Wisconsin Edges Towards Medieval Times in Wastewater Management

Political corruption and public lethargy embolden corporate agriculture's plundering of public waters

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Scott Walker cares too much about people to see them become dependent on government for safe water and sewage systems.

So Republican thinking goes.

If people believe government is some kind of wishing well, then the next thing you know is you get Jewish socialists advocating everything from municipal sewers to safe drinking water to healthcare to vibrant public universities where then there's a whole bunch of Jews, socialists, identifying lesbians, sociologists, and Art History types infecting young minds with the democratic virus—constantly mutating, changing form and killing Jesus, (Slate Magazine), (Dreier, Huffington Post), [(Seymour Martin Lipset Ph.D., Gary Wolfe Marks Ph.D; It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, (W.W. Norton and Company)].

For the world casting eyes upon the Badger state's political culture and asking, 'what's the matter with Wisconsin?' know it's nothing that a competent Democratic Party of Wisconsin, (we don't have one of those), and the tiniest bit of increase in civic involvement among a slice of the population cannot cure.

It's that easy, though a favorable decision in the potentially landmark gerrymandering case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's Republican-drawn state legislative and congressional maps that are intended to elect as many Republicans as possible would help too, [Whitford v. Gill, (Nichol), (District Court (Case 3:15-cv-00421)) (2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155022 (W.D. Wis., Nov. 17, 2015)), (Redistricting legal reporting, Election Law blog), (Supreme Court of the United States, No. 16-1161, Beverly R. Gill, et al. v. William Whitford, et al.)] See Parsons for analysis on the landmark nature of this November 2016 decision, now before the Supreme Court of the United States, (No. 16-1161, Beverly R. Gill, et al. v. William Whitford, et al.).

Here's a problem with the One-Party-Republican rule for those Wisconsinites enamored of drinking safe water. Wisconsin Republicans do not care if your kids die or are hospitalized by drinking or bathing in water poisoned by huge agricultural interests that vectors manure into aquifers. Until white, rural Wisconsin voters realize this fact, rural voters will keep reelecting Republicans, (Mal Contends). [See also Ikerd, Dr. John. "The Inevitable Economic, Ecological, and Social Consequences of CAFOs." University of Missouri-Columbia.]

We should really consider the wisdom of Milwaukee's sewer socialists and how their politics matter today. That is, disposing of untreated manure and waste safely matters to human beings. In Medieval times, this focus on sanitation was not a public concern.

The latest from Wisconsin safe water warriors sees journalism and citizen action soaring:

We note again the reporting of Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal.

By David Gorski

You won't believe this one.

Verburg reports on the introduction of a new legislative bill, (Assembly Bill 226, (AB 226).

After Republicans have facilitated the contamination and depletion of your drinking water with CAFOs and other Big Ag corporate operations, AB 226 would increase the monies available to you so you can actually drink your water, and safely bathe infants, (which in Door and Kewaunee counties, for example, has resulted in the hospitalization of infants, children and adults who thought bathing in and drinking water were safe pursuits).

Here's an idea. How about we ensure that any corporate operation that pollutes and contaminates our water is not allowed to operate without the consent of the community whose families' health and lives are endangered? Guess who is sponsoring AB 226? State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Rep. Joel Kitchens, (R-Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin), the polluters' top go-to lackeys.

On another matter, In February, Verburg reported on the only privatized of Wisconsin's 80 drinking-water public systems.

The system serves the city of Superior and charges more than twice the average of what folks pay for water now in the rest of the state.

Folks, corporate control, corporate pollution, corporate befouling and depletion are coming our way. The first step is stopping the proposed Wysocki CAFO. Then we get rid of the people in the capitol who do the work of polluters. For now, Republicans like Krug and Kitchens are working against us to encourage the polluting and depleting of our water, followed by corporate out-of-state control of our water.

Well, who ever said you have a right to water?

By Don Ystad of Adams County Wisconsin

Concerned friends and neighbors,

Why is this article about an Iowa editor winning a Pulitzer important to us?  It's about perseverance in pointing out the pollution of a watershed in Iowa by upstream agricultural , and uncovering the dark money fueled by big agricultural interests to hide the truth and undermine efforts to stop the pollution.  Think about it in terms of the dark money flowing in to the last local campaign here to unseat our environment friendly Senator, this past fall's attempt by the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers, (WPVGA), to sell a junk science groundwater 'fact book', and the quarter million dollars big ag interests contributed to our representatives to further ag friendly groundwater bills. Then, remember the misleading ads by the WPVGA trying to convince us that drawing down the aquifer won't affect lakes levels, and misleading photos presented by growers at a public meeting suggesting that lakes have recovered from the effects of high cap well pumping. These people are not our friends, [The Guardian, The Independent].

This article is an important reminder about the self serving nature of the big ag lobbies as they try to hide behind the family-farmer label while destroying that very ethic.  And, it's a reminder of how our legislators pander to that lobby. But, it's also a confirmation that we may not have the support of our lawmakers or the DNR, and certainly not the big ag community, but we have two things going for us; our vote and our collective voice. We have the ultimate power if we choose to use it.

As a property owner concerned with the future of your well, your lake or your stream, you need to be an active citizen. There are local grass roots groups, and the new statewide citizens lobby available to you, among others. Get involved and protect what's important to you.

It's the only way.

Wisconsin citizens are leading the way.

