Illinois Swine Factory Plans Killed Following Rural Opposition

Citizen's Water Lobby Days in Wisconsin signals
mounting action against industrialized agriculture
in the Midwest, (Facebook)

County Farm Bureau Moved Decision

A massive proposed swine CAFO in downstate Illinois has been killed following an outcry by rural neighbors and small farmers, signalling mounting concern for clean water and rural life against industrialized agriculture.

In Wisconsin, 1,000s are expected to descend on Madison Feb. 8 to protest proposed CAFOs in central and northern Wisconsin.

Well-organized Wisconsin groups are eyeing citizen action in Illinois.

Report Gary Marx and David Jackson in the Chicago Tribune:

Facing opposition from local farmers, one of the state's largest pork producers has pulled its application to build a hog confinement in downstate Fulton County, handing opponents a rare victory in their efforts to slow the growth of the massive livestock facilities in the state.

The hog producer, an affiliate of Professional Swine Management, formally withdrew its notice of intent to construct from the Illinois Department of Agriculture last week after sustained protests from neighbors who feared that waste from the proposed 20,000-hog confinement could foul rivers and creeks, and that the operation might ruin roads and jeopardize their rural way of life.

'It's a great thing,' said Fulton County crop and livestock farmer Matt Howe, referring to the decision to cancel plans for the hog confinement. 'Twenty-thousand animals is a monstrosity. I don't count it as agriculture.'

Two weeks ago, Howe resigned from the Fulton County Farm Bureau's board of directors to protest the group's apparent support for the facility, initially called Cleer Farm and recently changed to Memory Lane Acres. Howe said his own farm and home sit just 3,000 feet from the proposed site.

Last Wednesday, the Fulton County Farm Bureau held a meeting in which a handful of farmers voiced continued opposition to the facility, according to Farm Bureau officials and participants.

'They wanted to know our concerns with the hog confinement and why we were opposing it,' said farmer Craig Porter, who is also a member of the local Isabel Township Board.

The next day, Professional Swine Management pulled the plug on the project, though the company could submit a new application that would restart the permitting process, state agricultural officials told the Tribune.

Two Wisconsin Schools Receive Letters Warning of Well Contamination

Wisconsin is heading towards a disaster as new warnings of water contamination have been sent to two schools in northeastern Wisconsin.

It would appear Wisconsin Republicans' project of polluting and plundering our fresh waters has undergone mission-creep. Republicans will not be happy until our children are poisoned as well.

Hyperbole? I wish.

Karen Ebert Yancey of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reports from northeastern Wisconsin:

Two Kewaunee County schools received letters from the Kewaunee County Public Health Department warning that a neighboring property owner's well within a half-mile of their schools had tested positive for salmonella and rotavirus, Cynthia Kinnard, county public health nurse said Thursday.

Luxemburg-Casco Middle School and Holy Trinity School both in Casco received letters from the department suggesting that they test their wells for presence of the contaminants, which are typically associated with animal or human feces.

Wisconsin state assembly candidate, Lynn Utesch, passed the grim news onto the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in an email this morning.

Utesch who has been black-listed by the DNR has not heard back yet if the DNR's official position is in fact: Too bad, kids.

Lynn Utesch, Clean Water Activist, to Launch Run for State Assembly

Nancy and Lynn Utesch tell supporters of Lynn's run for the
nomination of the Democratic Party for Wisconsin's
first assembly district. Photo was shot in the town of
Algoma by a supporter in the district on the shore of Lake
Michigan; out-side was near-white out conditions on March 1.

Environmentalist, veteran and small farmer, Lynn Utesch enters Wisconsin state assembly race as favorite in Wisconsin's 'Peninsula' district

Updated - Wisconsin clean water activists from around the state have looked to this day with anticipation: Kewaunee County farmer and environmentalist Lynn Utesch announcing his run for the first assembly district.

Utesch told about 30 supporters he will seek the First assembly district seat now held by first-term incumbent Republican Rep. Joel Kitchens, (a Scott Walker Republican who follows the Party line) early this afternoon.

The district is located in Wisconsin's northeastern peninsula and composes all of Door and most of Kewaunee county.

