Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules for Proposed Factory Farm over Communities

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Supreme Court held for a proposed massive factory farm in a widely anticipated decision released this morning.

Updates and links follow this morning.

Here is the link to 2015AP1258 Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

The decision is five-to-two in favor of Wysocki Golden Sands factory farm.

This is a decision by Republican justices for Repulbican interests, against communities and families. The majority opinion was written by out-going Justice Michael J. Gableman who is retiring from the Court on July 31.

A naked act of results-aimed corruption in the judiciary, Gableman's decision upends the doctrine of vested property rights and towns' ability to protect families and the community.

After today's decision all a corporate interest has to do to manage destructive operations is conceal its aims in a Building Permit Rule application and include a vague reference to land.

Writes Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson joined by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley in dissent:

Today,  the majority  expands  the  Building  Permit  Rule  to  create  vested rights  to  particular  uses  of  land  so  long  as  the  land  is 'specifically identified' in the building permit application.

This ill-advised expansion of the Building Permit Rule sacrifices  the  important  public  policies  that  the  Building Permit  Rule  was  designed  to  encourage,  namely,  'predictability for land owners, purchasers, developers, municipalities, and the courts.'

The  majority's  expansion  of  the  Building  Permit  Rule transforms what was once an easy-to-apply, bright-line rule into a  rule  requiring  a  case-by-case  analysis  of  the  applicant's specificity  regarding  both the  description of the property included within the scope of the building permit application as well as the property's proposed use.

Tears, anxiety and a resolve to keep fighting describe the central Wisconsin communities' mood this morning.

One Saratoga resident reached by phone said she has slept only two hours in the last two days awaiting the Court decision and opinions.

Another resident, Criste Sullivan-Greening of Saratoga Concerned, writes in Facebook:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is a lawless institution and its Republican justices will find a way to rule in favor of Republican interests no matter the damage to Wisconsin communities, residents and the Court as a functioning branch of government.
 ---
Below is a column written in 2017 on what the Wisconsin Supreme Court has become after Republicans and Republican justices worked to transform the Court into a tool for Republican interests.

Pictured is Wisconsin Supreme Court at the state capitol. Inside
this iron door deliberation dies, and Republicans reign ascendant.

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Supreme Court no longer functions as an independent judicial body.

A corrupt institution, Court justices, (five of the seven), elected to 10-year terms rely on $ millions from rightwing interests to keep the judges in their offices where Republican interests are jealously protected by the subsequent conduct of the justices.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is part of the Republican political machine, a turgid and pretentious cog spewing out reliably Republican case opinions for the benefit of Republican interests.

The justices' ethics are decided by Republican justices who rejected proposed rules that would mandate justices recuse from cases involving mega-donors to their campaigns, (Beck, Wisconsin State Journal). The law of the land in Wisconsin for the judiciary is: Fund my election, and I'll vote your way if you come before my court, (Mal Contends, The New Yorker).

So it was no surprise that the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to hear a case this month from central Wisconsin concerning the plans of a polluting, industrial agricultural outfit, the Wysocki Family of Companies, that proposes to build and operate a massive factory farm based in Saratoga, Wisconsin that would devastate parts of four counties. The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

Residents in central Wisconsin are scared, so scared that nobody wants to go on the record and speak the truth about Wisconsin has become, specifically about what the Supreme Court has become. Who can blame these people?

Their communities, homes and small businesses are at stake in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga and bad-mouthing the Supreme Court is considered risky.

As noted in these pages, it's an indication how corrupt Wisconsin government is under Republican rule that residents contacted in Wood and Adams counties believe Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote to hear the Golden Sands Wysocki petition, overturn the appellate decision and radically expand the vested rights of property owners to commit virtually any environmentally and economically destructive act, altering the capacity of local communities to protect their economic and environmental well-being and the safety of families against corporate actors.

Since 2011 Republicans have implemented an unprecedented statutory framework according property rights supremacy over any other competing rights, including public interest concerns.

No one is surprised the Wisconsin Supreme Court is corrupt. Certainly not James Wysocki, chief financial officer of the Big Ag outfit that will devastate central Wisconsin.

Reports Karen Madden in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, quoting Wysocki:

'Golden Sands is gratified, but not surprised, that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has taken this case. It will provide the court the opportunity to clarify the law of vested rights in Wisconsin for all businesses that create jobs in the state and to rectify the unfair process by which the town of Saratoga sought to deprive Golden Sands of its vested rights.'

Numerous agricultural and real estate groups filed motions with the Supreme Court that supported the court taking the case. Those groups were concerned that other communities could change the rules after property is purchased, Wysocki said. 

Under the new Republican theory of vested rights in Wisconsin, an owner of property becomes a extraordinary, super-interest for whom environmental, safety, zoning, and water-protection laws do not apply.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote in Wysocki's favor 5-2 sometime in 2018 in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga. Don't be surprised.

Wisconsin Supreme Court to Release Decision on Proposed Factory Farm, Local Govs and Communties on June 5

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Supreme Court is not an impartial judicial body anymore.

That's not what the state's high appellate court is in business for. The Court serves special interests.

But the Court announced that on June 5 the decision and opinions in 2015AP1258 Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga will be released. See Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Release of Supreme Court Opinions. Find the case on June 5 at Wisconsin Courts.

In the Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether some 1.7 million Wisconsin citizens, some 30 percent of the state living in towns, can act locally to protect local conditions, property values, families, drinking water quality, and local character through zoning, (p. 14. Brief of Amicus Curiae - Local Business Amici. Filed by Christa Westerberg).

