DNR Ups Rhetoric Blasting Judge's Ruling of 'Massive Regulatory Failure'

Update: See also Judge: Contaminated wells part of 'massive regulatory failure' (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"The DNR operates all of its permit programs to meet all requirements of current laws and rules," writes Michael Bruhn, Director of Policy and External Relations for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in an November 3 email.

Bruhn writes his comment in an email exchange with Wisconsin clean water activists and Greg Farnham of Juneau, Wisconsin following an administrative law ruling by Judge Jeffrey Boldt in October reading that "massive regulatory failure" at the DNR led to groundwater contamination in northeastern Wisconsin and that the DNR should in effect do its job to prevent continued water contamination by liquid cow manure. (Seely, WisconsinWatch)

Farnham and citizens around the state would like to see more such rulings as well as federal intervention by the EPA, as Wisconsin waters are becoming increasingly toxified by a new form of Big Agriculture and Dairy farming: Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operations or CAFOs.

The DNR has been trying to deflect political and legal blame for the massive regulatory failure, exemplified by DNR's spokesman William Cosh who tried to absolve the DNR even after the ad law opinion was published.

Writes Farnham to the DNR's spokesman William Cosh in a Nov. 2 email: "In my opinion your statements are beyond the pale and further evidence of the mutation of the department [Wisconsin DNR] from a protector of natural resources for the benefit of all citizens of the state to a cabal of the rich, powerful and well-connected agricultural lobbies."

Meanwhile, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp has taken to talk radio and blogging criticizing the October ruling as "editorializing." (Rowen, The Political Environment)

Writes Farnham to the DNR's Bruhn: "Bill Cosh's attempt to pin the tail of responsibility for regulatory failure on his targeted donkey - the county health department - strikes me as egregiously irresponsible."

Rather it is misguided and dangerous state policy that has resulted in massive regulatory failure -- a failure which is turning our rural landscape into giant septic tanks for livestock manure, polluting our groundwater and adversely affecting the lives of rural residents and the well being of their communities."

The truth is the clean and safe water activists' effect on the November general election—despite widespread popularity of their position—was nil, to the puzzlement of many around Wisconsin.

Writes Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin: "(DNR bureaucrats) spin [the Boldt decision] just like the Ag lobbyists. These are supposed to be the people protecting our environment from those who would abuse it. DNR enforcement is down 67 percent in the past four years, 2013 set records for pollution of waterways in our state, and 2014 is on pace to exceed even that."

No source contacted for this piece is considering giving up.

Victory for Kewaunee County Citizens Fighting for Clean Water

 The fight for clean water in Wisconsin

Water Problems Highlighted in Court Challenge to DNR Water Pollution Permit

Updated - Judge blames toxic Kewaunee County wells on ‘massive regulatory failure’ (Seely, WisconsinWatch)
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Citizens' win against mega dairy could presage anti-Walker rural vote (Jim Rowen)
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Tears of joy here tonight as I read about the victory for the good guys over in Kewaunee County. So many of the folks in that area have become personal friends over the past 2 years.  I am so happy for their victory. Unfortunately it should not have to take a court decision to ensure clean drinkable water for a township. The systematic dismantling of our DNR has got to stop.

PLEASE VOTE! Together we have the power to change directions in this state and make protecting our environment a priority once again.
- Criste Greening, Saratoga
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"Yesterday, the Wisconsin State Division of Hearings and Appeals issued a decision in the water pollution permit challenge by residents of Kewaunee County against the state Department of Natural Resources. The court decision spotlights the widespread groundwater pollution problems in an area of Wisconsin with the highest concentration of industrial livestock facilities," reports Stacy Harbaugh of Midwest Environmental Advocates.

Don Ystad of Rome writes, "Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, this issue cannot be ignored. In fact, the protection of our water should never have become a political issue. Citizens should not have to sue their own government agencies to protect their health and well being, and people should not have to live in an environment where percent of drinking water wells have become unusable because of manure contamination. The current push for 30 billion pounds of dairy by 2020 makes no mention of environmental protections. It's doomed for failure and will result in growing the fissure between farmers and citizens forced to deal with the resulting slop. Fortunately, our courts are leveling the playing field."

I know how I'm voting Tuesday."