Journalists are leading the way.

Know that Big Ag and its defenders care about one thing, and it isn't life. Ask Iowa's Alex Kuhn, driven to suicide by factory farm trolls and agribusiness lackeys for Kuhn's standing up for his community, families and safe water.

Consider as well the words of Gordon Stevenson, runoff chief for the Wisconsin DNR (2001-2011):

"Manure management is essentially the same as it has been since the Middle Ages; untreated manure is disposed on untreated on the landscape. We have already seen severe public health consequences from these practices and I am certain that we will see more. Much of Wisconsin’s environmental protection efforts with agriculture center on nutrient management planning. Many of my former colleagues have labored long and hard to persuade farmers to adopt the NRCS 590 Nutrient Management Standard. The problem is that 590 is not a water quality standards, it as an agronomic standard that seeks to optimize crop production. Plus evaluation of a farmer’s compliance with that standard is somewhere between difficult and impossible."

Consider the Parable of Smithfield Foods. In 1936, a family built a small hog slaughtering and packing plant in Smithfield, Virginia. Their products were very good, the plant grew and town of Smithfield came to be known as the Ham Capital of the World. During the 1980s, the company vertically integrated. In plain English, that means they not only owned the processing facilities, but they figured out that if they controlled the production of hogs as well as processing they could be more profitable. By the end of 1998, Smithfield owned not only multiple packaging plants but 460 large hog farms and had contracts with 2,100 other pork producers 12 states. Smithfield Foods had become the number one pork producer in the United States and was growing internationally. They continued to grow, aggregating the assets of American pork production into larger and fewer blocks. Next time you go shopping, checkout the pork products. You will see labels like Morrell, Farmland, Armour and others. Smithfield owns all of those companies and multiple others. On September 26, 2013, Smithfield Foods and all of its holdings were sold to another company for $7.1 billion. [Bittman, NYT] The name of the company is Shuanghui International Holdings Limited.[Shuanghui changed its name to the: WH Group (BusinessWeek)]

"Yes, a company from the People’s Republic of China now owns 26 percent of all of the assets of the American pork industry. This is the largest single Chinese purchase to date of American assets. China has successfully established an offshore economic colony on American soil. Let’s leave Virginia and Beijing and return to Wisconsin. We have dairy CAFOs in Wisconsin that are in the process of aggregating the assets of Wisconsin’s dairy industry into larger and fewer blocks. Any of those blocks can be bought and sold. I don’t believe I need to spell out why I told you the Parable of Smithfield Foods."

A Death in Iowa—Bullied by Pro-Factory Farm Trolls, Mason City Councilman Kills Himself

Mason City Globe Gazette obituary for Alex Kuhn.
(Photo: Special to The Des Monies Register)

"There won’t be any bullies to burden your way. No words that cut like a knife at the end of the day."
— verse from a poem to Alex Kuhn from his father, Mark, after his son's death, (Basu, Des Monies Register)

It's not just community and family that are betrayed by factory farm corporations befouling and depleting water.

A young man in Iowa is now part of the carnage.

Extraordinary reporting by Rekha Basu of the Des Monies Register tells the story of a brilliant, socially conscious 34-year-old man driven to suicide last year by people with no conscience.

Trolls and bullies drove Alex Kuhn to suicide for successfully standing up for clean water in his capacity as a Mason City councilman. Basu wrote the feature-length piece because the Mason City paper, the Mason City Globe Gazette, ignored the harassment that Kuhn's father substantiated.

Alex Kuhn served his community in Mason City, Iowa

Kuhn opposed the siting of a 10,000-swine, pork-processing plant in Mason City, Iowa by the Prestige Foods of Iowa corporation, (Prestage Farms). The Prestige Foods siting was killed on May 3, 2016 after a 3-3 vote Mason City Council vote.

"Two months later, Kuhn shot and killed himself, after his friends and family say he was pressured and blamed for the outcome," reports Rekha Basu of the Register.

Writes Basu:

Once heralded by people from both parties as destined to go far in politics, praised for his compassion and commitment to the underrepresented as well as to economic development, Kuhn now found himself an outcast among the city's powerful. He became a casualty of the divisive, high-pressured, back-biting political environment.

His father, Mark Kuhn, is blunt: 'Alex was being bullied.' ...

The failure of the Prestage deal inflamed politicians, agribusinesses, local business boosters and government economic development folks, the father, Mark Kuhn says. But it was the wrath of those Alex considered his friends, particularly the mayor, that really hurt him. 

Is this where Wisconsin is headed? Illinois?

From Rekha Basu:

With his youthful good looks, intelligence, political pedigree and knack for getting along with everyone, Alex Kuhn was often likened to a young John Kennedy. He grew up around both politics and farming, having clerked for his father, a former Democratic state representative now on the Floyd County Board of Supervisors, and helped on the family's 850-acre farm in Charles City, southeast of Mason City. After graduating from high school there in 2000 and Iowa State University in 2004, he went to Houston, Texas, to student-teach. But when his father was injured the following year in a farming accident, Alex returned to help. 

What is wrong with people who harass a man to death for defending water?

Water is life. Not everyone understands or cares, though.