The Golden Sands factory farm is seeking a new and novel interpretation of the state's vested property rights doctrine to render a town's capacity to protect itself virtually non-existent. [For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field.]

In April 2017, "the 4th District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Town of Saratoga, holding that the vested rights that the Wysocki Family of Companies have in a building permit for seven dairy buildings on 98 acres do not authorize them to use more than 4,660 acres throughout the Town for the application of manure ... ," (Apr 13, 2017; 015AP001258; Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga; District 4; Wood County,).

Stopping this massive application of manure could be a mortal blow to the business operation of this proposed factory farm, Golden Sands Dairy LLC.

The case was argued before the Supreme Court Jan 11, 2018.

No central Wisconsin resident contacted this weekend expressed confidence the Wisconsin Supreme Court would follow existing doctrine on corporate property rights and municipal authority. Anything is possible as powerful interests are parties to both sides of the case. Facts, law, long-observed doctrine and arguments are irrelevant in the Court's proceedings.

In action related to this case, since 2011 Republicans have implemented an unprecedented statutory framework according corporate property rights supremacy over any other competing rights, including public interest concerns.

Notes David Strifling at the Marquette University  Law School:

In 2016, the Wisconsin Legislature [enacted] Wis. Stat. § 227.57(11). The statute provides that a 'court shall accord no deference to the agency’s interpretation of law if the agency action or decision restricts the property owner’s free use of the property owner’s property.'

Though to this point Republicans have worked to change the nature of corporations' property rights vis a vis the public interest function of state agencies and local governments, the Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case accords the Republican-dominated Supreme Court a way to expand corporate property rights over the health and safety claims of neighbors and communities.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Corporate interests, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Wisconsin Realtors Association, have filed Amicus, (Friend of the Court), briefs in support of the Court hearing the Golden Sands-Wysocki petition.

Republican Supreme Court members protect corporate interests, and for years have refused to recuse themselves in cases in which the justices' political campaigns have benefited from heavy spending by litigants, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign), (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign).

Some central Wisconsin residents contacted believe that because the remaining credibility of the Wisconsin Supreme Court as an independent judicial body is at stake, the Court may not overturn the well-grounded April 2017 state appellate decision in Golden Sands.
 ---
From Saratoga (Wisconsin) Concerned Update

6/1/2018

Special Announcement:
Supreme Court - Golden Sands Dairy -vs- Town of Saratoga
Decision coming on Tuesday, June 5th, 2018

Earlier this morning the WI Supreme Court posted the list of cases whose decisions will be announced next week.  Saratoga's case is on the list for release on Tuesday, June 5th.

It is important to remind our followers the decision in front of the WI Supreme Court is NOT about whether Wysocki can build his CAFO in Saratoga, but specifically what he legally can do with the land he eventually purchased in 2015.  The decision ahead will either allow Wysocki to clear-cut the parcels for cropland or uphold Saratoga's current zoning ordinance which was in place before the land was purchased.

Although a win at the WI Supreme Court level would be cause for a huge celebration, it does not necessarily end completely our battle with the Wysocki's.  It would, however, be a significant roadblock for him moving forward with his proposed CAFO. 

The minute the decision is made public on Tuesday we will immediately break down the information and blast it out via our Newsletter and Facebook pages.  Please be thinking positive thoughts and keep your fingers crossed for a verdict in our favor.

Sincerely,
Saratoga Concerned Leadership Team

Wisconsin Supreme Court Case on Vested Property Rights and Zoning Powers Set for Oral Argument, Jan. 11

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central
Wisconsin could turn rural paradise into an
industrial wasteland. Don Ystad of Adams County
Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism
and recreation for years writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin? Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen.
Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point). These pols
have already chosen Big Ag over everything else,
including a new Sand Valley Golf Resort,
multi-generational families and entire communities.

The Wisconsin Republican Party's attempt to transform the legal scope of property rights on behalf of major financial donors is behind a case that could prevent the operation of a massive factory farm, sited in the town of Saratoga in central Wisconsin.

The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga. The high court will hear oral arguments on Jan 11, 2018. [Note: For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field, leave the rest of fields blank and hit search at bottom-left of the linked Wisconsin Supreme Court page.]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court no longer functions as an independent judicial body as its members have become corrupted and beholden to the Republican-linked special interests that fund some of the Court members' campaigns. Judicial ethics are decided by Republican justices who rejected proposed rules that would mandate justices recuse from cases involving their mega-donors to their campaigns, (Beck, Wisconsin State Journal, Mal Contends, The New Yorker).

Communities and private citizens want an April 2017 state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts a massive factory farm from beginning operations, as Republicans and Big Ag work to impose onto Wisconsin a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights.

The predictable consequences of operation of the proposed Golden Sands factory farm are the pollution and depletion of water and air, devastating parts of four counties in this region.

The April 2017 Golden Sands Dairy LLC appellate ruling effectively kills the operation of the massive factory farm by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year. The unanimous appellate ruling recognizes the town of Saratoga used its zoning power in accordance with state law and decades of legal precedent.

Concludes an amicus brief in part filed on behalf of local businesses in December 2017:

Over 1.7 million Wisconsin citizens more than 30% of the state’s population reside in towns like the Town of Saratoga. In this case, the Town reasonably evaluated local conditions and zoned its land to prevent harm to property values and businesses, drinking water quality, and local character. By seeking a 6,000-acre exception to this rule, GSD [Golden Sands Dairy] cannot credibly state that expanding the vested rights doctrine does 'no violence' to the Town’s ability to regulate land use. (GSD Br. at 26.)