Continues Harbaugh:

“In rural Kewaunee County, industrial livestock facilities produce more manure waste than can safely be spread on area fields for disposal,” said Sarah Williams, a Midwest Environmental Advocates staff attorney who worked with citizens in the permit challenge. “Nitrates and bacteria from untreated animal waste are polluting local drinking water wells. During the permit challenge proceedings, the overwhelming and moving testimony from Petitioners and local residents about their concerns for their health and their water was reflected in Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Boldt’s decision.”
In his decision, he notes that “many members of the public were deeply upset about what could only be described as a crisis with respect to groundwater quality in the area.” He continues,

The proliferation of contaminated wells represents a massive failure to protect groundwater in the Town of Lincoln. The Department [of Natural Resources] needs to utilize its clear regulatory authority to require groundwater monitoring to enhance its ability to prevent further groundwater contamination. Many public witnesses testified, under oath, credibly and forcefully about the hardship and financial ruin that this local groundwater contamination crisis has had on their businesses, homes and daily life.

One of the Petitioners, Lynda Cochart, said about the decision “I’m pleased with the additional protections that Judge Boldt put in place. He obviously listened to our testimony and is concerned about our health and welfare. It is unfortunate that we had to go through so much to get this result. I would’ve liked attention given to our surface water as well as my well water, which I cannot use because it is polluted. No one can live with water like that.”

Recent sampling by the USDA revealed that bovine viruses and salmonella, a particularly harmful type of bacteria, were already present in Cochart’s private water well. Lynda has to buy bottled water for cooking, baking, washing her hands, and drinking.

The inclusion of groundwater monitoring requirements and an animal unit limit as enforceable permit conditions were two of the most significant victories in the decision. Specifically:

Kinnard Farms, Inc. must conduct groundwater monitoring at the production area and around at least two landspreading fields. Kinnard must submit a plan to the DNR within 90 days of the decision that includes no less than 6 groundwater monitoring wells. If practicable, at least 2 of those wells must be in locations that monitor groundwater quality impacts from off-site manure landspreading.
Kinnard Farms, Inc. is now required to put a cap on the number of animals to ensure the facility does not grow beyond its current capacity to store and dispose of the large quality of manure held on site in multimillion gallon lagoons.

Boldt noted that without required monitoring, the only way for the DNR – or those who live near CAFOs or landspreading fields – to know about groundwater contamination is for a neighbor’s well to become contaminated. Judge Boldt said, “Unfortunately, this has been the all too common state of affairs in the Town of Lincoln and Kewaunee County over the past years.”

Other results from the decision included the requirement for Kinnard Farms, Inc. to take steps to prevent environmental harm from a catastrophic failure of above-ground manure storage lagoons. The pollution permit now also has requirements meant to protect surface water and aquatic life from the facility’s discharges. Unfortunately, these additional conditions are very general and are likely harder to enforce than the numeric discharge limits and monitoring requirements Petitioners sought. The decision also did not require Kinnard Farms, Inc. to reduce the amount of manure it can spread on fields, which the Petitioners believe will contribute to surface water and groundwater pollution.
“The decision is a victory for the people who live near Kinnard Farms, Inc.,” said MEA Executive Director Kimberlee Wright. “However, this is just one of fifteen industrial livestock facilities in Kewaunee County. Last week the local group Kewaunee Cares joined other environmental groups, including MEA, to file a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act to get federal intervention in Kewaunee County’s water crisis. This decision is a turning point for Wisconsin water because the problems are too big to tackle in the courts one bad pollution permit at a time. This is what regulatory failure looks like.”

Midwest Environmental Advocates is a public interest organization that uses the power of the law to support communities fighting for environmental accountability.

Scott Walker Is Desperate, GOP Front Group Plants Last-Minute Defamation

Update: Defamatory story knocked down across the board as even the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial page hits the Wisconsin Reporter. Meanwhile, Burke hit back saying, "These are complete lies, fabrications. Tom (Albers) had an ax to grind, Gary Kellerman has an ax to grind with Trek. It shows Scott Walker is not going to stop at anything. He is a career politician who will do anything to win an election, including lies, smears, dragging a great Wisconsin company through the mud." (Stein, Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Two lessons ought to be apparent: The Wisconsin Reporter is a GOP propaganda sheet, and the desperate Scott Walker will tell any lie to hang onto to office.
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A desperate Scott Walker is hoping last-minute infusions of out-of-state money and defamatory stories by the GOP-front organ, Wisconsin Reporter, can stave off an expected high turnout by college-aged and minority citizens now that photo voter ID is enjoined.

Under the cloud of fake neutral journalism, Walker still knows he's falling short.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin citizens need to GOTV, and "Calm The Fuck Down."

No one can sit this one out, the stakes are too high.

Vote Mary Burke.

Sen. Frank Lasee tells folks with contaminated wells to just drill deeper!

Updated - Wisconsin State Sen. Frank Lasee (R-Unknown) has a solution for residents with wells contaminated by liquid cow manure: Drill Deeper.

