Nitrate Levels in Groundwater at Central Sands Dairy Exceed Safe Standard by Seven Times

The Central Sands Dairy in Juneau County Wisconsin is promoted as the state-of-the-art model for the proposed massive Golden Sands Dairy in Saratoga (Agri-View).

This frightens area residents in Wood and Adams County as a new report shows massive nitrate levels in area groundwater monitoring wells at Central Sands.

Both Central Sands and Golden Sands are owned by the Wysocki Family of Companies, whose corporate officers live safely off-site from the massive industrialized Central Sands Dairy site and Golden Sands sites.

The Central Sands Dairy news of groundwater contamination follows a decision from Gov. Scott Walker's new polluter-friendly Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource's (DNR).

The DNR decided last week to "to approve a water pollution permit for an industrial livestock operation expansion in Kewaunee County. The agency refused to uphold portions of an October 2014 Administrative Law Judge decision ordering the agency to use its authority under state law to limit the number of animals in the facility and to require a groundwater monitoring plan for pollution from manure landspreading. Petitioners in this case will review options for appeal," as noted by the Midwest Environmental Advocates.

Environmental groups asked the EPA to monitor wells in Kewaunee County last year.

Under Scott Walker's administration the Wisconsin DNR has become a rubber stamp for polluters, actually providing political and legal cover for polluters.

A press release by an attorney for the Town of Saratoga is reproduced below:

TOWN OF ARMENIA, JUNEAU COUNTY, Wis. [September 14, 2015]  -- Groundwater monitoring wells at Central Sands Dairy measured during three consecutive quarters in 2014 and 2015 demonstrate the presence of nitrates in the groundwater that are well above the state drinking water standard of 10 parts per million, according to the most recent report filed with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources by RJN Environmental Services. Central Sands monitoring well 4 (CSD4) now reports nitrates at 77 ppm, more than seven times the state standard. Nitrate levels have risen from 60 ppm to 77ppm in CSD4 in just nine months, according to the report, and other on-site monitoring wells also consistently demonstrate levels above the state standard.

CSD4 is located up-gradient of the manure lagoon, but down-gradient of fields on which liquid manure land application has occurred. This is significant, according to Attorney Paul Kent, representing the neighboring Town of Saratoga, “because it demonstrates significant nitrate contamination from the land-application of manure.”

The Wysocki Family of Companies, which owns and manages the Central Sands Dairy, is proposing to build a 5300-head dairy operation known as the Golden Sands Dairy on nearly 8,000 acres, most of which are in the Town of Saratoga.  The facility would generate 55 million gallons of liquid manure and 25,000 tons of solid manure annually.  Golden Sands is proposing to clear-cut nearly 4600 acres of managed pine forest in the Town and convert it to irrigated cropland onto which the manure would be applied, Kent said.  Like the land on which Central Sands Dairy resides in Armenia, the proposed Golden Sands Dairy would be sited on sandy soil that has been classified as ‘highly susceptible to groundwater contamination’ by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Kent said.

If approved, each year Golden Sands Dairy would land-apply 55 million gallons of liquid manure and 25,000 tons of solid manure on roughly one-quarter of the property in the Town, all of which lies within one-quarter mile of more than 400 homes. “A repeat of the Central Sands results in Saratoga would be devastating,” he said, “to private wells, public facilities, trout streams, businesses, recreational facilities and overall quality of life.”

It’s important to note, Kent added, that the Town and its citizens oppose neither agriculture nor dairying, as a rule. “The opposition is to this facility on this site, on this geology. An operation of this size and tenor has no place on land deemed ‘highly susceptible to groundwater contamination’ by the USGS.  “The well monitoring results from Central Sands Dairy in Armenia clearly demonstrate the problem with this kind of operation in on this kind of soil.”
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About Saratoga Township

A township in Wood County, Wisconsin, Saratoga is home to 5,385 residents. It is situated in the southeast corner of the county, bordering Juneau and Adams counties and includes Ten Mile Creek, Ross Lake, a portion of Nepco Lake and Five Mile Creek.  Its predominate land uses are woodlands owned by private landholders, residential subdivisions, limited agriculture (cranberry bogs), commercial developments along highways 13 & 73 and open spaces.

About the USGS

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, the USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect quality of life.

As the Nation's largest water, earth and biological science and civilian mapping agency, the USGS collects, monitors, analyzes and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues and problems.  The diversity of its scientific expertise enables large-scale, multi-disciplinary investigations and provides impartial scientific information to resource managers, planners and other customers.

Wood County Enacts Ordinance Protecting Ground and Surface Water

"I just want safe water," said Julie Kreutzer at the Wood County County Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday in Wisconsin Rapids. (Anderson, Gannett Co. News)

Sounds reasonable enough.

But Kreutzer is a resident of the town of Saratoga in central Wisconsin where a proposed industrialized, Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) or factory farm is sited, and the CAFO owners, the Wysocki corporation through its entities limiting their personal liability, are not keen on what Ms. Kreutzer wants.