The Court should affirm the court of appeals’ decision upholding the Town’s lawful exercise of its zoning authority in this case, and reject GSD’s requested expansion of the vested rights doctrine. 

Bottom line: Will the Wisconsin Supreme Court issue yet another corrupt decision on behalf of Republican interests? There is hope.

Two citizen groups, Protect Wood County (Wisconsin) and Its Neighbors and Concerned Rome (Wisconsin) Citizens are urging central Wisconsin residents to await the decision from the Court expected sometime in the Spring 2018.

From Protect Wood County:

Friends and Neighbors,

The date is set, January 11th, 2018, at which time our case against Wysocki will be heard in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  Although this news broke quite a while back, there was the chance for extension requests and/or other delays, therefore, we kept silent on the news until we were positive the date would stick.  It officially appears that January 11th will be our day in court.

Cases in front of the Supreme Court follow a very formal and structured format.  Due to this, Saratoga’s legal team has asked that citizen supporters NOT attend the oral argument proceedings.  We ask all our followers please adhere to the legal teams request and continue to wait patiently for the outcome and judgment decision to be handed down later this spring.  Most likely we will not hear a deciding judgment until March or April of this year. Once again, we have more waiting ahead.

It is important to clarify the basis of the Supreme Court case as we continue to hear many residents misunderstanding what our current case is about.  The case before the Supreme Court is about vested rights to the thousands of acres of land Wysocki purchased in Saratoga.  In a very simplistic nutshell, the court will be deciding if Wysocki can clear-cut and crop the thousands of acres of land he purchased after Saratoga’s zoning was in place.  The court is not determining if Wysocki has the right to build the buildings and/or the CAFO, simply if he has the right to use the land for his identified purpose which is in conflict with Saratoga's zoning.  This battle has been a very complicated web of twist and turns, surely one for the record books.  

We will keep everyone informed as we continue through the next few months.

Wisconsin GOP-DoJ Gives Supreme Court Marching Orders on Factory Farm Case

Citizens are mobilized in central Wisconsin against Big Ag and
Republicans, led by Scott Walker and AG Brad Schimel.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—The Republican Wisconsin Department of Justice has given the putative non-partisan Supreme Court its marching orders in an important case involving a proposed, massive factory farm.

The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga, (Appeal Number 2015AP001258).

In April an unanimous state appellate court ruling effectively killed the proposed operation of the Golden Sands/Wysocki corporation CAFO by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year.

The appellate ruling freezes construction plans of the Golden Sands CAFO, Confined Agricultural Feeding Operation, by honoring the current legal doctrine of the delineation of vested property rights on which the case centers.

But the Wisconsin Supreme Court quickly agreed to hear the case in September, (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), in an apparent effort to radically expand vested property rights under a new conception pushed by Republicans.

Central Wisconsin residents, local governments and the town of Saratoga want the April state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts the operations of the CAFO, and recognizes long-observed doctrine of vested rights.

Under the new Republican theory of vested rights in Wisconsin, an owner of property becomes a extraordinary, super-interest for whom many environmental, safety, zoning, and water-protection laws do not apply.

Don Ystad, a retired business consultant living in Adams county in central Wisconsin has been working with fellow citizens to stop the proposed Golden Sands/Wysocki CAFO which would devastate parts of four counties.

Writes Ystad today:

If it's not occurred to you just how uneven the playing field is against citizens in this CAFO fight, consider that the State of Wisconsin has just weighed in with an Amicus Brief supporting the Supreme Court appeal of the Wysockis and their proposed Golden Sands Dairy CAFO in Saratoga.

It seems overtly political in the face of a brief from the Wisconsin Towns Association, Wisconsin Counties Association and the League of Municipalities which supports Saratoga in their fight against this proposed CAFO, much like Attorney General Schimel's opinion ignoring cumulative effect of high cap wells when the legislature was unable to pass an ag-friendly groundwater bill early this year. I am fed up with being trivialized by this Walker administration in this fight to preserve the health and well being of this area.

Here is the state's DoJ brief.

Fellow concerned citizens, if the number of Amicus Briefs is any indication, this is a watershed moment for us. Nothing to be done for now, but if a 'call to action' comes, please be there for all of us.

The corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court will rule in favor of Big Ag sometime in 2018 in this case, fulfilling its new function to carry out the wishes of Republicans.

Wisconsin Supreme Court justices

Justice Shirley Abrahamson - rule-of-law judge
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley - rule-of-law judge
Justice Patience Roggensack - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Annette Ziegler - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Michael Gableman - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Rebecca Bradley - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Daniel Kelly - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish

Wisconsin Supreme Court Looks to Terminate Its Diminished Credibility

Pictured is Wisconsin Supreme Court at the state capitol. Inside
this iron door deliberation dies, and Republicans reign ascendant.

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Supreme Court no longer functions as an independent judicial body.

A corrupt institution, Court justices, (five of the seven), elected to 10-year terms rely on $ millions from rightwing interests to keep the judges in their offices where Republican interests are jealously protected by the subsequent conduct of the justices.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is part of the Republican political machine, a turgid and pretentious cog spewing out reliably Republican case opinions for the benefit of Republican interests.

The justices' ethics are decided by Republican justices who rejected proposed rules that would mandate justices recuse from cases involving mega-donors to their campaigns, (Beck, Wisconsin State Journal). The law of the land in Wisconsin for the judiciary is: Fund my election, and I'll vote your way if you come before my court, (Mal Contends, The New Yorker).