"Nitrates in drinking water can cause the potentially fatal blue-baby syndrome, a concern for pregnant women and infants," notes Kate Golden, among other health concerns with vectoring liquid cow manure in areas with karst geology.

Restore Kewaunee notes Frank Lasee's absurd suggestion for the massive pollution in Door, Kewaunee and Brown counties. You're drilling for water "too shallow there," drill deeper.

Some wells in Kewaunee County run as far down as over 400 feet, and still are contaminated.

"Shite flows down," a reader notes, no matter how much political interference Republicans run

The Dairy Business Association, the Scott Walker administration, along with Lasee, Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) all run this political interference for the poisoning of Wisconsin.

From the Peninsula Pulse Candidate Forum, Oct. 21, 2014, Baileys Harbor Wisconsin:

Clean Water Group Hits Scott Walker from Central Wisconsin

The DNR appointments of Cathy Stepp and Matt Moroney shocked Wisconsin clean-water advocates, "The DNR is no longer a strong advocate one way or another on environmental issues," (Agri-View) said Moroney as Scott Walker’s anti-environmental commitments stand out

Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors in central Wisconsin has been advocating for clean water and making allies from across Wisconsin for two years.

This morning, Protect Wood County hit Scott Walker on the environment and praised Mary Burke.

From Kewaunee County and the Green Bay and Fox River watersheds to Iron County to southeastern Wisconsin, the alarm has been sounded about the dangers of toxic runoff and CAFOs (Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operations).

"We have 3.4 million head of cattle in Wisconsin. That’s equivalent to 60 million people, the combined populations of both Tokyo and Mexico City, the two most populous cities on earth. In that light, we should not be surprised about what happened in Brown County and Kewaunee County. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Of all the issues that I have dealt with, or should have dealt with, in my career, I have lost more sleep over this issue than any other," said Gordon Stevenson, DNR runoff chief from 2001-2011.

The solution from Scott Walker is more liquid manure production and more runoff, with no plan for treatment—a brazen pro-pollution stance that has rendered parts of Wisconsin's fresh water at third-world status as measured by the fact the folks in Kewaunee County will not wash out a child's cut with water from the faucet and over one-third of water wells in Kewaunee County are so poisoned the water is unsafe to drink.

Even a pro-CAFO central Wisconsin state legislator, Scott Krug, was forced into releasing a statement 74 days before Election Day feigning opposition to a giant proposed Wysocki CAFO centered in the Town of Saratoga in Wood County.

Krug and Scott Walker aren't fooling many.

"The closing of area beaches, increase in the dead zone in Green Bay and two lakes in Rome recently added to the DNR's impaired list are indicative of an administration turning a blind eye when it comes to protecting our natural resources," writes Sue Savage in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

From Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors:

Dear friends and concerned citizens,

As we all face election day next Tuesday, November 4th, we encourage everyone reading this to exercise their right to vote. Our communities here in the Central Sands will be greatly impacted by many of the races at the state level, particularly the Assembly race for District 72 and the Governor’s race.  The purpose of this email is not to tell the reader how to vote, but to briefly present some of the key environmental issues and candidate positions as we understand them.

How you choose to vote is your choice.  What is ultimately important is that you vote.

Governor Walker - Regardless of where one stands in their support of our state Governor, we cannot quietly ignore the evidence that indicates he does not actively protect the environment of Wisconsin.  In fact, many will say he is doing just the opposite. 

From the appointment of Cathy Stepp, who has limited experience as Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, to the appointment of Matt Moroney as Deputy Secretary who openly stated, "The DNR is no longer a strong advocate one way or another on environmental issues," (Agri-View)the facts speak for themselves where Governor Walker’s priorities are in regard to protecting our environment.

• Policies enacted by Governor Walker have systematically emasculated the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, stripping them of their enforcement powers to protect the environment.
• 2011 ACT 10, also known as the Budget Repair Bill, is known mainly as the bill that attacked collective bargaining.  What many do not know is that a provision was included within the bill that allows for the sale of public lands to individuals and companies.  This means your favorite hunting lands may require a monetary fee to access in the future or be closed to your hunting enjoyment all together.  The DNR has already listed public lands for sale.
• In March 2012 Governor Walker streamlined the CAFO permitting process making it easier for large scale dairies to receive required permits without public input.
• 2013 Governor Walker spent time in China in negotiations with the Shanghai Dairy, eventually partnering with them for goods and services. Shortly after he attempted to lift the ban on foreign country limits of WI land ownership.
• 2013 Governor Walker attempts to lift ban on the sale of WI land to foreign countries. The attempt was blocked, but again quietly resurfaced in January of 2014.
• December 2013 Governor Walker signs state budget that includes Motion 375, taking away citizen rights to challenge the DNR regarding cumulative impacts of high capacity wells. 
• Recent report released Oct 6, 2014 - Governor Walker worst in history for the environment.
• Neither Governor Walker nor Lieutenant Governor Kleefisch (to our knowledge) have responded directly to citizen concerns regarding the proposed dairy in Saratoga or concerns expressed by Rome residents.
• 2013 AB 1/SB 1 was signed into law by Governor Walker on 03/11/13.  This bill, written by Gogebic Taconite, significantly watered down Wisconsin’s mining laws. It was later disclosed that Gogebic Taconite channeled $700K to the Walker campaign through the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