Wisconsin's first assembly
district is the 'thumb' in
northeastern Wisconsin

Lynn Utesch is a small farmer, (150 acres), and clean water activist, and recently was reported to be listed on Scott Walker's Dept. of Natural Resource's "blacklist" of Wisconsin citizens to which the Walker adminstration is hostile, (Stein and Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), (Door County Daily News).

Utesch lives in the town of Pierce in northern Kewaunee County which he has called a "cautionary tale" for Wisconsin waters.

"If I had to describe Lynn, I would say he is tough, I mean tough and highly principled," said a Door County resident supportive of Utesch's run, this morning. "If you had to create a candidate from parts to represent the First, you wouldn't have to, it would be Lynn."

Utesch announced his intention to run at the Goodner residential home in the town of Algoma, located on Lake Michigan.

Utesch told about 30 supporters he is running to work for clean water and sustainable farms in the Dairy State.

"We have seen a degradation in the conservation ethic that has taken place here in the state of Wisconsin. It is time that we start working to restore what was given to us by John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson," said Utesch, (Yancey, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin).

Over one-third of private wells in Kewaunee County were found to be unsafe to drink because they had been polluted by toxins in cow manure from runoff in what a judge termed a "massive regulatory failure" in a 2014 finding, (Seely, WisconsinWatch), circumvented by the the Dept. of Resources.

Utesch is a favorite to win

Lynn and Nancy Utesch pictured in the Socially Responsible
Agricultural Project (SRAP) (Facebook)

Utesch enter the race as a favorite in the race as Door County votes Democratic in presidential elections, and the driven Utesch is well-known in the sparsely populated Kewaunee County which votes marginally Republican in presidential elections.

The campaign between Utesch and Kitchens follows numerous reports of hospitalizations of people drinking water from polluted water wells, a condition that persists and Utesch has vowed to fight, (Mal Contends, Green Bay Press Gazette, Door County Pulse, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network).

Scott Walker Deplete-and-Pollute-Sell Plot

The announcement of Utesch's candidacy comes as Scott Walker signs a bill, AB 603, that would decimate protection of 1,000s of bodies of shoreline water in Wisconsin, including the Lake Superior Water Trail (LSWT).

The peninsula is currently fighting developers supported by the incumbent that would destroy large tracts of the peninsula shoreline with unwanted (by residents) development.

A forum about the impact of CAFOs (Concentrated (Confined)
Animal Feeding Operations) on quality of life and health
in rural communities and water was held in Ashland, Wisconsin
Feb. 28, 2015. Later, participants stood on Lake Superior.
- From Left to Right, Dr. Keeve Nachman,
Gordon Stevenson, Dr. John Ikerd and Lynn and Nancy Utesch
Photo: Scott Dye

Utesch is known statewide for his work on sustainable, environmentally friendly agriculture, and his opposition to industrialized agriculture polluting surface waters and aquifers around the state.

Kewaunee County is home to some of the most dangerous and damaging pollution of Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Operations (CAFO and near-CAFO designation) that dump millions of tons of cow and pig manure into the environment, (Yancey, Green Bay Press Gazette).

Scott Walker is expected to sign 2015 Senate Bill 390, (link broken, new link) which gives any county with a county highway commissioner the power to issue liquid manure transfer piping through and along any county highway, a relatively unknown and little-discussed legislation that could devastate the region, a tourism and recreational mecca known as Wisconsin's Martha's Vineyard.

Wisconsin Citizens Promote Their Communites in Face of Legislative Betrayal

Paradise in quiet, low-profile Wisconsin region

In the Central ("Golden") Sands of Wisconsin, residents are promoting their communities.

Genuine pride for many is a place to have the grand-kids over in the summer at small lake houses among the many waters dotting the region.

Golf, restaurants, trails, recreational centers, the area is among the least-known treasures of Wisconsin.

Lake Arrowhead in Adams County is an anthology, termed a "hidden gem" in a region where the paper mills and mill workers used to dominate the economy and culture.

Citizen groups are calling for protection and cultivation of the natural resources to fill in the void left by a paper industry that is but a shadow of past decades.

Venal hi jinx at the Wisconsin capitol by the local state legislator will not stop a growing citizens' movement from promoting their community, a common effort right as Scott Walker and Republicans remove state money from the state park system and call for higher fees in the last budget, (Dee J. Hall).