Scott Walker's DNR: Stop Scientific Analysis

The map shows increase in annual mean surface concentration of
particulate matter resulting from ammonia emissions associated
with food export. Populated states in the Northeast and
Great Lakes region, where particulate matter formation is
promoted by upwind ammonia sources, carry most of the cost
onto communities. Manure from livestock and fertilizer for crops
release ammonia to the atmosphere. In the air, ammonia mixes
with other emissions to form microscopic airborne particles,
or particulates. Image: NASA AQAST/Harvard University

Ammonia is "well recognized as a human toxin," note environmental health and biosystem experts

Lest there be any doubt Scott Walker, Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa), and the GOP do the will of industrial polluting farms, an Associated Press piece by Todd Richmond makes the conclusion inescapable.

The Republican Party is the Party of pollution and will remain so.

Health and environmental consequences are of no concern.

Reports Richmond:

"Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who is seeking the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, controls the DNR. He has made it a point since taking office in 2011 to compact the agency’s regulations to help [polluting] businesses."

Richmond left out the word, "polluting," noting elsewhere: "The proposed list of projects that wouldn’t need environmental [DNR] review includes construction and renewal permits for minor air-pollution sources, defined as sources that emit less than 100 tons of any criteria air pollutant annually. Approval of construction plans for wastewater treatment plants and factory farm structures subject to DNR review wouldn’t require an analysis. Neither would decisions related to evaluating existing factory farm facilities and systems."

Air pollution from CAFOs (Confined Agricultural Feeding Operations) is dangerous and increasing (see chart, above-right), hence Walker's latest attempt to insulate CAFOs from legal and regulatory oversight in Wisconsin.

Ammonia is "well recognized as a human toxin," note environmental health and biosystem experts. (Merchant, Kline, Donham, Bundy, Hodne, University of Iowa College of Public Health)

"The most significant contributor to air pollution that stems from CAFOs is ammonia. Ammonia is the powerful odor that is associated with large farms. It is created by the decomposition of manure and the combination of nitrogen and hydrogen. When released into the air, ammonia tends to form very harmful particulate matter that can lead to serious health issues, especially for humans. A frightening statistic published in Environmental Science and Technology states that 'the health costs associated with ammonia emissions from agriculture exports to be $36 billion per year, equal to about half of the revenue generated by those same exports' (Fabien Paulot and Daniel Jacob (Harvard University), cited in Hansen, NASA). What’s frightening about this statistic is this is only in regards to the health costs associated with the exports we produce, not the agriculture industry as a whole. The United States exports only account for about 11 percent of the US emissions of ammonia, leaving the other 89 percent coming from the ammonia created to produce our own food. The negative externalities [health and economic costs bore by communities and citizens] caused by ammonia pollution don’t just extend to the area surrounding the CAFO, but affect areas within the downwind path of the CAFO where ammonia is able to mix with other man-made pollutants to form dangerous particles in the atmosphere. Similarly, air pollution stands in the same position as water pollution in regards to its dangerous impacts on the human condition and psyche," writes Joshua Yelle, (Research Fellow, Western Illinois University). (Mal Contends)

Big Ag polluters are being paid off handsomely by Wisconsin Republicans, shielded by Walker and Republicans who are blocking scientific analyses by the DNR.

"Republican lawmakers retained a Scott Walker proposal in the 2015-17 budget to eliminate nearly 20 research positions in the DNR’s Science Services Bureau," notes Richmond.

George Meyer, former DNR secretary and now executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said, "I hate hyperbole, but I can honestly say that this is one of the two worst conservation budgets in the past 50 years." (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Stewardship Among Farmers Is Degraded to a Moral Outrage

Update: See Scott Walker leads Wisconsin Republicans in Lies, Deceit, Corruption and Revenge.

Big Ag factories have propelled the rural-based Gannett Co newspapers to run investigative pieces on the destruction of Wisconsin waters, a trajectory that would be accelerated by Scott Walker's new budget and its unprecedented attack on the Wisconsin environment and the Great Lakes. (Sierra Club, John Muir Chapter)

Nice work. See Budget cuts affect manure spills, runoff mitigation (Rodewald, Green Press-Gazette).

Now, if we can just get Gannett Co newspapers to stop their endorsements of the polluters' political allies in the editorial page.

Bernard Starzewski who lives near Manitowoc in eastern Wisconsin connects the dots on the betrayal of Wisconsin by Big Ag and the Republican Party.

By Bernard Starzewski

I would like to commend Gannett for an excellent series of reports and commentary regarding the environmental debacle in Kewaunee County. In the 1980s I was the first farmer to participate in the Wisconsin Fund to implement manure-run off control in the Manitowoc river water shed. At that time I had 65 cows which by today's standards is hardly a farm at all. What was then a common ethic of stewardship among farmers has now degraded to a moral outrage.

Our politics have betrayed us.

We have bought wholesale into the notion that we are somehow better off by allowing the moneyed interests to decide what is best for us and that prosperity is gained from simply turning them loose. Nowhere is that more evident than in Kewaunee where there is overwhelming support for ultra-conservative Wisconsin politicians State Rep. Andre Jaques (R-De Pere) and State Sen. Frank Lasee (R-(Apparently lives outside the district he is supposed to represent) who then return the favor by giving these operations a pass over the obvious interests of their constituents.

As that crew attempts to patch Walker's broken budget the victims in Kewaunee will find much company in their misery. Regionally, six warden positions out of the Green Bay office have been left unfilled resulting in a 70% decrease in tickets issued. Eighteen more in DNR's science bureau are to be cut representing 31% of their personnel. With hamstrung science and crippled enforcement the entire state will soon join them.