Candidate Burke - Mary Burke is the candidate running against Governor Walker.  New to the election campaign, Ms. Burke has indicated her concern regarding environmental topics.  The following is a compilation of issues presented to Ms. Burke and her response on the campaign trail.

• March of 2014 launched the Rural Leaders Initiative to her campaign to gain insight into issues that are affecting WI rural citizens by identifying community leaders and important issues.  She then created a plan to invest in rural communities.
• Ms. Burke believes there needs to be a change to the current system of appointing the Department of Natural Resources department heads.
• Environmental issues are of great concern for Mary Burke.  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 10, 2014, is quoted as stating, ”If implemented, her (Burke's) approach would help guarantee clean air, water, access to the natural environment.”  Additionally, in a discussion regarding frac sand issues, Ms. Burke shares her concerns on balancing environmental issues with business opportunities.  (37 Min. mark in debate video).
• When concerns were shared and individuals invited to tour our area, Senator John Lehman (Mary Burke’s Lt. Gov. candidate) visited Rome and Saratoga to see and hear our unique situation first-hand.
• Mary Burke states she will work with anyone to get the job done. Lake Delton - Mary Burke.  "I'll put an end to the politics-first approach of the last three years," she said. "I'll sit down and work with anyone — Democrat, Republican or Independent. It wasn't so long ago that that was the Wisconsin way. Finding common ground, negotiating in good faith, and putting the people of this state first.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 6, 2014.

Remember to vote on Tuesday, November 4th and encourage others to do the same!

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Expands TV Buy

Folks in central and eastern Wisconsin are seeing Wisconsin waters ruined under four years of Scott Walker's disastrous environmental policies.

Voters are taking heed, and getting the message.

From the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters announced today that it has expanded broadcasting of the ad entitled “Water” into the Milwaukee media market. With this additional buy of $310,000, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters has now made an investment of $1.3 million to date in their efforts to elect Mary Burke.

The ad highlights how Governor Walker risked contaminating the drinking water of Wisconsin citizens with arsenic and lead when he signed the open-pit mining bill. It also reminds voters that Governor Walker signed the open-pit mining bill after the mining company gave $700,000 to a group actively supporting Governor Walker.

The ad concludes with, "You can’t put a price on clean water. But it looks like Scott Walker just did."

Citizen Ystad: We can't live without clean water

Update: Sevastopol and Sturgeon Bay townships in Kewaunee County have both passed no-manure spray ordinances in reaction to massive pollution of acquirers and surface waters from CAFOs, under the Walker administration's newly revamped pro-pollution DNR.
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IN central Wisconsin Scott Walker's ally, Wood County Chair County Board Chairman Lance Pliml is engaging in shady machinations to appoint a pro-CAFO county supervisor to a vacant position comes some sober commentary from a citizen of Rome.

By Don Ystad

The real shame here is that it has gotten to this point of acrimony between the dairy business and citizens of Wisconsin. Many generations of my family were dairy farmers; honest, hard working, highly respected stewards of the land. With the advent of large industrialized factory farms in the last few years, and the resulting weakening of our environmental protections through their lobbying efforts, dairy farming has taken on a negative connotation as a primary source of pollution in our state.

Citizens are being forced to take legal action to protect themselves from the effects of these factory farms, and from the effects of legislation gone wrong. Citizens fighting the Richfield Dairy CAFO have spent nearly 1/3 of a million dollars in legal fees to force the DNR to evaluate cumulative effect when permitting high cap wells. And now, Kewaunee County citizens, where 1/3 of the drinking water wells have been made unsafe through manure runoff, are forced to defend themselves through an action with the EPA.

Meanwhile, our current administration blindly supports their 30 x 20 program to expand dairy with no mention of taking any measures to control the environment effects; 2013 was a record-setting year for pollution of our waterways from agricultural sources. If you've been following the news, 2014 may surpass even that. We can't live without clean water. This has got to stop.

I'm a concerned citizen and I vote.

Don Ystad is a concerned citizens along with 10,000s others in central Wisconsin, but the bought-and-paid-for politicians have their own idea of democracy.