The problem for Kreutzer is the CAFO owners, the Wood and Adams county citizens, and CAFO experts—know if the CAFO is to be built, it will pollute on a massive scale, befouling waters, land and the air with nitrates, phosphorous and ammonia from millions of gallons of liquidized manure produced annually.

The groundwater ordinance passed on a close 10-9 vote on Tuesday, after heavy lobbying by Big Ag, the Dairy Business Association (DBA), that works against safe groundwater ordinances all over Wisconsin as the DBA seeks its right to pollute.

The CAFO would be an environmental and economic disaster for a region gaining its footing after the decline of the paper mill industry.

In response, residents are citing the abundant natural resources of the area and promoting the recreation and tourism potential, efforts that would be imperiled by the massively polluting CAFO.

These are costs the CAFO owners are willing to inflict onto Wood and Adams county, negative externalities.

Wysocki already sucks up huge quantities of groundwater through its numerous high capacity water wells that make for an unsustainable future for the region.

These are also costs Wysocki is willing to see inflicted onto the community.

Wood County joins other Wisconsin counties and towns in enacting ordinances protecting groundwater from CAFOs within the past year, including Kewaunee County, Bayfield County, Ashland County and Oneida County.

But for James Wysocki it's mind over matter, Wysocki doesn't mind polluting and using up groundwater because area families don't matter.

America’s Industrial Dairy Wasteland

Jim Lundstrom at the Peninsula Pulse in Door County has an excellent piece on the poisoning of Wisconsin by the industrial CAFO, the too-bad-you-don't-like-pollution, modern agriculture model, or factory farm.

Lundstrom's compelling lede: "Scott Dye, a Missouri farmer who works as a field coordinator for the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, said America’s Dairyland may soon have a new motto:  'America’s Industrial Dairy Wasteland.'"

Writes Lundstrom:

Speaking at a press conference in Green Bay on June 10, Dye and Kewaunee Cares co-founder Lynn Utesch outlined ways in which state leaders and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have let its citizens down by allowing industrial-sized dairies – which go by the euphemism of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs – to pollute Kewaunee County and Lake Michigan by not regulating and enforcing CAFO operations.
"We should not mince words about this. This is nothing short of a public health emergency," Dye said.

Wisconsin can blame former Gov. Jim Doyle (D) (2003-2011) and many legislative Democrats for bringing us the Livestock Facility Siting Law, an innocuous-sounding law that gives CAFOs the power to trump community anti-pollution measures, thereby dissolving community control and local democracy and handing these rights to Big Agriculture from whom Doyle took in lots of money.

The myth of the noble Wisconsin small farmer lives on used by CAFOs as Doyle's successor, Scott Walker and legislative Republicans, have become baleful instruments of Big Ag, taking money and poisoning their constituents.

Scott Walker has made Big Ag's pollution more dangerous, and Walker now takes aim at the DNR and science (virtually wiping out the public interest science regulatory regime) as Wisconsin's waters, air and land are being toxified.

One wonders if Jim Doyle regrets his decision enacting his obscenity into Wisconsin law, as Walker, has directed the DNR to abandon the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine in Walker's budget before the gerrymandered legislature.

Even Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior, an environmental treasure and popular tourist and recreation destination, is imperiled by a proposed CAFO. (Slater, Duluth News Tribune)

The least Jim Doyle could do is offer a few words.

I know Scott Walker has no regrets, wherever he is today.

Wood County Family Threatened for Opposing Proposed Factory Farm

"Your Hous [sic] Is Next," reads a threat left near the home and
on the land of a family protesting the proposed massive Wysocki
CAFO in central Wisconsin. It take a certain pathology of CAFO
owners to deliberately poison neighbors, and another pathology to
leave this type of sick threat. The note was left after the sign of a
cow (below) had the cow's head removed. Photo: Nancy Koch

Updated - What is happening in isolated central Wisconsin is political terrorism.

"Terrorism includes the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).

"We are troubled," said Nancy Koch to me, citing a threat left on a note at their Saratoga home in Wood County last week reading: "Your hous [sic] is next."

In a phone conversation, I advised the Koch family [no relation] to hang up the phone, get in touch with a sympathetic attorney in Wisconsin Rapids and call the FBI immediately.

Koch responded that she has been in touch with the Wood County Sheriff's Department which sent over a deputy.

The threat is associated with the Koch family's objection to the siting of the proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) that would confine over 5,000 cows and produce an estimated 50 million tons of liquid cow manure annually, using 37 high capacity water well pumps in a geological region where the acquirer basin is already strained by the most high capacity wells in Wisconsin.

The Wood County Sheriff's Department confirmed this morning they are in receipt of several reports of recent thefts and vandalism associated with crimes against the widespread political opposition to the proposed Wysocki CAFO.

Anti-CAFO sign 'decapitated' left near threatening note
with nail holes and appears to have been blown
by the wind to a tree in a nearby stand of
pine trees common to the area on the Koch's.
The pink cow is some three-by-six feet in size.