Republicans are responsible for attempting to remove over 14,000 acres from the public domain, a prime goal of the Dairy Business Association whose members include the very Kewaunee farms that are destroying the water there. Some of that public land and water includes the Besadney nature preserve and fish station that supply much of the salmon eggs that support the Lake Michigan sport fishing industry. One of the largest CAFO farms there virtually surrounds the nature preserve.

Unless we begin to connect the very real dots between our collective loyalty to these politicians the situation will continue to decay. They are the tributaries to this river of filth which now threatens to inundate the entire state. That's not prosperity trickling down, its BS.
---
A version of this letter appeared in HTRNNews.com (Gannett Co).

Scott Walker Runs for Special Interests, Targets Wisconsin Families

One-quarter of the Wisconsin electorate can reelect Scott Walker, but the rest of Wisconsin cannot make him act for the common good vis a vis Walker's campaign financiers and special interests.

Having cast his destructive intentions against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin System, this anti-public-minded, dishonest ideologue is playing the role of candidate for the GOP nomination for the U.S. presidency, demonizing President Obama in questioning Obama's faith as a Christian this weekend, saying, "I don’t know" if Obama is a Christian at a Party event in Washington. (Liebenthal, Crooks and Liars)

Though Walker's spectacle is merely a prolonged fundraising campaign for the anti-intellectual Walker whom more sensible Republicans in the rest of the nation reject, Walker can and is inflicting much damage to Wisconsin as he races across the country from fundraiser to fundraiser.

Latest outrage is Walker's proposed budget, a radical social engineering and fundraising document that Walker refused to run on during his reelection campaign, and the free-rider, anti-worker, anti-family legislation (aka right-to-work bill pushed by the Koch brothers) that would lower the wages of honest, hard-working Wisconsin families disconnected from Walker's concerns.

Writes One Wisconsin Now in an email this morning:

Here are the facts about how Wisconsin will look if we enact their law:

• Wisconsin workers like you and I will make as much as $6,000 less a year on average;
• Wisconsin public school students will have $3,400 less per student for their education;
• Wisconsin will have more people in poverty and a higher infant mortality rate; and
• Wisconsin will have even higher unemployment.

Wisconsin can’t afford this attack on our families. We have to stand united against this. We will be working around the clock to fight back. We’re already digging in on additional research we will share with you and the media as soon as it’s completed.

Meanwhile, Walker's sell-out of our precious waters continues as Walker acts for the interests of Big Ag polluters against families in rural Wisconsin.

From Protect Wood County, fighting a proposed massive factory farm in central Wisconsin that would direct millions of tons of liquid waster into the waters and air:

Wisconsin State Budget Disaster

Where do I even begin my discussion of our proposed state budget? The potential cuts and dismantling of our proud Wisconsin heritage is beyond believable, yet we are faced with the clear indication that the budget will pass with little tweaking from our elected officials unless we act now.  Look at the budget from any angle and it's all the same: this budget is bad. Bad for our natural resources. Bad for what we hold dear. Bad for Wisconsin.  In short the following areas are of immediate concern and need to be voiced loud and clear to everyone in Madison.  Below are quick bullet point regarding sections of the budget. For a comprehensive look as to why these proposed cuts are bad look HERE for additional explanation provided from the League of Conservation Voters.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s proposed budget directive to turn the DNR Board into a solely advisory council.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to specifically target DNR staff cuts among scientists, educators, and communications specialists.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to eliminate the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education and Wisconsin Environmental Education Board.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to place a moratorium on the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program and divert funding away from the mission of the program.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to eliminate capacity grants to conservation groups.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to reduce the state’s share of the County Conservation staffing grant. Establish funding at the original base of $9,379,800 annually.

    REJECT Governor Walker’s directive to reduce the state’s share of funding levels for nutrient management plans in the budget.

This of course is not all that is bad with the budget.  Myself being a public school teacher could go on for hours about the cuts proposed to public education and our university system but that is for another email group. To view the budget in its entirety see the attached links - Budget in Full and Budget Brief. Contact state reps now and voice your concerns.

LRB 1446

Thank you to all who responded to our call for assistance and wrote our WI representatives regarding LRB 1446.  Our purpose was to encourage legislators to NOT sign on as a supporter of the proposed legislation.  Even if you did not get a chance to write your state representatives prior to the sign-on deadline we ask that you still take the time to write and show your opposition to the proposed legislation.  Although those who signed onto the bill are promoting it as a bill for the Family Farmer it is no such thing.  It is opening the doors wide for large scale agriculture to buy up land with high capacity wells and use them at their discretion without triggering DNR review. If you missed my first email regarding this subject it is attached HERE for your convenience.

LRB−0995/2

LRB 0995/2 is a piece of legislation we can actually get behind and support!  Sen Mark Miller contacted me last week to discuss his Groundwater Management Bill LRB 0995/2.  This bill is in direct contrast to typical water bills we observed coming through our legislature in previous sessions.  It is very important that we again write ALL our state representatives, those that answer to us, and those that do not, and encourage support of LRB 0995/2.

To assist those who struggle with letter writing I again have formed a few options for you to copy and paste into an email.  Please be sure when filling out the signature lines that you include your full name, address, and phone number. Without this information your letters are discarded.  To read the proposed LRB 0995/2 in its entirety click HERE

Scott Walker and Big Ag Polluters Have Enemies

Stephen Babcock milking a cow -
From UW-Madison's History
of the Wisconsin Idea

Stephen Babcock milking a cow

Stephen Babcock milking a c

Update: See Why we protect our water.