So it was no surprise that the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to hear a case this month from central Wisconsin concerning the plans of a polluting, industrial agricultural outfit, the Wysocki Family of Companies, that proposes to build and operate a massive factory farm based in Saratoga, Wisconsin that would devastate parts of four counties. The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

Residents in central Wisconsin are scared, so scared that nobody wants to go on the record and speak the truth about Wisconsin has become, specifically about what the Supreme Court has become. Who can blame these people?

Their communities, homes and small businesses are at stake in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga and bad-mouthing the Supreme Court is considered risky.

As noted in these pages, it's an indication how corrupt Wisconsin government is under Republican rule that residents contacted in Wood and Adams counties believe Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote to hear the Golden Sands Wysocki petition, overturn the appellate decision and radically expand the vested rights of property owners to commit virtually any environmentally and economically destructive act, altering the capacity of local communities to protect their economic and environmental well-being and the safety of families against corporate actors.

Since 2011 Republicans have implemented an unprecedented statutory framework according property rights supremacy over any other competing rights, including public interest concerns.

No one is surprised the Wisconsin Supreme Court is corrupt. Certainly not James Wysocki, chief financial officer of the Big Ag outfit that will devastate central Wisconsin.

Reports Karen Madden in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, quoting Wysocki:

'Golden Sands is gratified, but not surprised, that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has taken this case. It will provide the court the opportunity to clarify the law of vested rights in Wisconsin for all businesses that create jobs in the state and to rectify the unfair process by which the town of Saratoga sought to deprive Golden Sands of its vested rights.'

Numerous agricultural and real estate groups filed motions with the Supreme Court that supported the court taking the case. Those groups were concerned that other communities could change the rules after property is purchased, Wysocki said. 

Under the new Republican theory of vested rights in Wisconsin, an owner of property becomes a extraordinary, super-interest for whom environmental, safety, zoning, and water-protection laws do not apply.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote in Wysocki's favor 5-2 sometime in 2018 in Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga. Don't be surprised.

Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Factory Farm Appeal for Inflated Property Rights

Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear factory farm appeal

Examination of the updated Wisconsin Supreme Court website (PDF) indicates the Court will hear Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

The Court website reads in part: "Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga - When a permit applicant secures vested rights by filing a valid building permit application for a project (Wisconsin's "Building Permit Rule"), does the law protect the applicant's right to both construct buildings and to use the project land in the lawful manner described in the building permit application?"
--
In central Wisconsin the fearful, hope-and-see mood describing families awaiting the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to grant or deny review of a state appellate court April ruling, Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga has been replaced by expletives by residents, and muttered statements of determination not to be chased out of their own communities by Republicans and a polluting factory farm bellowing the right to use corporate property in violation of settled vested property rights.

Central Wisconsin Awaits Supreme Court on Factory Farm Appeal for Inflated Property Rights

Popular opposition to proposed massive factory farm
in central Wisconsin faces corrupt state Supreme Court.
Photo by Mary Captain-Braund

Appellate law and vested property rights concern families in central Wisconsin

Update: Examination of the updated Wisconsin Supreme Court website (PDF) indicates the court will hear Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

The Court website reads in part: "Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga - When a permit applicant secures vested rights by filing a valid building permit application for a project (Wisconsin's "Building Permit Rule"), does the law protect the applicant's right to both construct buildings and to use the project land in the lawful manner described in the building permit application?"
--
Madison, Wisconsin — In central Wisconsin a fearful, hope-and-see mood describes families awaiting the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to grant or deny review of a state appellate court April ruling, Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

Residents want the April state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts a massive factory farm from beginning operations under a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights

The communities' future depends on the high Court decision as the predictable consequences of operation of the proposed Golden Sands factory farm are the pollution and depletion of water and air, devastating parts of four counties in this region, if it began operation.

The Golden Sands Dairy LLC appellate ruling effectively kills the operation of the massive factory farm by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year.

The Supreme Court decision on the Golden Sands-Wysocki corporation's petition for review, a legal request of a court to hear a case, is expected around October 12, some six months after the April appellate ruling's date.

The appellate ruling freezes construction plans of the dairy Golden Sands CAFO, Confined Agricultural Feeding Operation, by honoring the current legal delineation of vested property rights.

[Note: For updates the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court is 2015AP001258. Enter   15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field, leave the rest of fields blank and hit search at bottom-left of the linked Wisconsin Supreme Court page.]

Republican Altering of Health, Safety and Environmental Protection

It's an indication how corrupt Wisconsin government is under Republican rule that residents contacted in Wood and Adams counties believe Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote to hear the Golden Sands Wysocki petition, overturn the appellate decision and radically expand the vested rights of property owners to commit virtually any environmentally and economically destructive act, altering the capacity of local communities to protect their economic and environmental well-being and the safety of families against corporate actors.

Since 2011 Republicans have implemented an unprecedented statutory framework according property rights supremacy over any other competing rights, including public interest concerns.

Notes David Strifling at the Marquette University  Law School:

In 2016, the Wisconsin Legislature [enacted] Wis. Stat. § 227.57(11). The statute provides that a 'court shall accord no deference to the agency’s interpretation of law if the agency action or decision restricts the property owner’s free use of the property owner’s property.'

Though to this point Republicans have worked to change the nature of corporations' property rights vis a vis the public interest function of state agencies, the Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case accords the Republican-dominated Supreme Court a way to expand corporate property rights over the health and safety claims of neighbors and communities.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Corporate interests, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Wisconsin Realtors Association, have filed Amicus, (Friend of the Court), briefs in support of the Court hearing the Golden Sands-Wysocki petition.

Republican Supreme Court members protect corporate interests, and for years have refused to recuse themselves in cases in which the justices' political campaigns have benefited from heavy spending by litigants, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign), (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign).