The Kochs have what has become a popular anti-CAFO symbol, a large pink cow sign reading "Stop Factory Farming" and "No High Cap Wells" located on their land. (at right)

The anti-CAFO sign "decapitated" is feet away from the threatening note with nail holes and appears to have been blown by the wind to a tree in a nearby stand of pine trees common to the area on the Koch's.

The Koch family is part of a large citizens' group in central Wisconsin opposing the proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) that would confine over 5,000 cows and produce an estimated 50 Million tons of liquid cow manure annually.

The massive site would destroy 8,000 acres of what is currently managed forest land.

"We are tired of these threats. We have been very polite in our Pink Cow/CAFO opposition fight and have made ourselves visible, why aren’t you?," reads an email sent by Koch to Mal Contends in the hope the perpetrators will read it. "Evidently cowardly acts are your style!, We have a hard time believing anyone could be against pink cows so drastically to stoop to such a pathetic level of cowardice."

The threat follows the theft of several other signs made by children in Wood County by other families similarly opposed to the dangerous CAFO operation. Nancy Koch said her family has had vandalism to her home since she publicly opposed the CAFO three years ago.

The following notes were sent to a reporter with the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Gannett Co.) by Wisconsin Rapids resident, Rhonda Carrell:

This sign was stolen last week as pro-CAFO forces are
now escalating to open intimation and theft to stop opposition.

Hi Deb,

The clean water cow depicting “water” was stolen from Ten Mile Ave. and Hwy. 13 at approx. midnight Sunday or early Monday morning (Nancy Koch knows the landowner, it’s her neighbor). The beheaded cow on Ten Mile Ave. at Richard and Nancy Koch’s home at around the same time. Evergreen and Hwy 13 on xxxxx’s property another was taken but that was not the kids artwork. [Three] were taken from Virginia Olson and Darren Kester’s property on Hwy. 13 near Larry Avenue. At approx. 1:30 am Mrs. Olson’s son was outside his brother’s home and a tall pick-up truck with lights on the cab above the windshield was parked in the neighbor Kolo’s driveway and went speeding off. One was also taken from Ironside’s property on Hwy. 13 near Blue Ridge. He was unaware of the thefts until morning. The cow stolen on Hwy. 73 west of highway 13 and was also a children’s project.

Pic’s of kids working on the cows will come one at a time from my cell phone. I cannot find a more efficient way to send. There will be more addresses to report as we start checking other locations, I’m sure.

Thanks,

Rhonda Carrell

Several signs were stolen last week as pro-CAFO forces are
now escalating to open intimation and theft to stop opposition.

Hwy. 73 west of highway 13 and was also a children’s project.
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Hi Deb,

Just an update on stolen/vandalized artwork. A note was found in the ditch near Richard and Nancy Koch’s home that had apparently been attached to their beheaded pink cow, telling them, “YOUR HOUS IS NEXT”. They have had cow thefts before and had anchored her well, along with drywall screws and nails coming out of her. The note had been attached to her and blew into the ditch. They have been threatened before by a man in a big, loud white truck telling them he was going to burn them out of their house.

Rhonda Carrell

Wisconsin Faces Choice: Clean, Safe Water or Fouled, Toxic Water

Kewaunee County fights polluters

From Kewaunee County in northeastern Wisconsin, citizen groups are advising each other of what to do when their water wells test positive for Ecoli from liquid cow manure runoff, and what to do when their sink water turns brown.

This is the new normal in Scott Walker's Wisconsin as Walker's new budget guts DNR use of scientific findings and citizen power to protect their drinking water and their families. (Midwest Environmental Advocates)

Scott Walker takes $ Millions from Big Ag with its new business model, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), and literally sends Wisconsin families back shite, vectoring dangerous pathogens into the environment because the millions of tons of liquid cow manure are untreated.

From the Kewaunee County Times (Facebook):

We have just learned that there are two more contaminated wells that have tested positive for E-Coli on Macco Road in the Town of Red River, both wells are on the same property. The DNR has taken water samples to apply the Microbial Source Tracking or (MST) to see if it was contaminated by Bovine, Human, other or a combination thereof. The DNR has sent letters to surrounding properties to inform them of the situation and the precautions they should take.

Remember the DNR recommends that all wells should be tested once per year, but if homeowners notice a change in their water’s, color, taste or smell they should contact the DNR so their water can be 'officially' tested for the determinant. The DNR phone number for water testing is (888)-936-7463. They should also call Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation Department at 920-845-9743 and the Kewaunee County Public Health Department at 920-388-7161 to let them know that there is problems with their water so they too can assist in alerting the public and to assist in finding the root problem.