By Bob Benkowski, Don Ystad, John Endrizzi, Rick Antin, Rick Georgeson, and Steve Raap

All,

Listening to the families interviewed on this clip​ included below​, ​we are reminded that many of us have spent 30 years or more enjoying the Rome lakes, and have retired here in this beautiful community of lakes and recreation.  We appreciate our area and hope for many more years of enjoyment here.  At the risk of being a "downer", we want to share a couple other things that come to mind, the "elephant in the room", so to speak.

First, are you aware that 3 of our 4 lakes in Rome are on the state's impaired list because of pollutants in the water? In the case of Lakes Arrowhead and Sherwood, it's the high levels of algae attributable to phosphorous, quite probably from upstream sources. Even worse in Lake Petenwell, where heavy metals from upstream sources also add to water issues.

Second, are you aware that a 5,300 cow dairy CAFO is being proposed next door in Saratoga?  If you've followed the news, then you know of the contamination of drinking water wells in Kewaunee, nitrate levels nearly 8 times the state and federal level across the Petenwell in Armenia, all related to dairy CAFOs.  Probably, you've also read about the lakes and streams decimated by high capacity wells in Almond, Plainfield, Hancock, and Plover, among others. You do know that 33 high capacity wells are being proposed with the CAFO next door in Saratoga, and that nearly 1,500 of your own drinking water wells are within it's cone of depression? And maybe you read this week that a spill at a dairy CAFO in Fennimore spewed a 2 mile stream of cow manure down a local waterway. The proposed CAFO in Saratoga will produce 55 million gallons of manure annually. [Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal; Larson, WKOW-TV]

Tourism PR people don't like to talk about this. But, if you value Rome and the recreational aspects as ​we do, you can love and promote the Rome area and still work towards protecting what we all have here. Petenwell is addressing their issues through PACRS (Petenwell and Caste Rock Stewards). We can take an active role in Rome to protect our other 3 lakes, Arrowhead, Sherwood and Camelot, through more citizen involvement with our TriLakes Management Association in their efforts to get more involved in corrective action (trilakesmanagement.com). Also, with pressure on our town government to help clean up our lakes for the issues we know about today. An even bigger issue is the proposed CAFO next door, which could foul our lakes and our air, reduce stream flow affecting lake levels, and pollute our drinking water. As we approach the DNR's Environmental Impact Study (EIS) and permitting process, we all need to be involved by attending the public hearing when the EIS comes out, and by contacting agencies and politicians now about our concerns for the future of our area.

So, in summary, what ​can ​​citizens like you do?

- Watch the video.  Let it remind you of what we have here
- Contact TriLakes and let them know you want to help clean up and protect our lakes (trilakesmanagement.com) lakedist@wctc.net
- Contact our town board and let them know you want them ​actively ​
involved in protecting our recreational assets here McLaughlin@romewi.com
- Contact state agency heads and politicians in advance of the EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] of a proposed massive industrialized factory farm (CAFO)] and let them know you expect their help in protecting our recreational area from the proposed CAFO (from CC: above)

Lake Arrowhead Video link

​Thanks,

Paul O'Neill Hailed Safe Water During Bush Administration

As the Scott Walker administration accelerates its maniacal and illegal targeting of clean water in Wisconsin, environmentalists can only report the facts and shake their heads in disbelief at this naked corruption—pathological and nihilistic.

Wisconsinites would do well to consider the parable of Paul O'Neill.

Paul O'Neill is a retired innovative American business executive who served as Chair and CEO of Alcoa Inc. [2014 sales of $23.9 billion and 59,000 employees (Lexis-Nexis)], from 1987 to 1999.

O'Neill was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2001–2002) in the Bush-Cheney administration in a tumultuous tenure at odds with the trajectory of that disastrous administration.

Water

As chronicled in The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind (Simon and Schuster, (2004)), O'Neill's penchant for using facts and evidence to make policy made him an outcast in the corrupt Bush-Cheney administration.

O'Neill turned his attention to Africa in a 2001 trip to the region in which he continued his crusade for developing "vibrant, self-sustaining local economies" (pp. 248, 249) with small investments in sanitary water systems and reliable electrical infrastructure.

O'Neill termed water (and electricity) the "prerequisites of civilization" without which the ravages of waterborne diseases are vectored into the human population ensuring misery, halting economic development and political stability.