Some central Wisconsin residents contacted believe that because the remaining credibility of the Wisconsin Supreme Court as an independent judicial body is at stake, the Court may not overturn the well-grounded April state appellate decision.

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central Wisconsin
could turn rural paradise into industrial wasteland.
 Don Ystad of Adams County Wisconsin
who has been promoting tourism and recreation for writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin?  Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen. Patrick Testin,
(R-Stevens Point). These politocs have already chosen Big Ag
over everything else, including the Sand Valley Golf Resort.

Central Wisconsin Fetes Legal Victory over Factory Farm by Talking Tourism and Recreation

Huge sand deposits in region guarantee environmental and health
catastrophes if millions of gallons of liquid and aerial
cow manure are to be dumped into the environment.
(Mal Contends)

"I cried when I got the news," said Nancy Koch of Saratoga, Wisconsin reached this morning by phone.

Ms. Koch referred to news of a legal victory over a proposed massive factory farm in central Wisconsin that would devastate an entire region, (Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga, (Wisconsin Court System)), (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), (Mal Contends), (WSAW-TV).

It was a far cry from July 2012 when the Wysocki outfit sprung its plans for the proposed factory, (or CAFO for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), that would become a hazardous-waste vectoring operation predictably polluting area groundwater, drinking waters, and surface waters, with millions of gallons of liquidized cow manure, among other detrimental health and economic effects, (Mal Contends), (John Ikerd).

At the July 2012 meeting, the local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and CAFO supporter, told Koch: "Quit your bitching," so Koch and fellow clean water supporters knew they were up against corporate money and political lackeys not connected to the future of the region.

James Wysocki of the Wysocki Family of Companies corporation thinks he can make more money in the glutted milk market so the costs that residents and communities would pay is acceptable to Wysocki who lives safely away from the proposed "Golden Sands Dairy, (LLC)," sited in the town of Saratoga located in the central sands region of Wisconsin.

Wysocki's inflicting costs onto society without consent is called a negative externality. Most folks in central Wisconsin think it's the work of a sociopath.

Notes Joshua Yelle, a research fellow in agricultural economics:

There are seven sources of negative impacts on human beings that can directly be correlated to the CAFO industry. They are as follows: Air contamination, water contamination, pathogens, insect vectors, obesity, resistant antibiotics and negative financial and mental externalities. 

Wysocki's purposes and lack of conscience in these matters offer a portrait of a societal nemesis.

Wysocki can still appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court but folks in central Wisconsin say they haven't felt this way in a long time.

Writes Criste Greening in one of a flurry of communications on social and local media by area residents the last 24 hours:

Thank you to all our town residents, town board, and the legal team who have stood along side us in this fight and who will continue to stand with us if Wysocki should decide to appeal to the WI Supreme Court. It has been 5 years of sacrificing time away from family, money from our bank accounts, and countless hours of sleep. Today we can celebrate a victory and a huge amount of stress lifted from our shoulders. And tomorrow we will begin the wait.

Wysocki has 30 days to appeal the decision so this fight is not over and if he chooses to appeal we will battle him all the way to the Supreme Court with just as much fire and determination as we have demonstrated these past 5 years. Wysocki's greed and contamination is not welcome in Saratoga.

What's the next step among residents and communities?

These families fighting Wysocki are so intimately tied to their communities that several reminded this writer in phone calls of their fight in promoting tourism and recreation in the coming warm months:

From Don Ystad of Adams County Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism and recreation for years:

Take a step back from the politics of this situation and ask yourself, 'what is best for the state of Wisconsin?  Another CAFO sited, or the preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area, poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?' 

Think existing class A trout streams, existing lakes surrounded by 5,400 properties, two existing golf courses at Lake Arrowhead, the new Wisconsin Trapshooters Home facility, Dyracuse recreational area, TriNorse ski jump, and the new Sand Valley Golf Club just begun, all within a few miles of the proposed CAFO.  Weigh that against the proposed CAFO with it's 49 high-cap wells and manure enough to fill Lambeau field up to the cheap seats four times over.

Longtime families dating to the 19th century are still talking biking trails, hiking rails, recreational areas, connecting with existing attractions.

Even as a danger like Wysocki lurks, those caring about their communities plan. As one family contemplates:

POSSIBLE  OPTIONS for WOOD COUNTY and ADAMS COUNTY  RECREATION
AREA  GROWTH and REVENUE

We begin with encouraging the growth of existing recreation areas such as the new World Class Golf Course in Rome area and the Trap Shooting Facility in Adams County and the Tri City Ski Jump on East County O in Adams County.  There may be other sports facilities that can be added to this list.

Furthermore, there is a yearly Water Skiing Tournament held on Lake Wazeecha, just East of Wisconsin Rapids.  That event draws 5,000 people. Also, there is an annual Cross Country Running Event held at the Wisconsin Rapids Ridges Golf Course. That event draws 9,000 people. The Recreation Event Base already exists and could be expanded and be very profitable in increased sales for the business community and added sales tax revenue for Wood County.

The business expansion could be accomplished by developing a major Multi-Sport Recreation Area in Saratoga Township in Sections 19, 20, 29 and 30,  just to the West of Route 13. This would be another major step in  developing the Business Corridor between Wisconsin Rapids, Rome, Adams-Friendship and the Wisconsin Dells.  This new Rec Area would be about 2,000 contiguous acres that could be set up to provide a Central Wisconsin location for State High School Tournaments for various sports and other activities enjoyed in the two Counties. ...