As citizens in Adams and Wood counties are acting locally, Scott Walker's fundamentalist and extremist brand of politics is reaching into central Wisconsin like so much liquid cow manure.

A letter from Nancy Koch of Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors calls for an open process to select a new county supervisor in this heavily-anti-Wysocki CAFO district.

Dear Wood County Board Members:

This letter is to request your full consideration of Bruce Dimick for the open position in Wood Co. District 17.

He ran for office against Mr. Allworden loosing only by 19 votes. He is clearly a people’s choice for the opening.

Past practice reveals Wood County Board positions have been filled with the alternate running candidate. Since it was such a close race during this past election, the public’s choice to fill the vacancy is obvious. Both Mr. Allworden and Bruce Dimick have similar thoughts on the issues addressing our areas of Wood County.

The peoples views would be represented by Bruce Dimick in a similar way that Mr. Allworden would be representing us. 

If other people are putting in a bid for the position, they should do the work required to run and be chosen by people’s vote in the election time, not be picked to fill a vacancy when such a good voted candidate is already available.

The most important thing to remember here when selecting a replacement for Mr. Allworden is to pick a representative for District 17 that will reflect the views of the people district 17. 

Nancy Koch

Kewaunee County, Water Advocates Petition EPA for Emergency Action

Clean water advocates are going
to the feds for our children
 and their children and beyond,
as citizens of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin
 risk their health by drinking water
from the faucet

Update: See also Groups ask EPA to investigate pollution causes by cattle farms (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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"The people of Wisconsin can’t keep fighting our own state government to get the help and protections they need to be sure their drinking water is safe," said Kimberlee Wright, Midwest Environmental Advocates’ Executive Director. "The water pollution problem in Kewaunee County is so serious that we have to ask the federal government to do what our state government can’t or won’t."

Clean water advocates are going to the feds for our children and their children and beyond.

They are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency for emergency action in a 38-page document detailing the dirty secret in northeast Wisconsin, central and eastern Wisconsin and spreading that may virtually destroy Wisconsin's tourism and recreation industry not to mention poisoning our waters, on the surface and below.
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Petition for Emergency Action Pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. §300i, to Protect the Citizens of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin from Imminent and Substantial Endangerment to Public Health Caused By Nitrate and Bacteria Contamination of an Underground Source of Drinking Water, and Pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9604, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6973 ________
Submitted on Behalf of Petitioners Midwest Environmental Defense Center, Environmental Integrity Project, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Clean Wisconsin, Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin, and Kewaunee CARES

Scott Walker's Anti-Environmental Policies May Kill His Reelection

"Following my four decades of covering the environment, here is an honest observation: Scott Walker has by far the worst environmental record of all Wisconsin governors in that time," writes Bill Berry today in a must-read.

That's right. Story after story reveals what three years of Republicans running this state can do.

As Walker's allies pollute Wisconsin's waters across the state, we don't see Scott Walker around.

Walker resembles a small man hiding with bad intentions destroying what makes Wisconsin and this planet work: Water.

See also Jim Rowen today, and Karen Madden on Lt. Gov. John Lehman's (D-Racine) tour through central Wisconsin this weekend.

Scott Walker's opponent, Mary Burke, is an avid supporter of environmental causes and would offer a sea change from this reckless and destructive administration.

People come to Wisconsin for the water and the environment.

Tourism and recreation aside, we need water and we don't need Scott Walker.

CAFO Champion Scott Walker Plagiarized PR; CAFOs Lie about Jobs

"[The Scott Walker campaign] might want to explain why the agriculture section on their campaign website was clearly lifted from a UW Extension press release," notes Uppity Wisconsin in an exclusive (Lounsbury).

Deny-and-run is the Scott Walker response when Walker is caught cheating, lying, laundering money and other typical Walker practices, though this time the Walker campaign will likely just run.

In other news, Scott Walker—who is the Wisconsin champion of concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFOs)—might offer some PR advice to his friends at the Dairy Business Association.

Turns out that CAFOs, designed to employ the least number of people under biologically hazardous conditions, are having problems attracting the migrant employees who would risk their health for a small pay check.

Admits a Dairy industry sheet: U.S.dairies seek ways to deal with labor shortages. (Ag-Web. Catherine Merlo)

Pete Wiersma used to get up to 10 applicants a week seeking work at his dairy in Idaho’s Magic Valley.

"Now I’m lucky if I get one person every two weeks," says Wiersma, who milks 1,500 cows near Buhl, Idaho.

The Dairy industry piece attributes the labor shortage to an improving economy in Mexico.