George Stephanopoulos asked O'Neill how he would judge whether his Africa trip was a success. O'Neill replied in part his trip would be a success when people are "getting clean water," (p.257). All this took was "commitment," (pp 265-66).

O'Neill was ridiculed and laughed out of the administration as AIDS, war and corruption ravished the impoverished continent.

As Suskind writes, O'Neill was mystified by the administration wondering "[w]hat the hell was so important that water didn't make the cut?, (p.267)."

The same question could be asked of Scott Walker as Wisconsin Republicans are literally taking Wisconsin backwards and rewarding polluters who implement this insane project.

New Report: Nitrates in Water Are "Imminent threat to human health"

Kate Golden has the latest in the Failure at the Faucet series by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting.

Golden's piece reports on a particularly disturbing aspect of Wisconsin's water crisis pointing to nitrates in drinking water, and Blue Baby syndrome.

Writes Golden:

Among those with water contaminated by nitrate are Sherryl and Doug Jones of rural Spring Green.

About eight years ago, water from their private well tested at 20 milligrams of nitrate per liter of water — twice the health limit. Sherryl Jones said the couple initially switched to bottled water and, since 2012, they have been using a reverse osmosis system to remove nitrate at a cost of about $25 a month. Reverse osmosis removes nitrate and other contaminants by using high pressure to push water through a semipermeable membrane.

'We had children, we had babies in our house, we had a pregnant daughter, we had pregnant daughters-in-law. What was this (water) doing? There was no way we could let them drink this water,' Sherryl Jones recalled.

Jones said she urged neighbors to get their water tested, too. The result: Some of them had been drinking water with four times the health limit of nitrate. In fact, testing by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Center for Watershed Science and Education found 31 percent of the private well samples collected in the Spring Green area had nitrate levels above the health standard.

As the Scott Walker administration sells out the very lifeblood of Wisconsin citizens by refusing to protect water, all parents can do is make sure their babies drink bottled water as Wisconsin remains on a trajectory that will inescapably lead to trajedy.

Central Wisconsin Wants Golf Resort; Opposes Industrialized, Polluting Dairy

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

Updated - Opponents of a proposed massive factory farm sited in Wood and Adams counties are working on several fronts to stop the proposed Wycocki CAFO or Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation in the Town of Saratoga.

One campaign has citizen groups reaching out to promote the tourism and and recreational potential of the region, located at the bottom of an ancient glacial lake in the Central or 'Golden Sands' region of Wisconsin.

Citizens point out specifically the region known for its towering pine trees and waters is perfect for the Sand Valley Golf Resort, a world-class sand dunes sanctuary already drawing raves among golf enthusiasts, (Kerr-Dineen, Golf Digest).

Area residents point out the Resort would draw little water because of its large sand composition, and spur economic development through restaurants and hotels, in concert with existing recreational attractions.

Ancient Glacial Lake Wisconsin -
17,000 years ago

Against this effort is the "Wysocki Family of [Companies' proposed] Golden Sands CAFO in Saratoga that will be home to over 6,000 animal units ... [producing] 50 million gallons of liquid waste per year," (Rearjet, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), through the use of some 38 high capacity water wells each drawing over 100,000 gallons per day to mix with the tons of annual cow manure that would be sprayed back into the environment with predictable dangerous health and environmental consequences. [See also High-Density Livestock Operations, Crop Field Application of Manure, and Risk of Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Pennsylvania; by Joan A. Casey, MA; Frank C. Curriero, PhD, MA; Sara E. Cosgrove, MD, MS; Keeve E. Nachman, PhD, MHS; Brian S. Schwartz, MD]

Infestations of flies and rats are common around CAFOs and neighboring communities, notes widely research on polluting CAFOs.

The Wysocki corporation's proposed CAFO would be sited just miles north of the Sand Valley Golf Resort, a proximity that a strong north wind bringing ammonia, a putrid odor and flies would make clear.

Clean water advocates, sustainable farm advocates, business consultants, property owners seeing plummeting valuations and other opponents of CAFOs from across Wisconsin are rallying in Madison Nov. 7 at the state capitol at 1:00 p.m. this coming Saturday, (Citizens Concerned about Lake Superior CAFOs (Facebook)).