There are many people and businesses that believe the Central Wisconsin Area is ideal for sports activities that draw from all areas of the State. Road access is good and many lodging facilities and restaurants are available.  Also, Wisconsin Rapids has enlarged its airport to facilitate access to the new Sand Valley Golf Course being developed by Mike Keiser just South of Rome.  This same airport could be used for access to other sports at the new 2,000 acre Recreation Park.

Not many years ago, some businessmen with vision developed the Wisconsin Dells and Door County and attracted many vacation people from Illinois.  That kind of vision is needed again for the Wisconsin Rapids and Rome area.

Water wars are coming

Republicans and Big Ag want to dismantle the
EPA protecting the 160,000 public drinking
water systems, and 100,000s of private wells in the
rural U.S. Costs of drinking water pollution
is borne by consumers, and subsidized by
the taxpayers.

 

"[D]emand is driven by [industrialized] agriculture, which accounts for more than 90 percent of freshwater use each year ... placing unsustainable pressure on water supplies," writes Vikram Mansharamani at the PBS Newshour, citing the September 2015 U.S. National Intelligence Strategy.

This should scare the hell out of everyone concerned for future generations and presently residing anywhere near an industrialized factory farm or CAFOs.

Factory farms are subsidized and pollute the water, air and land, demanding of the politicians they own that surrounding communities pay for the health and environmental destruction.

Recent press series

• Failure at the Faucet - Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting   
• Ryan Schuessler' Something’s in the water in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin
• Big Ag Is Poisoning the Dairy State

Citizen groups

• Kewaunee CARES (Facebook) 
• Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors 
• Midwest Environmental Advocates
• Farms not Factories
  
• Citizens Concerned about Lake Superior CAFOs  
• Clean Wisconsin
• Rome and Saratoga Friendly
• River Alliance of Wisconsin
• Friends of the Central Sands
• Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter 
• Aldo Leopold Foundation

Academic pieces

• CAFOs - The Promise of Prosperity Versus the Ugly Truth (Joshua Yelle, (Research Fellow, Western Illinois University))
• Food Sovereignty: A Revolution in US Farm Policy, Dr. John Ikerd
• The Inevitable Economic, Ecological, and Social Consequences of CAFOs. University of Missouri-Columbia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. Ikerd, Dr. John. [See also Past and Recent Papers of Dr. John E. Ikerd.]
• Factory Farming: Unintended Consequences. Factory-Farming. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
• How Do CAFOs Impact the Environment. EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.
• Research Clarifies Health Costs of Air Pollution from Agriculture, Hansen, Kathryn.. NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. 
• How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture, Horrigan, Leo, Lawrence, Robert S., Walker, Polly, Johns Hopkins University's Center for a Livable Future, July 9, 1999, n.d. web 24 Sept. 2014
• Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities (n.d.): n. pag. National Association of Local Boards of Health. Centers for Disease Control. Web, Hribar, Carrie.

Wisc Public TV to Air Segment on Clean Water Failure Friday Night

Award-winning science and environmental writer, Ron Seely, will be the featured guest on Wisconsin Public TV's public-affairs show, Here and Now Friday Night and Sunday.

Seely will be discussing the crisis of safe, clean water in Wisconsin, and future coverage of the issue in the Wisconsin media.

Seely is an editor and reporter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and a senior lecturer on journalism and science writing in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Rep. Scott Krug Skips Wood County Groundwater Ordinance Meeting

Facing heavy lobbying from the polluters' lobby, the Dairy Business Association, the Wood County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a groundwater protection ordinance Tuesday. (Anderson, Gannett Co. News) (Mal Contends)

Wisconsin State Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) spoke in favor of the groundwater ordinance.

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa and ALEC) was absent.

Why did State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa and ALEC) blow off this meeting?

Krug is quietly assisting Scott Walker, Walker's DNR and the Dairy Business Association in their project in which one objective and inevitable consequence is to contaminate and literally toxify area lakes and groundwater.

Nice.

This is what a corrupt group of politicians and Big Ag do when they sell out the people of Wisconsin for money.

The owners don't live on the industrialized factory farms, they safely live far away from the millions of tons of liquidized manure they deposit into the environment.

Krug is running a con on the people of 72nd state assembly district in central Wisconsin. Krug pretends to care about the health of water, and even instituted an informal surface-water citizens advisory group in which members say Krug never took minutes, often didn't show up, and then made numerous references to the group during campaign season.

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.

Big Ag's 'Feed the World' PR Message Is Playing with Disaster

By Jerome Viste

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin — It is almost amusing to see the trend of dairy farming in Wisconsin today under the urging of the University and Department of Agriculture claiming the need to expand to be able to keep up with demands to "Feed the World". Europe and Asia are at all-time high milk production and have surplus of their own and dropping prices to deal with.

It seems that there is a manifesto has been put in place to put small farmers out of business as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, for those leaders it is the small farms that have stabilized the industry through the decades and continue to do so, even while fewer in numbers. One of the advantages the small family farms enjoy is the ability to contain their operation within their own holdings and not have to spend a major part of their income in transporting field forage crops and the immense amount of manure that is generated at a central location. That’s a huge advantage and may save some of the small farm operations and make them sustainable.

The stewardship and ecological responsibility becomes secondary to the need to dispose of the massive amount of waste that is now a disposal problem all over. The reliance on maximum spreading amounts that were dictated by the voluntary nutrient management plans has shown that it does not work. Stewardship and ecological responsibility have been given a secondary role in large-scale production as brought out in the increasing problems of the last few years. There is a new effort to improve the enforcement capabilities of the nutrient management plans, but that same problem will remain regardless of the new regulations, that problem is enforcement - nothing will have changed – as before, Fridays and weekend spreading will be unchallenged, unless by citizen observation and recording, too often after-the–fact.