For politicians like State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) and Gov. Scott Walker running political interference for the Dairy Business Association (DBA), the DBA's water and air-polluting dairy and swine operations (Concentrated (Confined) Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)) make political enemies.

That the enemies work to protect Wisconsin families' health, the environment and property values is of no apparent consideration for the DBA (Big Ag in Wisconsin).

Some of major players protecting Wisconsin include:

• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
• Scientific and legal findings detailing how CAFOs pollute waters, 
• The EPA
• Local communities protecting families from pathogens, nitrates and phosphorous (Centers for Diseases Control) ((Leichtnam, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), 
• University of Wisconsin System including the UW Extension centers (Mullen, Ashland Daily Press) across Wisconsin educating the public about health and environmental dangers in the Wisconsin Idea in action.

Worth noting is what Scott Walker proposes for the DNR, local control, the UW System and the Wisconsin Idea: Destruction.

These institutions and ideals of democracy would be eviscerated if Scott Walker, the DBA and political cronies like Krug get their way.

Worth noting repeatedly is Scott Walker's enemies tend to be targeted by legislative and executive action.

Opposition is mounting. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the GOP is after the "Stupid Vote," its only hope. See Damon Linker, The Week.

Bayfield County Board Approves One-year Moratorium on CAFOs

Chequamegon Bay in Lake Superior; worth protecting, says
Bayfield County Board last night

Bayfield County message to proposed Iowa-based CAFO owners: "Leave, don't consider coming back and take your pig [shite] with you," as Wisconsin lives in fear of a CAFO moving next to their residence or farm, advised by Iowa farmers that stopping the proposed Badgerwood LLC CAFO before it begins is the only solution

The Bayfield County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt a one-year moratorium on livestock facilities licensing in Bayfield County at a packed court room in northern Wisconsin last night. (Mullen, Ashland Daily Press)

Outside frigid temperatures didn't deter the heated meeting inside that led to police removing some residents shouting down speakers. (Northland News Center (Granite Broadcasting Station)

The moratorium is the most significant political blow to the proliferation of Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFOs) in Wisconsin, and the first major victory to stopping a CAFO in Wisconsin.

The northwest region of Wisconsin has been spared the siting of water-polluting CAFOs, largely due to the tourism and recreation and the popular regard for pristine inland lakes and streams, ice caves, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Chequamegon Bay and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior. (Mal Contends)

"The one-year moratorium states a Large Scale Livestock Study Committee will be made up of 6 elected officials and three community members," writes Mullen of the Ashland Daily Press.

The proposed pollution of habitat in the Native American ceded territories in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan would also have to be litigated before large polluting operations such as proposed CAFOs and a proposed open pit mine are allowed under federal Native American Treaty law, (Mal Contends, citing Wilkerson et al in reference to Getches, Wilkinson, Williams and Fletcher, Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law, (American Casebook Series, West Academic Publishing)) due to public health and environmental consequences, including the surface water and aquifers.

Said Gordon Stevenson, runoff chief for the DNR (2001-2011), in an email last year: "Manure management is essentially the same as it has been since the Middle Ages; untreated manure is disposed untreated on the landscape. We have already seen severe public health consequences from these practices and I am certain that we will see more. Much of Wisconsin’s environmental protection efforts with agriculture center on nutrient management planning. Many of my former colleagues have labored long and hard to persuade farmers to adopt the NRCS 590 Nutrient Management Standard. The problem is that 590 is not a water quality standards, it as an agronomic standard that seeks to optimize crop production. Plus evaluation of a farmer’s compliance with that standard is somewhere between difficult and impossible."

Hobie Fishing Products Manager, Morgan Promnitz, holds his
first ever smallmouth bass — a six pound giant from
Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay. Great Lakes smallies grow
slowly. A fish this size from Lake Superior or Lake Michigan
may be over 20-years-old. They deserve special care.
Remove the hooks quickly and carefully while minimizing
time out of the water. Take the time to revive the fish fully —
either at boatside or in the livewell.
Photo by Josh Lantz. (National Geographic)

Difficult and impossible are not sufficient assurances for residents of Bayfield County who want to protect the water, including Lake Superior which comprises 10 percent of the Earth's fresh water, and the economically vital tourism industry.

The Bayfield County victory for clean water advocates comes as Wisconsin State Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) have introduced the Water Sustainability Act.

The Act would stem the avalanche of high capacity water well permits given to CAFOs under the Scott Walker administration with no consideration for the consequences, a bizarre stance that was ordered illegal by a Wisconsin administrative law judge last year.

"The goal of this legislation is to appropriately manage our water resources so the reasonable use doctrine is fully realized; that every person has a right to use water but not to the point where it threatens the water supply," said Senator Miller.

Said a resident of Ashland, speaking on background so he/she can investigate more closely the intentions of the CAFO owners, "The message to Iowa-based Reicks View Farm regarding their proposed CAFO: Leave, don't consider coming back and take your pig [shite] with you."

Wisconsin residents, Frank Koehn and Neil McClelland, traveled to Iowa on a week-long trip and found many Iowa residents living near Iowa swine CAFOs advising that a CAFO not be sited in Bayfield County.