"Until each of us speaks up, Big Ag interests will continue to force themselves on our environment, clear cutting forests and polluting our water.  We need to find a balance between reasonable ag expansion and protection of our air, land and water.  For starters, please contact Phil McLaughlin at Adams County Planning and Zoning [pmclaughlin@co.adams.wi.us ] and tell him to push through an ordinance to regulate clear cutting of forestland in Adams County," emails Don Ystad of Adams County, proposed site of another CAFO. [See also Minnesota struggles to slow deforestation, protect water (Marcotty, Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

In the city of Ashland in Bayfield County, citizens are fighting Scott Walker and a proposed swine CAFO:

RESOLUTION BY THE COMMON COUNCIL FOR THE CITY OF ASHLAND, WISCONSIN REQUESTING THAT THE COUNTY BOARD OF BAYFIELD COUNTY WISCONSIN ADOPT MORE STRINGENT STANDARDS THAN WHAT IS CONTAINED IN ATCP-51 TO REGULATE CONCENTRATED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS (CAFO) IN BAYFIELD COUNTY

WHEREAS, Bayfield County and the City of Ashland are geographically adjacent to one another and have strong ties in the regional economy located on Chequamegon Bay; and

WHEREAS, the Fish Creek watershed consists of more than 100,000 acres primarily in Bayfield County and Fish Creek flows into Lake Superior near the City of Ashland; and

WHEREAS, residents of both Bayfield County and the City of Ashland place a high value on clean water and air; and

WHEREAS, a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) is proposed near Fish Creek in Bayfield County; and

WHEREAS, the City of Ashland draws its municipal drinking water from Lake Superior a short distance from where Fish Creek flows into Lake Superior; and

WHEREAS, safe drinking water is a matter of public health for the City of Ashland; and

WHEREAS, many of the beach advisories and closings of Maslowski Beach, a municipal park in Ashland, are currently attributed to sources within the Fish Creek watershed; and,

WHEREAS, tourism is a significant component of the City of Ashland’s economy and that tourism is largely dependent on the waters of Lake Superior not posing a risk to public health.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council for the City of Ashland, Wisconsin, as the elected representatives of the citizens of Ashland, respectfully request that the members of the Bayfield County Board of Bayfield County, Wisconsin adopt more stringent standards than contained in ATCP-51 to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO).

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Clerk of the City of Ashland provide copies of the adopted resolution to the Bayfield County Clerk for delivery to the Bayfield County Board with copies to the Board Chairman and Administrator.

Retired Wisconsin Resident Blasts Nightmare CAFO Factory Farm

The Golden Sands region of Wisconsin -
To be saved, or destroyed by CAFOs

Update II: "Numerous businesses in Rome are concerned. These include the golf courses, trap shooters, snowmobile and ATV groups, and restaurants and bars," said a citizen of Wisconsin Rapids.

Update: "On July 16, 2013, the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association celebrated the Grand Opening of the new Shooting Complex in the Town of Rome, Adams County." Wonder how these guys like drained lakes, befouled waters, and the smell  and health effects of tons of cow manure.

Central Wisconsin tourism under assault by massive factory farms (CAFOs)

'Thanks to James Wysocki's dishonest half-truths, I have been afforded the opportunity to learn about the horrors of CAFOs, and the damage they do to the environment.'

Patt Pisellini is a retired resident of the town of Rome in Wood County, Wisconsin.

Was retired.

Residents, tourists, and other visitors to the central Wisconsin "Golden Sands" region describe the natural beauty of the region, typified by the Wood County's parks, rivers, many lakes, and county forest land, and wildlife. And groundwater.

Ms. Pisellini's retirement has been cut short by the invasion of the massive Wysocki corporation factory farm or (CAFO) concentrated [formerly "confined"] agricultural feeding operation, that likely will dry up many area lakes, and befoul the streams, lakes, groundwater and several adjacent watersheds with some 150 pathogens, a predictable consequence, much worse than what the sociopathic Wysocki already inflicts onto Wisconsin.

Pisellini is speaking out, along with many area residents of Wood County and the surrounding region.

And Ms. Patt Pisellini has not even addressed the health catastrophes of CAFOs, but James Wysocki (registered agent of numerous CAFOs) doesn't care; he lives far away from his CAFOs and the massive CAFO he proposes for Wood, Portage, Adams and Juneau counties in central Wisconsin.

"The present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and [CAFOs present] an unprecedented level of risk to public health and damage to the environment ... ."
—Robert Martin, Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production

By Patt Pisellini, resident, Town of Rome, Wisconsin

Thank you Jim Wysocki, for giving my retirement a purpose. 

Thank you for relieving me of the monotony of relaxing on the beach and enjoying the ambience of the pristine waters of Lake Sherwood (Rome, Wisconsin). 

Thank you for eliminating the chore of taking our pontoon out for an afternoon of fishing ad quiet conversation. 

Thank you for taking me away from the mindless evenings spent watching television, and replacing them with hours spent at my computer doing research, days spent sitting through legislative meetings, and endless hours listening to testimony stemming from lawsuits attempting to prevent CAFO projects like yours from destroying our groundwater.

Thank you for replacing the boredom of just sitting in my porch swing and doing nothing, with tension filled days, and sleepless nights filled with worry of what could happen if your CAFO project is allowed to continue.

Thanks to your thoughtlessness, I don’t have to spend my days puttering in my garden, playing with my grandchildren, or sitting on my patio chatting with neighbors.  