They are demanding the state of Wisconsin support clean water, clean air and take measures against Big Ag and CAFOs assuring the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine is no longer ignored by Scott Walker and state Republicans who have taken $ millions in campaign donations from agricultural polluters and have launched an attack on the Public Trust Doctrine.

From an email sent to supporters this weekend by retired business consultant, Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin in northern Adams County:

I don't want to be seen as a shill for Sand Valley, but this is the kind of development that helps our area to thrive. It highlights a natural resource that had been hidden within a paper pulp tree plantation. It's a links type course using far less water than a traditional course. And, hiking trails will permit public access so we can all enjoy the dunes. If its anything like their other world class golf resorts, the boon to area commerce and property values is encouraging.

Contrast that to the proposed Wysocki Dairy CAFO that affects air and water quality, and even worse, can cause declining property values. Don't allow this proposed CAFO to compromise our existing recreational area or the growth we will all feel from Sand Valley. The DNR's Environmental Impact Study and public hearing are expected in just a few months. If you've been on the sideline regarding this proposed affront to our recreational area, its time to exercise the power of the 'court of public opinion'. Join forces with your neighbors who are making their voices heard all over the state. A few minutes of your time now can prevent a lifetime of regret. Get on board at Protect Wood County or Rome Saratoga Friendly on Facebook. And check Sand Valley's website. It's very impressive

Citizens promoting their area's economy by protecting its natural resources, a message that is gaining power across Wisconsin

Sand Valley Golf Resort map pitches to golf enthusiasts across the Midwest

Citizen Groups Appeal to EPA to Protect Wisconsin Water

"Earth is a water planet. Though the stock of water is finite, fully 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water. Freshwater, however, is far less abundant, accounting for less than than 3% of the total, of which less than 1% is in the form of readily exploited lakes (0.009%), rivers (0.0001%), and accessible groundwater (0.31%)."
—Herman E. Daly and Joshua Farley, Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications (Island Press,) (2004, 2011); p. 87)
 ---
Bill Berry in the Capital Times reports on the future of water in Wisconsin, and the unprecedented abdication by our state government (run by Republicans) handing over surface and ground water to the polluters.

What to do with our life blood protected by the Wisconsin Constitution, asks Berry?:

So, who will decide? Politicians, with or without science? Courts? Special interests? Stay tuned, and keep your eye on the powerful citizen groups that have sprung up pretty much on their own. They may be the best hope for a reasonable solution.

Fully comprehending the scope of Scott Walker's project of giving away Wisconsin water to the polluters is beyond the comprehension of many citizens—so fast, so completely and astonishingly has the Walker administration abandoned clean and fresh water.

This is being met with a massive legal offensive today:

Petition to EPA: Wisconsin’s Fails to Comply with Clean Water Act

Oct 20, 2015

Today, on behalf of 16 Petitioners from across the state of Wisconsin, Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a Petition for Corrective Action with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to request action by both federal and state agencies to bring Wisconsin back into compliance with the Clean Water Act. Wisconsin citizens petitioning the EPA have long-standing water problems from poor implementation and enforcement of the landmark federal law.

“Today, Petitioners are exercising a right granted by federal law to ask the EPA to require our state Department of Natural Resources to issue water pollution permits in compliance with the Clean Water Act,” said Staff Attorney Tressie Kamp. “If our DNR and state legislators do not take timely action, the Petition asks that the EPA take back the DNR’s power to issue permits to industries that discharge pollutants into Wisconsin’s waters.”

In 2011, the EPA sent a letter to the DNR outlining 75 points where the state government was out of compliance with the federal Clean Water Act through a lack of clear or effective implementation, enforcement or proper legal authority for the state. Since then, changes in the agency’s rulemaking process, staffing and authority within the agency’s water pollution permitting program, and circumvention of court-ordered pollution controls, in addition to cuts in the agency’s budget and science staff, have all culminated in this urgent, statewide call for action. The Petition requests that the EPA works with the DNR to establish enforceable timelines for compliance.

“The Petition for Corrective Action is important and justified because it’s been over four years—and in some instances, much longer—since the EPA put our DNR on notice that Wisconsin does not issue water pollution permits in full compliance with the federal laws that protect clean water all over our country,” said Kamp.