These comments are based on my own experience of 43 years of producing milk for the Grade A Chicago Fluid Milk Market, which historically paid substantially more than the Grade B market which consisted of cheese and other dairy product manufacturing. Grade A milk mandated an inspection twice yearly by Chicago Board of Health inspectors and quality had to be maintained. Under Wisconsin law for manufacturing milk – less than Grade A - producers, are inspected by the processor who buys the milk. In other words, if you are a producer who processes your own manufacturing grade milk, you are your own inspector for quality control.

You can see where this is going.

To continue to produce in excess of the market needs and not to respond to those needs with curtailed production is playing with disaster. This has been proven several times and Grade A farmers operated on a quota system that worked well all those years. There was no effort by unknown forces to get farmers to expand with entirely borrowed resources, other than the University push to 'get bigger', in order to compete with California for the Dairyland title, and help maintain the banking industry.

Republican AGs Want Right for Donors to Pollute Waters

Even as Wisconsin under Scott Walker eviscerates state protection of our waters from polluters, the Wisconsin Department of Justice is joining Republican state attorneys general to stop enforcement of a U.S. clean water rule.

Enjoy the water this weekend, because if Republicans get their way, clean water will become a dying memory.

When it comes to your children's health and clean water v. industries' right to pollute, Republicans take industry every time.

From the Wisconsin Dept of Justice (Republican)

WISCONSIN FILES LAWSUIT ASKING COURT TO OVERTURN BURDENSOME ‘WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES’ RULE

MADISON — Attorney General Brad Schimel (Republican) today announced Wisconsin has joined eight other state Attorneys General in a lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down a new rule from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that unlawfully expands the federal government’s regulatory reach over local streams, lands and farms. Eleven other (Republican) states have filed a parallel lawsuit.

The rule, known as the “Waters of the United States,” would extend the EPA and Corps of Engineers’ regulatory reach to an untold number of small bodies of water, including roadside ditches and short-lived streams or any other area where the agencies believe water may flow once every 100 years.

[Say Republicans]: This rule could have dire consequences for homeowners, farmers and other entities by forcing them to navigate a complex federal bureaucracy and obtain costly permits in order to perform everyday tasks like digging ditches, building fences or spraying fertilizers. Failure to comply with this new regulatory scheme could result in substantial fines.

”Wisconsin already has strong clean water regulations and these proposed duplicative regulations will serve only to harm farmers and landowners by substantially increasing costs and delaying permits,” [the Republican] Schimel said. “This overreaching move is yet another example of the EPA exceeding its constitutional authority to the detriment of our state.”

In the complaint filed June 30, 2015 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, the Attorneys General of West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin argue the final rule put forward by the EPA and Corps of Engineers violates the Clean Water Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution, and usurps the States’ primary responsibility for the management, protection and care of intrastate waters and lands.

While the Clean Water Act gave the EPA and Corps authority to regulate “navigable waters” – defined as “waters of the United States” – Congress made sure that states would retain their constitutional, sovereign responsibility over non-navigable, intrastate lands and waters. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice rejected the agencies’ attempts to expand their authority (in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v. United States). However, this latest rule written by the two administrative agencies gives them virtually limitless power over these waters.

The complaint asks a federal judge to declare the rule illegal and issue an injunction to prevent the agencies from enforcing it. It also asks the judge to order the agencies to draft a new rule that complies with the law and honors States’ rights.

A copy of the complaint is available at here.

Dane County Lakes: Three Beaches Closed, Don't Touch the Water

Public Health Madison and Dane County
Warn: Three beaches are closed
for swimming due to toxic blue-green
algae. Pictured above is James Madison
Beach on Lake Mendota

It's mid-June and three popular beaches are closed on Lake Mendota due to toxic blue-green algae created by abundant phosphate pollution from large industrialized farming manure.

Dane County has the most CAFOS or Confined Animal Feeding Operations in Wisconsin, a destructive business model protected by Republicans in the state legislature, and Scott Walker in the executive branch.

Tenney Park beach, Warner Park Beach and James Madison park beach are all closed until further notice.

If Wisconsin's sociopathic governor really believes that CAFO pollution is not a problem—as demonstrated in an April 2015 comprehensive report on the abdication of pollution control to Big Ag—then the next time he is in the governor's mansion located on Lake Mendota, he should jog down to James Madison Park with a glass, fill it up with water from Mendota and drink up.

Blue-Green Algae

The UW Hospital Poison Prevention and Education Center (PPEC) in minutes away from James Madison park.

Perhaps on the way to the hospital for an assertive anti-biotic program, Walker can read up on why the CAFO model is unhealthy and unsustainable.

Begin with John E. Ikerd Professor Emeritus of Agricultural & Applied Economics University of Missouri Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and Joshua Yelle of the Western Illinois University Center for the Study of Agriculture, Environment, and Energy. (Mal Contends) Mr. Yelle was kind enough to lend his findings to this site and Dr. Ikerd is about the most kind intellectually generous person one can meet.

Citizen Attendance at Wood County Board Meeting Angers Committee Chair

Those uppity clean-water activists in central Wisconsin have really done it this time.

At a March 24 meeting of the Wood County Board of Supervisors' Spray Irrigation of Waste Ad Hoc Committee Tuesday morning, an estimated 35 to 50 citizens attended the public and open meeting.

You read this correctly: Citizens attended a County Board meeting, visibly upsetting several Board Supervisors and Wood County Supervisor and Committee Chair Ed Wagner who voiced his displeasure at public attendance.