Koehn and McClelland recently submitted their report the Bayfield County Board.

Write Frank Koehn and Neil McClelland:

Greetings from Reicks’ Country Iowa (Lawler, Jericho, Spillville, Protivin, Alta Vista, New Hampton, North Washington, Saude)

To the Bayfield County Board

This is a report from the second day of our week-long excursion in Iowa CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) country.

We have met with local residents in restaurants, libraries, gas stations, convenience stores, bars, county government buildings, etc. in order to attempt to get a picture of the local area.  Some of these have been individual encounters, others meetings arranged through word of mouth. We’ve appreciated the openness with which the local residents have spoken to us. We were surprised to find that hog farmers, their employees, and the families of these individuals have been very willing to discuss the topic of CAFOs. Many shared information with us concerning the history of the area, their work experiences, their own farming practices and those being employed by owners of CAFOs. Overall there has been a growing consensus and sentiment, the majority of residents wished that CAFOs had not been implemented. The majority of discussions focused on the following issues that have impacted the area.

We were surprised to find many Iowans had knowledge of Bayfield County.  Some had already investigated maps of the area surrounding the proposed farm.

Hog farmers warned us to be judicious about the implementation of a large-scale hog operation in close proximity to a wetland. Their opinion was quite blunt “it’s not possible”; either there exists a thriving aquatic community, or an industrial agricultural community, never both. 

Iowa farmers believe that stopping the proposed Badgerwood farm before it begins is the only solution. So far we have been warned that Reicks View Farm (RVF) will not stop with only a single facility, and would soon be expanding. This is a determination made by Reicks’ neighbors as result of RVF’s past practices.

Canadian pigs are imported as “feeder pigs” at a weight of about 10 pounds.  The proximity of the Badgerwood CAFO to Canada may be attractive to expanding and/or enhancing this operation. These little “feeder pigs” are currently being imported to Iowa. Installing a CAFO operation in upper Wisconsin may grant RVF a cost advantage.

Smell: Reports of negligible odors surrounding CAFO facilities have been greatly exaggerated. Admittedly we have not been able to tour the inside of one of these operations. However, we have stopped outside a few dozen different sites; some of these operations lacked significant odor, others were merely tolerable, most were distinctly noticeable. Locals stated that the winter air reduces degree of air pollution from CAFOs; spring and foggy weather exacerbate the air pollution.  They all agreed that no matter what CAFOs stink and hog shit stinks.

“Pig Dust” is a problem that develops within facilities. There were statements from family members of the RVF employees that respirators are not readily available. The concern is for the employees’ health. 

Disease

As with human[s], close confinement of large populations can have negative health impacts. The pigs’ high concentration of waste and proximity to one another contributes to the spread of disease.  

Real Estate values for properties are partially evaluated based on proximity to CAFO facilities. Appraised value within a two-mile radius of a CAFO drops. Those within a single mile drop even more so. Many residents find their properties become unlivable due to stench. Rural residents and small farm owners live in constant fear of CAFOs being installed nearby.

Pig manure may be spread within close proximity of someone’s home (we’ve heard reports of 750-1250 ft). In the past it was common practice for farmers to leave their neighbors a buffer of land surrounding living quarters. This mentality is most often lost in large-scale industrial farming. 

Manure Injection

Disposal of manure through the injection process has been problematic. A common practice is to saturate soils with liquid manure, which may rise to the surface. Usually the manure cannot be contained to surrounding areas.  The storage requirements exceed the capacity of nearby acreage.  Pig poop then gets moved to other sites for injection. However, manure injection is dependent upon the season. When the ground freezes hog farmers are usually unable to inject waste under the soil. During these periods manure accumulates in holding tanks under hog facilities. These pits may be insufficient and often fill completely. At this point farmers are forced to move manure to other areas. Liquid manure from CAFOs is sometimes pumped into trucks and then transported to another CAFO facility for storage. 

Farmers in Iowa employ a system of drains and drainage tile to control irrigation. This system allows runoff to be drained to areas of lower elevation. This is particularly useful when it rains. The excess water could result in damage to crops. The tile is laid three feet under the soil. Drains are inserted in depressions to funnel the water into the drain tile and away from valuable cropland. 

The conflict between manure injection and drainage tile is twofold. First, the manure may only be injected into the upper 3 feet of topsoil without interfering with tile. Second, rainfall after recent injection results in manure being carried through the drainage tile. This water then ends up in drainage ditches and is carried into rivers and streams. Concentrations of E. coli and other contaminants increases after extended periods of rainfall. 

It needs to be noted that manure is often transported by truck to fields for injection at night. CAFO operators hope trucks will be less noticeable under cover of darkness. However, despite the time of day residents report the obnoxious smell of pig manure as the trucks drive by.

Seasonal Employment

Like much of American agriculture a system of seasonal employment has developed around the CAFO industry. Migrant labor often is turned to because of the cost incentive. Lower wages and subsistent living conditions become standard practice in an industry based on cutting corners.  We’ve heard reports that South African workers are employed seasonally as well as Mexican Americans. Work visas are offered to laborers coming out of South Africa to work on large farms in Iowa. Most Iowa residents were more concerned about the wage and living condition disparity of these workers more than loss of jobs. 