Thanks to your lawsuits (Wysocki sues local governments and elected officials who try to stop his CAFOs), and legislative lobbying, I have been able to utilize a costly education in public policy analysis that I probably never would have had the chance to use. 

Thanks to your callous disregard for the environment, I will no longer need to appreciate the beauty of a simple walk in the woods; discover the intricate markings on a butterfly’s wing; or listen to lilting sound of songbirds in the trees.

I won’t have to work so hard to save endangered species living on the 8,000 acres of forest you plan to destroy - they’ll be gone forever - replaced with endless miles of manure-covered crops.

Thanks to your dishonest half-truths, I have been afforded the opportunity to learn about the horrors of CAFOs, and the damage they do to the environment.  Without your potentially poisoning proposed project, I might have languished in the thought that my home was safe, my health was secure, and my grandchildren were protected.  Thanks to your mean-spirited attempts to demean me and my friends as “environmental activists”, I have developed a new pride in the work we are doing to educate the public on the importance of preserving and protecting nature.

This has been quite an adventure.  

In all my 70 years of life, I have never seen such selfish, self-serving attempts to surreptitiously rewrite laws designed to protect our God given right to water.  

Because of your complete disregard for people, I have discovered the power of love can bind a community together.  Without the fear and intimidation,  I never would have made so many good friends in neighboring towns, and met so many wonderful environmentalists willing to work long hours to prevent the damage your dairy may do.

Thank you for all you’ve done, and I sincerely hope and pray you are compensated in kind, in your retirement.
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Wysocki Factory CAFO Farms: Koch Brothers of Central Wisconsin

i

Update: "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
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The Wysocki Family of Companies are the Koch brothers of factory farms of a particularly destructive variety—creating concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFO), as noted by the citizens group, Protect Wood County.

CAFOs are cruel factories, locking cows in a box and spreading the tons of cow manure over surrounding waters, air and land by using massive quantities of water from water wells and then sending the water back into the environment laden with toxins.

"In a CAFO, animals are crammed by the thousands or tens of thousands, often unable to breathe fresh air, see the light of day, walk outside, peck at a plants or insects, scratch the earth, or eat a blade of grass," notes CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories.

The Wysocki family doesn't live near or on the grounds of the operations (several members live far away in gated communities, other company officials are spread out over Wisconsin nowhere near these cesspools), safely removed from the "50 million gallons of liquid waste per year," that would be produced by the proposed CAFO. (Rearjet, Wisconsin Rapids-Tribune, May 6, 2014)

Following the Wysocki corporation announcing in 2012 it would build a massive CAFO, "Republican state lawmakers" moved to assist the corporation in obtaining permits for 49 high-capacity water wells in the central sands of Wisconsin for Wysocki, of which University of Wisconsin-Madison hydrogeologist, George Kraft said, "seriously, we may dry up every lake and stream in the Central Sands." (Johnson, WPR)

This is terrible news for several counties—including Wood, Juneau, Portage and Adams—and the families and small businesses that include tourism (and all the supporting businesses), small tree farms, vacation homes, and various other enterprises that settled in the Golden Sands area of Wisconsin.

Following news that beginning next week, "Wisconsin residents can no longer challenge state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permits for a high-capacity well if state officials failed to look at what the well might do to overall groundwater in the area," (Quirmbach, WPR) there is increasing realization Scot Walker and his new DNR (Destroying Natural Resources) may make the beautiful Golden Sands region a memory like a polluted lake where once children fished and swam.

The Wysocki corporation didn't ask residents or area businesses for approval or even offer to listen to well-grounded, scientifically backed health and environmental concerns.

What it did do sue the Town of Saratoga in Wood County for challenging the corporation's right to befoul the area waters. (Rearjet, Wisconsin Rapids-Tribune, May 6, 2014)

Residents and area businesses are gearing up for a fight against the Wysockis, Scott Walker, and Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC).

May not seem like a fair fight, and it's already getting nasty, but not as nasty as the 150 pathogens found in cow manure, including antibiotic resistant bacteria.

As several long-time residents have pointed out, if you had a vacation home or a place to go for summer tourism, how close would you want to get to waters and land befouled by "liquid cow shit?"

I asked Nancy Koch of Protect Wood County if she has been in touch with elected politicians.

Koch said she is getting the brush-off from the Walker administration and the administration of the DNR. Local officials have been very supportive. And Mary Burke's campaign has been in touch and is described as sympathetic and supportive of Protect Wood County, Koch said.

It's looks like befouling the golden sands of Wisconsin is going to be a highly-charged political issue fairly soon after Independence Day.

The Wysocki Family and Big Ag have contributed over $700,000 to Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaigns since April 2011, according to an analysis of data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Wysocki family members alone have given well into the $1,000s to Walker and remain heavy Walker political backers.

Central Wisconsin Residents Stand Up for Communites Against Factory Farms

Increasing opposition to proposed
massive CAFO in Wood County
in Wisconsin - Photo by
Mary Captain-Braund

Saratoga, Wisconsin--Citizens mobilize to stop proposed massive factory diary operation in central Wisconsin from diluting and poisoning water, air and land

"[Saratoga, Wisconsin] Town Board members and residents are taking steps to ensure the future of water in the community."