“The Governor and state legislature have starved the DNR’s power and robbed the agency’s experienced staff of professional autonomy to make informed decisions,” said Executive Director Kimberlee Wright. “Today, this drastically narrowed authority of DNR staff to make critical decisions about protecting our water requires urgent action by the EPA. Without effective government, we are compounding what our children and grandchildren will face in a world increasingly short of drinking water.”
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For more information on the petition.
#

Saratoga Man Blasts Groundwater Extraction Bill Gutting Water Protection

Republican bill would inflict damage onto rural communities and small businesses
Draining water would result in plummeting property values, new houses will not be built. Anybody that can move out, will move out.

Before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy Regarding Senate Bill 291

Testimony of Bruce E. Dimick
The Town of Saratoga

October 13, 2015

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak here today.  My name is Bruce Dimick; I am from the Town of Saratoga Wisconsin, and am a member of the Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors organization. I have read SB 291 and was pleased by some aspects of the bill, but troubled by others.  

One of those problem areas is the method used to identify a Sensitive Resource Area (SRA). I was a member of Representative Krug’s Citizen Advisory Groundwater Group when language similar to what is found in SB 291 was presented by Representative Krug with respect to Sensitive Resource Areas. I forcefully argued against this convoluted approach then, and I do so again today. To my knowledge, no one on the committee endorsed this approach, although many of us were in favor of the concept of Sensitive Resource Areas, or carve-outs.

Approval for a Sensitive Resource Area designation would, according to some estimates, take at least 10 years, during which any high-capacity wells that are approved for an area would be allowed to operate. By the time the SRA designation could be achieved much of the damage would already be done. Why work reactively when a proactive approach makes so much more sense both environmentally and economically?

In order to really understand the hydrogeology of an area like the Central Sands, you almost have to live there for a number of years, especially if you are from a more typical clay-loam environment.  We raised our family north of Appleton in the heart of dairy country during the ‘70’s and 80’s. This was typical clay-loam country like the country I grew up on in Northeastern Ohio. When we eventually moved to Saratoga, with its almost total lack of topsoil and all sand it took some getting used to. Without spray irrigation, our area is good for growing pine trees, but not much else.

One way to conceptualize the Central Sands area is think of it as a big tub full of sand filled almost to the top with water. All the water is connected. Streams, lakes and ponds are merely reflecting the local water table. As an example, we have a small dug pond on our property that has no typical inlet or outlet. Yet it is full of clean water and fish year round.  The ground water flows through our pond, slowly but continually, on its way to the Wisconsin River via one or more of the trout streams in the area.

The Central Sands area has been the subject of countless hydro geological studies done by the UWSP as well as the USGS and has already been identified as an environmentally sensitive region. The sensitivity of this aquifer is well documented, including a 2003 designation by the state legislature when groundwater management areas were identified.

The SRA designation should be made by the legislature proactively, now, just as it was in 2003 when groundwater management areas were identified. 

If the entirety of the Central Sands area were designated as an SRA up front, then that would be a great improvement to this Bill.

I would ask the committee to go through a likely scenario for the Town of Saratoga if this bill is passed without modification. Saratoga home owners and small business’s are already being stressed by the threat that the aquifer supplying the residents of the town will be severely damaged. Housing prices have already plummeted, some by as much as 40-50%, and that is if you are lucky enough to sell your home. We are all dependent on private wells. The two wells on my property are 12’ sandpoints and our water tests unbelievably clean.

So if SB 291 becomes law without modification, and the Wysocki Family of Companies sinks their proposed 33 high capacity wells and lowers the water table as expected, many residents will have to construct new deeper wells.  And by the way, deeper does not always mean better. In areas like ours, the best water is frequently found near the top. Sand is a great filter.

Property values will continue to deteriorate and new houses will not be built in our rural residential community. Anybody that can move out, will move out. Perhaps a few hearty souls would prevail and eventually Saratoga and surrounding areas would be designated as an SRA after 7-10 years. The chances at that point of actually shutting down Wysocki’s 33 high capacity wells seems remote at best.

The damage will have been done and a rural community and its small businesses will suffer.