Feed

The proposed Badgerwood facility would require feed and lots of it. Iowa farmers speculate that the feed may be imported from Iowa, the Twin Ports or from some other foreign area. Outside of Jericho, RVF runs their own feed operation. They still purchase from other local suppliers, but their industry has grown to the point of supplying a percentage of its own food.

Road Problems

The feed, manure, and hogs all require transportation. All of these resources are transported on public roads. While it is the actions of private companies that wear out roadways, it is the duty of local towns to restore these roads. We received reports that the heavy equipment results in major damage to local roads. Residents complained of wear to roadways, excessive dust, and truck traffic. These roads often cannot be closed because of the needs of livestock. Once a CAFO is operational a moral responsibility to provide feed and remove manure requires that roads remain open.  

Conclusion

In closing, our meetings have been open; farmers and community members were very willing to express their concerns and disgust with CAFOs. At this point Iowa counties, communities and people feel powerless against agricultural industry. As in Wisconsin, local town governments have been stripped of decision-making power and State government is unwilling to take action.  Iowa’s DNR is ineffective in protecting water resources from CAFOs.  EPA Region 7 is no better. Some farmers told us they have lost pride in farming due to CAFO operations. It is no longer the mom and pop operations many think of when imagining farms. The individual farmer’s way of life has been destroyed

Reports of inedible fish due to runoff from farming activity are wide spread. Many rivers and streams no longer have fish that are safe to eat. A community member who is a long time gardener expressed her concerns as to the decrease of bee, birds, and insect populations in the past 30 years.  Many long-term residents expressed dismay at the depletion of forest land and are very nostalgic about the life they once enjoyed. Now they live in fear of a CAFO moving next to their residence or farm. 

More to follow, and special thanks to the Iowa farmers who are appalled at the notion to bring pigs to such a water rich and sensitive environment. All were amazed by the immediate threat posed to Lake Superior, the wetlands, and watersheds. 

Respectfully submitted by,

Frank Koehn and Neil McClelland

Wisconsin Answers Proposed Polluting Swine CAFO in Bayfield County

Update - Water, air quality concerns heighten conflict between pig farms and environmental advocates (Pitt, Associated Press)

'We have to decide the resources we’ve so generously been given are not endless and deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. Bayfield County is no place for a swine CAFO from Iowa.'

 As Scott Walker propose gutting scientific analysis in DNR policy making as well as eviscerating the DNR, a proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) has Wisconsin residents wondering why befouling waters is even being contemplated.

The Midwest Environmental Advocates has a piece out today explaining the situation in far-northern Wisconsin.

CAFO Q andA with Bayfield County Resident Rallying for Clean Water

This month, we spoke with Mary Dougherty, a resident of Bayfield County, who has been burning the midnight oil to rally her community around protecting their abundant, clean drinking water. Reicks View Farms, a concentrated animal feeding operation in Iowa, has proposed establishing a CAFO in the Town of Eileen in Bayfield County. Local residents have expressed concerns about the proposed Badgerwood CAFO and the enormous amount of manure waste the operation would produce.

On January 27, Midwest Environmental Advocates wrote a letter to Mary expressing concerns about the location of the proposed CAFO near important surface water, its potential to impact ground water, the need for the county to get the best data on how the CAFOs waste manure will be stored and disposed of or spread on area land, and how the county should be proactive on water monitoring, getting the full details of the proposal before approving permits, and how it should lead by protecting public health first.

On Wednesday, February 18, the Bayfield County Board will vote on a proposed two-year moratorium on permits for industrial livestock operations. The county's board of health unanimously voted in support of the proposed moratorium and over 3,000 signatures of local residents and others from Wisconsin, Minnesota and around the country has been submitted to the county board.
This is why Mary is involved.

What are you working to protect? What makes Bayfield County special?

Lake Superior. It’s not only a regional resource but a global one. It requires very careful consideration when we discuss what types of industry are suitable in the Lake Superior Basin and all of our interconnected waters. The proposed Badgerwood concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, would have 26,000 hogs and produce 6.5 million gallons of liquid manure. It does not belong in the Fish Creek Watershed, less than eight miles from the Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior. The risk of pollution and threats to our health are just too great for the water my children and my community depend on.
But I am also trying to protect our water for a future, global community. Some 7.125 billion people are walking on this planet right now. The sum total of the populations of Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin is 34.65 million. In essence, those of us who live near Lake Superior - less than .0049 percent of the world's population - are the direct stewards of 10 percent of the planet's fresh water.

How do we handle such a weighty responsibility? By being leaders who work to protect and conserve the waters in the Lake Superior Basin. By holding all economic development and industry to a high level of scrutiny. At some point, we have to decide the resources we’ve so generously been given are not endless and deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. Bayfield County is no place for a swine CAFO from Iowa.

We know that swine CAFOs are having problems in other states with a viral epidemic. What about human health?

The threats posed by CAFOs to air quality, water quality and human health from pathogens such as bacteria and viruses are numerous and well-documented. Dr Keeve Nachman, PhD John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, estimates that the 6.5 gallons of liquid waste from the Badgerwood CAFO is the equivalent to a city of 50,000 people. That’s over three times the population of Bayfield County. There is one crucial difference between a city with 50,000 people and a CAFO with 26,000 hogs: cities treat their waste and CAFOs spread it on farm fields.