Brian Hamm and Rob Borski have been monitoring the water in the 10 Mile and Seven Mile creeks since the two men attended a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources citizen-based stream monitoring seminar in Wisconsin Rapids during spring 2013. The men have monitored 10 different sites on the two creeks for the past nine months, Hamm said," reports Karen Madden in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Gannett Co).

Residents from Saratoga, Nekoosa and Wisconsin Rapids (Wood County), Rome (Adams County)—Lake Arrowhead, Lake Camelot and Lake Sherwood (Adams County)—and the surrounding counties of Juneau and Portage have one mission: Protect the water from the predictable toxic effects from the proposed massive Wysocki Golden Sands concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) and its proposed 49 high-capacity water wells that would poison and drain area waterways and groundwater.

The Wysocki Family of Cos. announced the company had completed its environmental impact report of its proposed CAFO, but residents of Saratoga are going to do their own study, hiring a hydrologist to determine what is happening now, and what would be the effects of the Wysocki Golden Sands Dairy CAFO.

Reports the Tribune's Madden:

"'We’re going to get a study done on what takes place with all this water,' said Terry Rickaby, Saratoga (Town) chairman.

"The Town Board approved spending $6,274 on the study. The hydrologist the town hired will work with Protect Wood County and its Neighbors to do the study."

The people encountered here are salt of the earth, but take on a hard edge when someone proposes setting up operations with the consequence of poisoning their children.

Understandable.

This is an election year. And elected officials have to face the people.

"After many discussions with the citizens of this district, it is apparent that there are two particular issues that are of utmost importance to a great many of them; those of the issues of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation farms and groundwater maintenance and quality," said Dana W. Duncan (Port Edwards), a Democratic Party candidate for the 72nd Assembly District, challenging state rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids), a member of the rightwing, corporatist ALEC.

Krug said he is in favor of the proposed CAFO in Saratoga, saying on March 7, 2013 that he believes we need to be willing to "take chances" (with our environment), and that industry uses water, treats it well, and returns it to the system.

Krug said the proposed Saratoga CAFO could be held accountable if surrounding groundwater wells and waterways are adversely affected.

Residents and Duncan are not waiting for disaster, preferring to avoid it.

Retorts the pro-environment Duncan in a June press release:

I believe that water is one of our most precious resources, is the oil of the 21st Century, and is one of the primary assets of Wisconsin. Clean and abundant water is a necessity for any community and we have, for too long, neglected to appreciate what a rich commodity we have here in Wisconsin. However, over the past several years, the issues of groundwater maintenance and quality have come under threat from the expansion of CAFO farming, and it has made us all sit up and take notice. For many in communities across this district, they have taken up the mantle of protecting our water and our environment against these factory farms.

As such, I want to affirm my position, to stand with those already in this fight, and support opposition to any and all CAFO farming. Moreover, I want to actively work with the citizens of this district to ensure not only a sustainable quantity of water, but also an enduring quality for generations to come. These factory farms are a short-term approach with long term damages. In the name of creating only a few jobs now, we would be sacrificing our job potential for years to come. The damage to our environment and potential tourism industry would be evident.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party-connected law firm, Michael Best and Friendrich LLP—and attorney to what local residents derisively call "Big Ag"—are advising CAFOs around the state how to evade the Environmental Projection Agency (EPA) when inspectors come under authority of the Clean Water Act to assure the safety of water for local residents.

To CAFOs, families and any governmental force working to ensure safe and clean water are the enemy. Have a look:

By Michael Best and Friedrich LLP

EPA is Actively Inspecting Dairy Operations in NE Wisconsin!
Understand Your Rights When the EPA Visits Your Farm

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently warned Wisconsin is increasing inspections of Wisconsin dairy and livestock producers under the Clean Water Act. According to the EPA, "we are going to knock on your door and you aren't going to know we are coming."

These on-site inspections are apparently the next phase of an overall plan to step up investigations and potential enforcement of the Clean Water Act against dairy operations. Not all sites EPA are inspecting are CAFO operations, so no matter what size your dairy operation is, you should be concerned.

EPA publishes for public comment the agency's proposed National Enforcement Initiatives every two years. For fiscal year 2011-2013, addressing discharges to navigable surface waters from the nation's CAFOs was among the six National Enforcement Initiatives pursued by EPA. Recently, EPA requested public comments on its proposed list of National Enforcement Initiatives for the 2014-2016 fiscal years and again investigation and enforcement against livestock operations made EPA's "shortlist." In recent years, EPA's investigation efforts have included "fly-overs" and mandatory demands for the production of records and information.

As background, the Clean Water Act and EPA regulations require certain livestock operations to obtain permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Although the regulations can be complex, generally speaking, whether a farm needs an NPDES permit will depend upon the type of livestock kept, the size of the herd, and the likelihood that manure or waste water will reach surface water. Additionally, individual states- Wisconsin is one example-may have more restrictive permitting requirements.

The Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to conduct inspections to ensure compliance. This authority includes entering land to determine whether farms should be designated as CAFOs that are required to obtain NPDES permits and to ensure that CAFOs with permits are complying with the terms of the permits. However, EPA farm inspectors are also instructed by official policy" to evaluate whether the requirements of any other federal environmental laws are applicable to the facility and, if so, whether the facility is in compliance with such requirements."

The Clean Water Act provides for penalties ranging from civil orders requiring corrective measures to fines exceeding$37,500 per day of noncompliance. In extreme cases, penalties can include criminal prosecution and jail time.

With stakes this high, it is important that every farmer understands their rights.

Although exceptions exist, administrative agencies, including the EPA, gain access to private property in one of two ways: (1) by getting the consent of the business; or (2) by going to a magistrate judge and obtaining an administrative search warrant.

The EPA will typically first try to gain access the easy way, by getting a farmer to consent to EPA's inspection. If denied voluntary consent, the EPA may then decide to go to court and attempt to obtain an administrative search warrant. As a word of caution, a government inspector does not need the consent of the owner of private property in order to enter, but can obtain consent from any person that the inspector "reasonably believes" is authorized to provide consent to enter. In the case of EPA inspections, inspectors are directed to first ask for the owner of the premises, and if the owner is unavailable, EPA inspectors are directed to make a "good faith effort" to determine who is "in charge" at the time of the inspection. Accordingly, farms must make sure that their workers are properly trained on how to respond to the EPA's (or any government agency's) request to inspect the operation.

If EPA inspectors appear at your farm, you should immediately contact your lawyer before answering any questions or allowing the inspectors onto the nonpublic areas of your property.

Unless the inspectors have a warrant you have the right to refuse the inspection and ask the inspectors to leave. The inspectors will then have two options, either negotiate a convenient time to conduct the search with you (and ideally your lawyer)or turn to the courts to attempt to obtain a search warrant. In all likelihood, denying consent will only delay the search. Nevertheless, you should not allow the inspection to go forward until you have had an opportunity to consult with your lawyer regarding your rights and obligations. You should also not consent to a search at a time when you are likely to be distracted by the day-to-day operations of your farm, where there maybe safety or biosecurity concerns present or where you cannot otherwise devote undivided attention to the inspection. You may need time, for example, to be prepared to take photographs or split samples.

You can withdraw your consent to inspection at any time. Even if you initially grant consent to an inspection, you can change your mind and ask the inspectors to leave. The inspectors then have the same two options: negotiate a convenient time to resume the search or go to court to obtain a search warrant.

You can refuse consent to inspect certain areas of your property. The inspection, whether by consent or under a search warrant, should be focused only on those areas necessary for the EPA to determine compliance with the Clean Water Act. Even under a search warrant, an agency cannot conduct a "wall-to-wall" search, but must search only those areas specified by the warrant. However, if you consent to the search of an area where no animals or feed are located, you have little recourse if the EPA gathers evidence against you for alleged violations of other unrelated environmental laws. You may have the right to "quash" a search warrant. If inspectors appear with a search warrant, you have less ability to deny entry unto your property. However, you should immediately contact your lawyer to determine whether you have a basis to "quash" (or have the court throw out) the warrant. For example, if you can demonstrate that you maintain less than the threshold animals at your farm, your farm will typically not be subject to the Clean Water Act permitting regulations. Other defenses can be asserted as well to challenge a warrant. Under those circumstances, you may be able to convince a court to quash an administrative warrant and stop the EPA's inspection in its entirety.

When dealing with EPA inspectors, understand your rights and take great care to preserve them.

Campaigning in Wisconsin with No Questions or Reaching Out

Update III: As Predicted, Huge Dairy Manure Spill Hits Wisconsin Waters. The same awaits the Saratoga area near Wisconsin Rapids.

Update II: Scott Walker: "We’d love to help you put four, five, six and more out here, because we know thanks to god and the glaciers we got the best frac sand in the world, and it’s right here in the state of Wisconsin," said Scott Walker, paying visit to the Texas- based company Hi-Crush Proppants. Walker is extending an open invitation to rape the sandstone formations in Golden Sands country in central and western Wisconsin, without regard to the health and environmental consequences.

Update: See Scott Walker's Dark Money Troubles and Mining and Water Don't Mix: Acid Mine Drainage Threatens Lake Superior and Boundary Waters for an illustration of rapacious corruption inflicting toxin and death onto our environment.
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The coming John Doe emails will reveal the same virulent racism, anti-Semitism, and general contempt for the Wisconsin people held by Scott Walker and the people whom he has surrounded himself during his lifelong political career—a public career in which Walker has drawn a continuous salary paid by the Wisconsin people, whom he quickly abandoned in favor of service to billionaires such as the Koch brothers.

The release of these coming tens of thousands of emails will be worse than the February release.

But the news sent via the Gannett Co newspapers and broadcast "news" media will not penetrate the casual voter in central and northern Wisconsin where Walker beat his heavily outspent opponent in the June 2012 Recall election.