"The chairman of a Wood County committee tasked with studying the issues raised by agricultural manure spraying was not happy about seeing a crowd at Tuesday's meeting. ... "I don't like the fact that we have the public standing in the hallway," [Supervisor and Committee Chair Ed] Wagner said before moving the meeting to the Courthouse Auditorium. "I think this is an attempt to put pressure on the committee for one point of view." (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

The public disagreed, saying they had a right to attend a public meeting.

"I had a chair right in front of Supervisor [Ed] Wagner (District 4-Marshfield) when he sort of grumbled, 'This was supposed to be a committee meeting not a public hearing.' This was at the time more people were showing up outside the door," said one member of the public.

The meeting was held in compliance with Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law mandating "all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and shall be open to all citizens at all times unless otherwise expressly provided by law.” Wis. Stat. § 19.81(2). (Wisconsin Department of Justice) (Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council)

Had Supervisor Wagner closed the open and publicly advertised meeting, Wagner would have been in violation of Wisconsin Open Meetings Law: "Any member of a governmental body who knowingly attends a meeting of such body held in violation of this subchapter, or who, in his or her official capacity, otherwise violates this subchapter by some act or omission shall forfeit without reimbursement not less than $25 nor more than $300 for each such violation." (Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law, 919.96 Penalty)

It's not clear if discouraging the public from attending open meetings is illegal.


"I asked Ed Wagner why he seemed so angry and agitated, he said, 'I put word out I didn’t want the whole big group and everyone shows up.' I said, 'Ed, I never received this message. It is a public meeting, correct? Not one person said a word including public comment, this has not been disruptive. I came here to listen and that’s exactly what we all did.' He said in the past there has been people that have been disruptive. I do not recall this. There has been, at times, public input that apparently is not welcome. [Supervisors] Hilde Henkel (District 10)  and Donna Rozar (District 2) talked of the risks we run being exposed to pathogens going into a supermarket, walking in the grass or as a surgeon (Donna’s husband) operating on a patient with AIDS, being exposed and dying from the disease. Their philosophy is everything has risk ... manure has very little. They have missed the boat!!!," said another attending citizen, Rhonda Cain-Carrell.

The Ad Hoc Committee deals with issues associated with the pollution caused by Spray Irrigation of liquid cow manure in Wood County, site of large potato operations among other concerns.

Spray Irrigation has drawn increasing scrutiny as the pollution of air, water and land has become apparent as the practice increases in Wisconsin. (Seely, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism)

Numerous Wisconsin towns and Bayfield County (Mullen, Ashland Daily Press) have banned the practice. Ten counties in Minnesota also ban manure irrigation. (Seely)

In manure irrigation operations, "high capacity wells can pump 100,000 gallons of groundwater per day or more (with some pumping up to 1 to 2 million gallons per day)," and combine the water with cow manure, sending back liquid cow manure onto crops, mainly corn and potatoes. (Wisconsin Lakes)

Central Wisconsin has more high capacity, industrial water pumps than any other region in Wisconsin.

"Pumping is measurably lowering groundwater and surface water levels where density of high capacity wells is high. Over 3,000 high capacity wells in the Central Sands Region are threatening surface water and groundwater level," notes the John Muir Chapter of Sierra Club.

From Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors:

March 25, 2015

A Disappointing and Disastrous Meeting

The Spray Irrigation of Waste Ad Hoc Committee met at the Wood County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 24th starting at 9:00 AM.  There was some confusion regarding the starting time as it had previously been scheduled to start at 9:30 AM, but this was later changed to 9:00 AM.

The agreed upon agenda for this meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee was an open discussion among the committee members about what they had learned over the last seven months and where they were headed. There was a high level of interest in this meeting and about 33 – 50 citizens showed up by 9:30. Committee Chairman Ed Wagner was quite upset that so many citizens showed up to attend an open meeting of the county board and made a number of insulting comments about the public attendance and stated that “this was no way to run a meeting”.  Apparently Ed does not believe in the democratic process. If anything, government officials should encourage citizen attendance at public meetings, not discourage it.

No citizen spoke during the open time at the beginning of the meeting as we all felt that we would have our heads handed to us if we did.

[Supervisor] Bill Leichtnam (District 19) had communicated with Ed well in advance of this meeting to expect a lot of citizens to show up and plan to have the auditorium available. Ed had resisted this advice.  Due to the overflow crowd, Ed finally began negotiations to use the auditorium at 9:20 AM and we all adjourned to the auditorium and the meeting began again at 9:30.

Ed Wagner guided and pretty much dominated the discussion with some technical input from Shane Wucherpfennig. Whenever Bill Leichtnam tried to offer input, Ed treated him with disdain. I really expect our county board supervisors to act in a more civil manner.

Ed outlined the these main areas of concern and there was some discussion around each point:

• Water Quality
• Ground 
• Surface 
• Air Quality
• Public Health
• Pathogens etc.

In the end, it appears that the committee will wait for the state-sponsored final report from the Manure Irrigation Workgroup, which may appear in about six weeks. This state report will provide “best practices” and will not have any force of law. Ed Wagner will also start writing a “draft” of the committee report.

I have surmised from the various discussions that this committee will not come out with any proposed county ordinances regarding the aerial spraying of manure.  I think the best we can expect from this Ad Hoc committee is a recommendation to follow the best practices provided by the state.  

This Ad Hoc committee, under the leadership of Ed Wagner, has proved to be totally risk adverse and dysfunctional. Bill Leichtnam has done everything he could to educate and energize the committee, but met a lot of resistance along the way.