Left out of the piece are the health threats of working in and living near a CAFO, resembling a swim in a Central American lake.

Writes Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin in Adams County:

Thought you and your board might find this interesting regarding the jobs the proposed Wysocki dairy CAFO might bring to the area. 

This confirms what many of us suspected, the 25 to 35 CAFO jobs are primarily migrant labor. 

As the article shows, there is little interest in farm labor jobs from local labor pools. 

If you've read the many articles regarding immigration, you understand the demands a migrant population poses on local services. 

So, when the chamber endorses the CAFO, saying "they are all about jobs", I wonder how deeply they've thought about that stance. 

I wonder also, how their stance conflicts with the promise of 475 real jobs from the Sand Valley Golf development just down the road in Rome. 

Certainly they read the newspaper and would be aware of the conflict between a resort type tourism generating business as opposed to a stinking 5,300 cow dairy CAFO 3 miles away. 

The chamber of commerce is made up of business people.  Most successful business people have the ability to weigh the pros and cons of a business proposition; that's what makes them successful. 

Knowing that the Wysockis are members of your chamber of commerce, one must assume that we are dealing with the blind defense of a fellow chamber member, rather than the businesslike comparison of what's good for the business community as a whole.

Take the blinders off. 

You and your chamber of commerce board know full well that Sand Valley can be a boon to many of their own personal businesses and the business community as a whole. Even the ancillary jobs related to the proposed CAFO bring little directly to our area, especially when compared to the resulting loss of area property values, the declining lifestyle issues and reduction of tourism growth. 

American Lung Association Hit CAFOs for Pathogens Injested Through Lungs

Kewaunee County in Wisconsin is being devastated as 16 Dairy concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFOs) have destroyed the area as a recreational and tourism attraction while causing severe health problems in residents, and creating dead zones in Lake Michigan and literally destroying streams.

This crisis is replicated around the state.

Scott Walker's idea is: Let's build more CAFOs, it's what the Dairy industry wants and they give politicians a lot of money.

The American Lung Association has a different idea.

"We respectfully request that you hold a public hearing advance of issuing any (CAFO) permits, so that residents can be fully heard," says the American Lung Association letter dated March 26, 2013. (below)

Fully heard. Not a lot of money in that position for Scott Walker.

But Walker does feel compelled to cloud the issue by hawking a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination Permit (WPDES), otherwise known as do-want-you-want-and-pollute-as-much-as-like permits.

"According to a report published by the National Associating of Local Boards of Health animal manure contains 160 pathogens that are capable of causing disease or infection in animal or humans, affecting the respiratory and digestive systems, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration, headaches, abdominal pain and cramping and other debilitating symptoms and illnesses. These pathogens can be transmitted through the air and/or water, potentially leading to widespread outbreaks. Manure Lagoons also contain antibiotics, hormones, barn cleaners and municipal and industrial wastes, all of which are potentially transferred to humans and animals a great distance from the spraying area," says the American Lung Association letter dated March 26, 2013.

Scott Walker should listen to health experts, and follow their advice.

In the meantime, boycotting milk should be considered as Dairy Farmers are destroying Wisconsin's water.

If you doubt this fact about the health of Wisconsin water, there is a test: Go to Lake Michigan by Kewaunee County, or Lake Petenwell in central Wisconsin or Lake Winnebago in east-central Wisconsin, or Lake Mendota in Dane County, grab a glass, dip the glass arms' length into the lake and drink the water.

Try it, but know where a hospital or the nearest Poison Center is located.

Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation

CAFOs in Kewaunee County Wisconsin

'There's nobody on the beach anymore'

Concentrated (or Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation are CAFOs.

Devastating Wisconsin lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers, the issue is finally appearing on the radar of the Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign screen.

Babies with Ecoli, water wells contaminated with viruses, stench on the beach, declining property values, dead streams, toxic lakes, fear and Solastalgia Sickness. These are the consequences of living near CAFOs and their dumping 10s of millions of gallons of liquid cow manure straight into the environment every year.

We can thank the Diary Business Association (DBA)—the DBA's sock pockets, Scott Walker, Scott Krug, the Republican Party, several in the Democratic Party—all in political thrall of the myth and money of the DBA while the Wisconsin Dept. of Tourism presents "communities along Lake Michigan ... perennial vacation favorites with a true coastal flavor, complete with sandy beaches" with no apparent sense of irony.

Here is the reality, exemplified in Kewaunee County (northeastern Wisconsin) where 16 CAFOs are sited and more Dairy production is planned, per Scott Walker's Dairy 30x20 Initiative, a Soviet-style agricultural plan with no consideration of the environmental and health devastation.