Presumptive Democratic Party nominee for governor, Mary Burke, has to be careful how to engage the issue of Scott Walker corruption, lest she minimize the issue as a partisan spat.

Adept communications in the free media are not in the skill set of the Burke campaign which has shown itself the perfect political heir of the inept Democratic Party of Wisconsin, listless and clumsy.

One would think the Wisconsin political culture retains sufficient muscle memory of retail and grassroots campaigning that Burke would be living in central and northern Wisconsin pushing issues of local concern.

Take four Wisconsin counties in central Wisconsin—Wood, Adams, Juneau and Portage counties—this is where is Golden Sands Dairy LLC wants to build a mammoth concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) centered among the four above counties in the town of Saratoga, Wisconsin.

The Golden Sands operation (ironic title) would pump out 50 million gallons of liquid waste per year, and suck up ground water to the detriment of area residents, businesses and the environment. Ironic because this region will not be the Golden Sands for long.

Legal and political battles continue between Wysocki Co (Golden Sands) and the town of Saratoga (Wood County) whose residents are fighting Golden Sands.

Looked at politically, this is a perfect grassroots movement to get behind, help these people in central Wisconsin.

But Mary Burke is as absent here as the dominance of the paper mill industry in this area from days gone-by.

Here for consideration are the June 2012 general election Recall results for Governor of the four counties that would be hit immediately by Golden Sands' proposed concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO):

                                     Scott Walker       Tom Barrett

Adams County            4,497                      3,658
Juneau County            5,429                      4,225          
Portage County           14,846                   15,672
Wood County             18,535                    13,171

The June 2012 Recall election was an epic victory by Scott Walker and dark money, with Walker winning three of the four counties, achieving near-presidential-level numbers.

By comparison, consider the Presidential general election results of 2012, in which President Obama won three of the four counties:

                                    Mitt Romney            Barack Obama  

Adams County            4,644                          5,542
Juneau County            5,411                          6,242   
Portage County           16,615                        22,075
Wood County             19,704                        18,581                  

The take-away is Scott Walker is not going to see his 2012 winning Recall numbers against Burke in November 2014, but Mary Burke has to get out in the field and campaign.

Money alone, even combined with Scott Walker corruption and scandal, are not going to win this election for the Democratic Party nominee.

Campaigning will.

Central Wisconsin Communities Say: No Huge Factory Farms, No More Deep Water Wells

Updated - "The Wysocki Family of Companies wants to put the Golden Sands CAFO in Saratoga that will be home to over 6,000 animal units. These cows will produce 50 million gallons of liquid waste per year," says Richard Rearjet (Wisconsin Rapids-Tribune, May 6, 2014).

Saratoga, Wisconsin—Saratoga, Nekoosa, and Port Edwards are small municipalities in Wood County in central Wisconsin.

A trip through the area reveals growing sentiment against a rapacious, toxic presence in these small communities and neighboring counties.

Folks in Wood County, [and in Juneau, Portage and Adams counties] see a proposed huge factory farm as a threat to their way of life, and the life blood and health of their children.

Signs in the area (above and below-right) display the consensus that factory farms are no damn good.

What has homeowners, small businesses, environmentalists and families so spooked is the proposed Golden Sands Dairy concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) by the Wysocki Family of Companies [See map at bottom].

No way, say residents objecting to what Wysocki would do to the groundwater and area watersheds, including small streams where long-time residents used to fish such as in the Five-mile and Ten-mile creeks near Wisconsin Rapids.

Golden Sands Dairy has an application for 49 high-capacity wells in Saratoga that if approved would not only suck up the groundwater aquifer that people here use for their everyday lives, but the toxic threat to the water supply and air has people genuinely frightened.

One would think the John Hopkins University Shows Increase In Antibacterial Resistant Bacteria Infections Near Factory Farms study would be enough to stop this corporate proposal dead in its tracks.

But this is a fight featuring a growing threat—the Wysocki-DNR-Scott Walker special interests—that does not seek approval of the people before deciding what to do with their water and their communities.

Wysocki farms in the area already plunder much of the area's aquifers, and this conglomerate has never asked for a show of hands. This explains of course why Wysocki is suing the Town of Saratoga.

The geology of the central sands of Wisconsin makes this among the worse places for Wysocki's plans.

Notes the citizens website, Protect Wood County, citing a report on the Wisconsin Soil Survey by the U.S. Dept of Agricultural-Natural Resources Conservation Service: "Saratoga's sandy soil is not very suitable for the proposed land use. The report shows that Saratoga's soil is susceptible to blowing hazards, high seepage of sewage lagoons, and high susceptibility to concrete corrosion, among other concerns."

People are organized, but petitioning the DNR and the governor's office has up to this point not yielded results.

See also what this area's neighbors to the northeast are experiencing with factory farms.

Local officials are listening.

Candidates for Wisconsin governor should likewise listen to the people of Wood, Juneau, Portage and Adams counties and act in their interests.