with an appreciation for gravity.

Public Waterways, Not Private Sewers, Say Wisconsin Fresh Water Fighters

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's assault on fresh and safe water is unprecedented in state history.

What type of psychopath would deliberately poison drinking and surface waters? In Wisconsin the psychopaths are many, they're called Republicans and without exception every Republican goes along with a pretty sick project.

"Safe drinking water is a prerequisite for protecting public health and all human activity," reads the Unites States Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), site on the Water and Wastewater Systems Sector. DHS protects our water systems from attack.

But threats and vulnerabilities in our water systems in America don't come from foreign terrorists. The enemy of water is domestic—industrial agricultural operations—so naturally the Trump administration is targeting major federal agencies like the EPA protecting our water, following similar action at the state level.

Republican attacks on water at the state level aim to displace the legal protection of, and cultural ethos associated with fresh water in Wisconsin. DHS cannot help these people. The Wisconsin people are organizing themselves in self-defense.

Though electoral wins have decidedly not panned out in Wisconsin's gerrymandered legislative races, (water protectors lost badly in the 2016 general elections), the organizing feats in central, northern and northeastern Wisconsin have been impressive.

No Republican politician in Wisconsin makes an electoral or legislative move without considering how to lie to and cheat citizen action on safe water.

Protecting water as a social movement is primed to grow, and most everyone from libertarians to Greens to multi-generational Wisconsin families hate industrialized agriculture, CAFOs. Though water polluters, called CAFOs, say their methods are modern agriculture, the operations work to displace water protections enacted the last 40 years with the Medieval practice of dumping untreated sewage into communities.

Recent updates on the clean water fight:

Citizens in Kewaunee County in northeastern Wisconsin are again escalating their fight for clean and safe water.


Central Wisconsin

In central Wisconsin, a clean water group is holing its general meeting tonight.

Protect Wood County and its Neighbors General Meeting

Date: Monday, February 27, 2017
Time: 6:30 PM
Place: Saratoga Town Hall

Agenda

• Introductory Remarks
• Historical Presentation, "Buried Treasure" -  Dave Patrykus
• Wisconsin Senate Bill 76
• CAFO Regulation from Wisconsin DNR to DATCP
• Violations at Central Sands Dairy
• League of Conservation Voters Lobby Day
• Rome, (Adams County Wisconsin) Concerned Update
• Wood County Board
• SE Wood County Groundwater Quality Group
• Portage County Groundwater Citizens Advisory Sub-Committee
• Questions?

Northeastern Wisconsin

In northeastern Wisconsin, CAFO owner John Pagel, is using his position in public office to corrupt local government. From Kewaunee County Star News comes Jodi Parins' letter to the editor published on February 18, 2017 on Pagel's latest scam:

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76

From Rome, Wisconsin in Adams County, citizen Don Ystad offers his latest work on the groundwater-depleting bill, Wisconsin Senate Bill 76:

Dear Senators,

A few weeks ago, over 400 of us showed up in the state capitol to ask that you consider water laws that benefit all citizens, not just those represented by industry lobbyists.

While we all value Wisconsin's agriculture heritage, we also understand that we have water issues that are affecting people's health and well being, as well as the commerce of Wisconsin's $20 billion tourism industry. Senate bill 76 falls short in a number of areas.

For me, living in a lakes area in Adams County, where 49% of residential value is tied to lakes area properties, I can only imagine the impact on county revenues if lakes are allowed to be decimated by over pumping and the billion dollars in lake property value is reduced as a result.

And, imagine the effect on the counties third of a billion in tourism revenue.

When you consider bills such as SB76, keep in mind that 225 lakes were added to Wisconsin's impaired list in 2016. It's time we pay attention to our recreation asset in our state, as well as agriculture.

We saw a proposed bill very similar to SB76 last session and fortunately it was not approved.

Upon review, the minor changes made in SB76 offer no real workable solutions or protections for citizens.

Citizens from all over the state delivered a respectful message on Feb 8th, asking that you consider the needs of all citizens when you consider water bills. We are your voting constituents and deserve at least that from you.

Thank you,
Don Ystad

Wisconsin's Scott Walker Refuses Listening Sessions

Scott Walker has left
his suit

Scott Walker's effort to rebrand himself fades like a cottonwood seed blowing across a park as public disapproval numbers persist.