Coming soon to your community:

Generic Fascism and the Mystical Small Farmer in Wisconsin

Politicians Cowed by Big Ag, Reactionaries and Racists in America's Dairyland as an Authoritarian Politics Emerges

Updated: See also Real Farms versus Farm Businesses (Ikerd): "Farmers historically have held positions of high esteem in the U.S. and in much of the rest of the world. Thomas Jefferson, for example, believed strongly that the 'yeoman farmer' best exemplified the kind of 'independence and virtue' that should be respected and supported by government."
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In the realm of Cincinnatus tilling the soil, and the mystical Volk, is the small farmer in rural Wisconsin holding traditional (white) communities together through sheer work and ethics against the alien influences of the City (Milwaukee) and the University (Madison).

This is not an early 20-century description of Wisconsin.

This is Wisconsin today, where bigots combined with corporate money are attempting to transform Wisconsin into a One Party state.

The myth of the small farmer is of course absurd; the fact is small farming operations are a dying business replaced by rapacious corporate dairy operations that inject liquid cow manure into Wisconsin lakes and streams beyond the carrying capacities of both land and the water.

Dead Zones result, and unless Wisconsin has a radical change of course dead lakes and rivers will follow.

Younger generations, the current teenagers, look upon bigotry as a relic, a mark of derangement, but its roots run deep. Polluting the environment is equally irrational and sociopathic.

I was raised in a rural Wisconsin community: Fond du Lac, provincial, heavily German and overtly racist where "Nigger"and "Jew" jokes were openly shared in public accompanied with varying degrees of malice, where public elementary schools brought in kids from Milwaukee so Fond du Lac's generations' exposure to African-Americans was not limited to Brewers and Bucks games, and visits to the Milwaukee Zoo.

This 1970s program in Fond du Lac, Fondy, was the public teachers' idea.

Today, many rural Wisconsinites are only a few generations removed from farming and the prominence of the myth of the small Wisconsin farmer endures in the declining Wisconsin rural populations where few African-Americans reside.

Cynical race-baiting politicians know well the demographics.

Voters in "urban areas," to borrow a remark by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) made shortly after his 2012 defeat as vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party, (Shear, Steinhauer, NYT; November 13, 2012), must have cost Mitt Romney Ryan's home state in Ryan's expressed view.

Ryan is a 2016 presidential aspirant, and his political ally, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, pretends to presidential ambitions even as Walker faces a 50/50 chance of defeat for his reelection bid in November.

Scott Walker

Walker is of course is heavily bankrolled by rightwing industry, but the evangelical Walker relies on a voter coalition of authoritarian reactionaries opposing marriage equity, voting rights, organized labor, women's choice, and public education.

Though Wisconsin lacks public ritual reenacting the myth of the disappearing small farmer, the iconic imagery of the small farmer is pervasive, and has been appropriated by Wisconsin Big Ag, emphatically the Dairy Business Association, a steadfast funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Scott Walker.

"We don’t need to look far to see all the positive icons about farming, particularly dairy farming in Wisconsin. We celebrate dairy farming with bucolic scenes embroidered and displayed on our walls, we memorialize dairy farming on both the front and back of every vehicle registered in this state ('America’s Dairyland')," Gordon Stevenson, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Chief of Runoff Management from 2001-2011, said in an email."But lurking behind the embroidered scene of the red barn and roaming chickens, a CAFO may be found. Contaminated wells and dead fish [in lakes and streams] just aren’t good subjects for embroidery."

Neither are Wisconsin's 19th century abolitionist and underground railroad history, nor the Milwaukee sewer socialists appropriate fare for the Wisconsin tableau, this history isn't celebrated much except in the urban areas.

Meanwhile, as the Wisconsin gubernatorial election approaches an increasingly authoritarian, anti-education track, the Grand Ole Party targets political opponents through public policy while demonizing teachers, Milwaukee, consumer attorneys and Madison in an unprecedented gubernatorial campaign.

Scott Walker now proposes urine tests and public humiliation for disfavored recipients of public aid, as ridiculing rightwing talk radio "provide(s) open microphones for Walker and his legislative allies to gin up fear and anger among their conservative suburban and smaller-town Wisconsin listening audiences," as noted by Jim Rowen, a Wisconsin writer and politico in an important warning of the Southern Strategy employed in the North.

Small farmers still exist, and a sustainable farming movement is beginning to thrive. Citizen groups fight back.

Scott Walker and a neo-fascist coalition are a dangerous underground movement, fueled by hate, funded by corporate money and now dark money as Walker and his movement target the right of their political opponents to participate in the polity.

It would serve the Wisconsin people to acknowledge this reality of Wisconsin politics.

