Wisconsin Citizens Win Major Battle Against Massive CAFO, Fight Continues

Citizens groups in Wood County Wisconsin and
surrounding region oppose CAFOs and aerial
liquid manure spraying. 
Photo by Martha Karris of
Rome and Saratoga-Friendly
in Wisconsin (Faceboook)

In a major legal victory for citizens opposing a proposed massive factory farm in central Wisconsin, a state appellate court ruled that over 6,000 acres of land may not used as a massive cow manure dumping ground by the Wysocki Family of Companies, a known polluter of rural Wisconsin communities.

The ruling is a defeat for State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), and other political supporters of the planned operation that would produce over 50 million gallons of liquid waste per year to be spread on fields near homes and communities, imperiling the region's economy and forcing many household to move out of multi-generational homes.

The case is 2015AP001258, Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga, (Wisconsin Court System).

The 15-page opinion was issued by appellate Judges Lundsten, Higginbotham and Blanchard.

Writes Karen Madden in Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune:

Under the new ruling, the company will have the right to proceed with construction on 10 buildings for the cows, feed and other dairy operations, said Paul Kent, town of Saratoga attorney. The court decision blocks Wysocki from planting crops or spreading manure on the land. The potential impact on water from manure spreading from approximately 4,000 cows and watering more than 6,000 acres of crops is the town's primary concern.

Rhonda Carrell, a Saratoga resident and member of Protect Wood County and its Neighbors, the grassroots group that has fought against the dairy, said she was awake most of Wednesday night in anticipation of the decision being released Thursday morning. She said the decision puts Saratoga in a much stronger position to fight the proposed dairy and protect the community's water.

'What wonderful news,' Carrell said. 'We always had hoped for a good outcome in the courts.'

Central Wisconsin residents and communities are walking a fine line as they promote the region for tourism and recreation, and at the same time fight what would be a heavily polluting Wysocki CAFO proposed in 2012.

Today's legal victory marks nearly the fifth year citizens have stopped the operation of the Wysocki CAFO.

Anti-CAFO Group Blasts Wood County Board in Central Wisconsin

To many outside of the Midwest, consideration of pathogen-laden cow manure vectored into the environment may appear a topic of pedestrian concern for rural America.

It's not.

The consequences of dumping millions of tons of cow manure—hazardous waste including bacterial, viral, and parasitic fecal pathogens—into the environment are devastating America's great waterways, the Great Lakes, even the oceans beginning at the Gulf of Mexico, as well as poisoning children,(Yelle, Mal Contends), (Devlin, Green Bay Press Gazette; Lundstrom, Door County Pulse; Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network; Duhigg, New York Times; Clean Water Council of Northeast Wisconsin).

A united coalition of groups fighting a massive proposed Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) or factory farm in central Wisconsin is blasting its local government, the Wood County Board for abandoning the health of Wood County, in favor of the wealth of Big Ag.

Unfortunately, the Wood County Board Chair, Lance Priml, is politically beholden to Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and manifestly not concerned about the citizens of Wood and surrounding counties.

Reports Karen Madden, (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune):

For four years, residents from southern Wood County have been speaking up and imploring the County Board members to do something to protect the area's water from a proposed large-scale dairy, said Brian Hamm of Saratoga. The proposed concentrated animal feeding operation, known as a CAFO, is one of the biggest land transformations in Wood County's history, and it sits on one of the areas of the state most susceptible to groundwater contamination, Hamm said.

'Yet, we sit here four years later, and you've done nothing,' Hamm said during Tuesday's Wood County Board meeting. 'You have failed us; you've embarrassed yourselves, and you should know better.'

Across Wisconsin, citizen groups continue the fight against Big Ag's poisoning and pollution costs inflicted onto society.

Big Ag and its protectors,' such as local State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin), reply is: Tough shit.