The City of Ashland, less than 10 miles from the Badgerwood CAFO site, gets its drinking water from the Chequamegon Bay. It's not an unreasonable conclusion that the agricultural run-off from the CAFO will find its way into the Bay. When you consider the Des Moines Water Works is suing three up-stream counties in federal court to force them to clean up the waste that drains from factory farms and reaches rivers used for drinking water, this conclusion seems plausible, if not likely.

It's important to note that CAFOs are a self-regulating and self-reporting industry. Typically a DNR staffer will visit the facility once every four years when a WPDES permit comes up for renewal. Ken Johnson, who heads the DNR’s water division, told WisconsinWatch.org that the agency relies heavily upon self-reporting and citizen complaints when it comes to water quality and degradation. “I know people would like us to have an inspector out there every time somebody spreads,” Johnson said. “But we don’t have the staff or the inclination to do that. It would be very expensive to do that.”

After the American Public Health Association’s reviewed evidence of the health and economic impacts of CAFOs and wrote “evidence, albeit less certain, indicating impacts on children and CAFO neighbors from exposure to large concentrations of manure and their subsequent emissions of dust, toxins, microbes, antibiotics and pollutants in the air and water,” the Association resolved in 2003 that it would: Urge federal, state, and local governments, and public health agencies to impose a moratorium on new Concentrated Animal Feed Operations until additional scientific data on the attendant risks to public health have been collected and uncertainties resolved. Since then, the number of CAFOs have continued to increase and we can look to places like Kewaunee County, Wisconsin to see how too much factory farm waste is damaging people’s drinking water.

Why should we entrust our public health, clean water, air and land to CAFO operators whose main concern is their bottom line? If we look around the state, and country, we see that our invaluable natural resources are not in the right hands and the regulatory agencies tasked with protecting us are under-staffed and unable to do their jobs. Moratoria, like the one currently before the Bayfield County board, are a way to have our local elected officials take time to think about what’s at stake for the health of our community.

What’s next? Can people still make a difference here?

We are in the very beginning stages of assessing the risks the Badgerwood CAFO poses to our community as well as developing a strategy for active civic engagement in the process. I can guarantee that Bayfield County concerned citizens will be engaged every step of the way: from requesting an Environmental Impact Study from the DNR, to hosting educational community events, to setting up water quality monitoring around the CAFO site and the farm fields leased by Badgerwood for spreading manure, to monitoring Badgerwood when they are injecting the manure and making sure the standards in the Nutrient Management Plan are being followed.

We are learning that the proliferation of CAFOs in Wisconsin has created a statewide network of communities who are actively engaged in protecting themselves from the negative consequences of factory farming and we are getting even more connected to share ideas and strategies as we move forward.

Do you need to be an expert in water quality help or to be involved?

This isn't a fight against a factory farm; it's a fight for where we live and the values that are important to us: clean water, strong communities, our rural heritage and a healthy environment. We are encouraging not only environmental advocacy but also civic engagement. There is still room for the voice of “we the people” in our political system, but we have to show up, take an interest, and get involved!

The price of admission to the civic and political arena is simply show up and get involved. Start where your interests are, speak up for what you believe in, and help create the future you want. The beautiful part of this whole process is realizing that we have far more in common than we think. Our role, as committed members of Bayfield County, is to help create a bedrock of commonality that all questions about our future are filtered through.... just like the healthy watershed we are working to protect.

- Mary Dougherty lives in Bayfield Wisconsin with her husband, 5 children and three dogs. She's a water-loving, good food eating, even better wine drinking photographer who believes that civic engagement, vigilance and stewardship are critical as we move towards a world where water scarcity will determine the health and viability of communities.

She started a photography project called Words for Water in response to the CAFO issue facing her community. It's a gathering place for people who value the Lake Superior Basin and its fragile ecosystem. She asks the question, "what are your words for water?" in order to capture the essence of what we, as a community, value about Lake Superior and the land, streams, rivers and watersheds that feed it.

Iowa Swine CAFO Registers at Dept of Financial Institutions

Iowa swine CAFO just got around to registering with the Wisconsin Dept of Financial Institutions under Badgerwood LLC.

Prior to January 14, 2015, the proposed Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) had been operating illegally in Wisconsin.

Don't look for an apology from Dale Reicks, chief at Reicks View Farms of which Badgerwood LLC is just but one tentacle.

Virus and bacteria contamination, including the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, are predictable results from swine CAFOs.

Reicks as is typical of personalities who know the predictable results of vectoring poisons into the environment expresses no concern about the consequences of his CAFOs.

From Psychology Today:

"... Convicted poisoners also tend to have a sense of inadequacy, for which they compensate through a scorn for authority, a strong need for control, wish-fulfillment fantasies, and a self-centered, exploitive interpersonal style. Often either spoiled as a child or raised in an unhappy home, some experts liken the poisoner's personality to an incorrigible child whose immature desire for his/her own way leads him/her to try to control and manipulate the world. It's as if the poisoner never grew up and is determined to take what s/he wants just as a child would from a candy store. Developmentally stunted, other people are viewed without empathy and the poisoner's internal compass is guided instead by greed or lust rather than morals. And, because poison is often not detected initially, the power and control poisoners experience with success tends to increase his or her confidence in future endeavors."

Wonder if Reick has ever apologized for the destruction caused by his many swine CAFOs:


Reicks View Farms
1020 Pembroke Ave
PO Box 150
Lawler, IA 52154

Telephone: 641-364-7843
Fax: 641-364-2029
Email: info@reicksview.com