The spectacle of Scott Walker blaming everyone from protesting Wisconsinites to the corporate media for his failure in job creation, comes with Walker's assurance he's now hearing "positive things" from his numerous "listening sessions" held around the state, (Opoien, The Capital Times).

Scott Walker lied.

A problem with this claim by Walker, (contra Gov. Chris Christie), is the fact Walker has held zero listening sessions as defined by answering unscripted, townhall-style questions posed by Wisconsin citizens unvetted for political loyalty to Scott Walker as the price of admission.

Used to be in Wisconsin citizens did not have to declare political loyalty to anyone before they could ask questions of public officials. Now, we live in the age of blacklists and Republican corruption, (Door County Pulse), (Mal Contends).

Walker's definition for a listening session is invitation-only, no press, and no dialogue,(UrbanMilwuakee).

It was no surprise to read a heavily polluting industrialized ag. factory owner John Pagel was invited by Walker to a February 'listening session' propaganda event in Kewaunee and Pagel pronounced himself "impressed" with Walker.

Some of the questions from Walker-vetted guests at the listening session:

What’s good about Wisconsin and your community?

What do you want your community to look like seven to 10 years from now?

And what can be done to ensure that vision? (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal)

Tough room.

As gleamed from Walker's aborted presidential campaign last year, when Scott Walker offers a non-sequitur as a response to the rare question to which he replies in public, it means Walker has just tried to think on his feet.

Facing rising disapproval numbers, the last thing Walker can deal with now is being seen as incompetent on top of corrupt.

When Walker lies about listening sessions, it would help Wisconsin for the corporate press to report the fact Walker is lying.

Polluter Reappointed as Land and Water Conservation Chair in Wisconsin County

Nothing to see here, assures John Pagel, owner of a factory farm
in Kewaunee County in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula
Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The polluters are in charge in Kewaunee County in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula.

This is all very well if you like cow shite and urine, and associated pathogens, in your drinking and bath water.

Karen Ebert Yancey, (USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin), reports the "Kewaunee County Board on Monday unanimously approved newly elected Chairman Robert Weidner's committee assignments, including the reappointment of CAFO owner John Pagel as chairman of the county's Land and Water Conservation Committee."

Pagel spends much of his time declaring his innocence, that of other polluting CAFOs and industrialized operations' using the same model in which these factory farms spray tons of liquefied manure into the community's environment, to tragic consequences. Said Pagel, "We are already showing from our county farmers that they are being proactive in trying to improve water quality in the county."

And "we sure can’t blame the CAFOs because we had this problem 50 years ago, before there were any CAFOs in Kewaunee County," said Pagel last year, (Schuessler, AlJazeera America).

In a recent piece at WisconsinWatch (Seely), Pagel continued his nothing to see here line: "I think with any new rules there should be a balance between safety and being practical."

Pagel and his ilk have a lurid idea of being "practical," likely not garnered from those poisoned, especially children and their families, from the pathogens they vector into private drinking wells and surface waters.

Probing the Public's Gullibility

Residents of Door and Kewaunee County point to a new PR offensive by Pagel and his fellow poisoners, citing recent pieces in the Door County Pulse reporting on the newly formed CAFO-led nonprofit organization, Peninsula Pride Farms. That's a catchy name, and far more effective than Poisoners Are Us.

Do not bathe or drink the water. There's another catchy tourist slogan for the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula. Kewaunee CARES cites the results of a DNR-funded study released on May 2:

DNR-funded study identifies trace amounts of salmonella, rotavirus in small sample of Kewaunee wells

MADISON, Wis.- As part of a DNR-funded study, test results reported late Monday afternoon show the presence of salmonella and/or rotavirus in 11 private Kewaunee County wells.

Property owners have been notified of the findings, which are typically associated with fecal contamination. No illnesses have been reported in connection with these findings.

The 11 property owners are being advised to stop using the water for drinking or bathing and have their wells chlorinated by a licensed professional. Property owners within a half mile radius of the affected wells are being advised by Kewaunee County to have their wells tested. 

Good thing John Pagel is looking out for Kewaunee County and being practical. The CDC reports, "Rotavirus is a contagious virus that can cause gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines). Symptoms include severe watery diarrhea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. Infants and young children are most likely to get rotavirus disease. They can become severely dehydrated and need to be hospitalized and can even die."

In a related piece see Dave Zweifel's Plain Talk: Farmers fight back on DNR blacklist, (Capital Times).