Scott Krug's Betrayal—Sponsors Bill to Plunder Groundwater

Increasing opposition to a proposed massive CAFO in Wood
County in central Wisconsin spurs State Rep. Scott Krug (R)
to lie he has support of clean water advocates for legislation
he is co-sponsoring in the state assembly. Krug's bill would
facilitate the permitting of high capacity water wells drawing
100,000 gallons of groundwater per day and used by CAFOs
to create pathogen-laden liquid cow manure that is dumped
into the environment.
.
- Photo by Mary Captain-Braund

State Rep. Scott Krug Lies Again, Con Job in Central Wisconsin on High Capacity Groundwater Wells

Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature are fast-tracking a bill to give away Wisconsin groundwater to special interests who donated $ millions to Scott Walker and other Republicans (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign).

The legislation is Senate Bill 291.

The bill is being sold as a compromise bill (with Senate Bill 239) though this is the Republican political strategy, known for months by environmental activists and acknowledged in a September 9 email (obtained here) by State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) in which Krug says, "The compromise bill that I have been working on will be released this month and will do many good things for the Central Sands area."

SB 291 is the end game of Republican strategy to pose as protectors of groundwater while directing the newly polluter-friendly Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) to expedite permits for high-capacity wells drawing more than 100,000 gallons of groundwater a day.

Krug's spin is reported in a largely uncritical piece by Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on October 9.

The water is used by industrialized agriculture (Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operations) and other large industrialized agricultural corporations combining the water with cow manure and sending back into the environment millions of gallons of liquid and aerialized cow manure with often tragic health and environmental consequences.

Among the environmental consequences are drying up of rivers, streams and lakes, creation of dead zones in lakes, Ecoli poisoning and destruction of trout streams to list a few.

Krug is the sponsor of SB 291 in the state assembly.

State Rep. Scott Krug Lied

Krug misrepresented the views of his own constituents and clean water advocates when he wrote in another email written earlier this month (obtained here), "This bill was crafted with a great deal of input from local stakeholders. My Citizen Advisory Groundwater Group generated many of the concepts within the bill including private well protections, determination of the most vulnerable areas, monitoring requirements, and (on both sides) the need to determine rates of flow and lake level requirements to use science to maintain the public trust."

This falsehood is typical of Krug whose "Citizen Advisory Groundwater Group" is widely regarded in Adams and Wood counties as a ploy, a series of meetings often skipped by Krug and at which Krug never took notes or minutes (Dimick, Wisconsin Rapidly Daily Tribune) (Mal Contends).

Groundwater group members say they oppose SB 291, and Krug's use of the committee for political posturing.

"Krug was getting a high degree of political mileage by hosting this committee. He referred to it constantly in his public letters," writes Bruce Dimick in a column last year in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

In the October 2015 email, responses to Krug include the two emails below from angry clean water advocates in Wood County:

As you are fully aware, the massive amounts of water used by high capacity wells to our east have all but dried up the water that used to fill and refresh OUR lakes. Let alone the fact that we all know that our ground water supplies are dwindling faster than they are being replenished.

Knowing this I can’t imagine that you co-sponsored bill SB 291. In fact, I assume this is an error and should have said that you not only didn’t co-sponsor the bill but that you oppose it, correct?

And:

I feel that Krug is really politicking (to perhaps uninformed individuals) that this was a combined effort of engaged stakeholders through the Advisory Group and that members of the group shared no concerns about the proposed bill. I think that it may be appropriate to clarify via emails and social media outlets that members of the Advisory Group do not support the bill. Many of our extended email group will remember that we had PWC (Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors (Rome, Grand Rapids, Port Edwards, Nekoosa, Saratoga, Wisconsin Rapids)) representation on the group Krug mentions and may by default think that we support it because Krug says the Advisory Group had input. (emphasis added) 

Krug is a political ally of James Wysocki, a CAFO owner and the owner of the site of another massive proposed CAFO in the town of Saratoga in Wood County. Wysocki is also a produce grower whose operations give heavily to Republicans:

Wysocki Produce Farm, of Bancroft, which is a 13,000-acre potato farm with 3,500 head of dairy cattle. Owners and employees contributed about $43,500 to Walker and current legislators between January 2010 and December 2014, including James and Sharon Wysocki, of Custer, $12,627; Kirk and Jacqueline Wille, of Custer, $5,900; and Russell and Diane Wysocki, of Custer, $5,250. (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign)

The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy is holding a public hearing on SB 291 this morning.

The legislation is expected to pass with unanimous Republican support and unanimous Democratic opposition, and be signed into law by Scott Walker later this year.