Breaking an out-and-out fascist coalition requires candid and repetitious political activity by citizens who know but remain silent.

As for Wisconsin waters, the Department of Natural Resources under Scott Walker offers market-driven calls for more Dairy production with no plan for protecting the water, an abandonment of the charge protecting the 15,000 lakes, the trout streams and aquifers.

Wisconsin Dairy Business Association Is the Scourge of the Environment

U.S. Homeland Security Acclaims
the value of our water; why can't
politicians and Big Ag?

I've said this before, but I have to say it again. The Dairy Business Association (DBA) is driving a wedge between dairy farmers and non-farming citizens.

Where we previously enjoyed beautiful family farms run by caring multi-generational stewards of the land, we now deal with the stink of industrialized farming factories polluting our lakes, streams and groundwater while sucking up the subsidies initially intended for family farms.

The DBA is a tool of these industrial farmers, spending $200,000 annually buying influence in Madison. They care nothing for the environment, ignore the science, and instead generate gobs of hyperbole to deflect and defer.

Unfortunately, they have a number of our representatives and administration people in their back pocket. Coming from a farming family, it saddens me to see public attitudes towards farmers worsening so quickly.

Like the dirty, polluting factories of the early 1900s, these large agribusinesses are becoming the scourge of the environment. They'll make a mess of our environment, then take their money and run to the next opportunity, while we clean up their mess.

Manure-laden in Kewaunee County,
Wisconsin. Don't drink the water!

In it's haste to reclaim the title of "America's Dairyland", this [Scott Walker] administration is blindly ignoring the effect on our groundwater and surface water. It's a short-sighted objective sure to result in long term problems, many of them irreversible. Remember that when you vote.

Don Ystad
Rome, WI
---

There They Go Again
The dairy industry defends the indefensible

By the River Alliance of Wisconsin

We've almost gotten inured to the dairy industry's rationalizations, denials, obfuscations, deflections and excuses for not changing its polluting ways. For decades, dairy farmers blamed sea gulls for algae pollution in Lake Michigan. They used to blame algae blooms in the Madison lakes on dogs and geese, until they finally succumbed to the decades of research conducted by world-class UW-Madison scientists and hundreds of graduate students which have proven that the Madison lakes' algae blooms are caused largely by farm runoff.

When they don't have a handy scapegoat for the problems they cause and need to buy time, farmers and their groups invariably call for "more research," even if extant research is unambiguous in defining a problem.

And there they go again, this time in Kewaunee County. That county is saturated in cow manure, and the already-huge farms keep expanding. The groundwater there is very vulnerable to contamination as the county sits on "karst" geology -- shallow topsoil underlain by porous and cracked rock.

Manure-laced water can run through these cracks and straight to the aquifer. About a third of 550+ wells tested recently in the county had some form of contamination.

The county is bravely attempting to regulate this problem by limiting how much manure can be applied in vulnerable places at certain times of the year. It's a common-sense and long-overdue partial solution to a looming public health crisis.

Enter the Dairy Business Association (DBA), a trade group. It has innuendo and fear-mongering down to a science (maybe the only science they understand), and, true to form they're pushing back at the proposed Kewaunee ordinance.

It calls provisions of the ordinance "vague" and likely to "confuse" farmers. The ordinance is actually quite specific in its prescriptions for manure spreading on vulnerable lands. DBA insults its own brethren by saying they will be confused by the ordinance. These are sophisticated people running complex businesses.

DBA contends the ordinance was provoked by "a couple of studies." To the contrary, the problem the ordinance is trying to solve has been well understood for years, by several studies and analyses, including the testing of thousands of wells.

Given that 10% of wells "throughout Wisconsin" have nitrates, observes DBA, what's the big deal? Imagine if we knew that 10% of car accidents in the state had one cause. You think we'd want it shrugged off like DBA wants well contamination shrugged off? And by citing only the nitrate number, they conveniently ignore coliform bacteria, even salmonella, in well water there. And even if the water you see in this sink were pure, would you want to brush your teeth with it?

There's more but it's almost too frustrating to read. But we're not too frustrated with talking about it -- certainly nowhere near the frustration of hundreds of Kewaunee County residents having to live with what one observer called "Third World conditions" for drinking water.

We will have more to say in the coming weeks about this issue. Meanwhile, reading the excellent Restore Kewaunee website will give you a taste (we use that word advisedly) of what's going on Kewaunee County, and the brave fight underway.

Wisconsin Town to Encircle Proposed Factory Farm Site with 10 Monitoring Water Wells

Updated - The Town of Saratoga in Wood County in central Wisconsin is a sand-laden recreational area that features tourist attractions located right in the middle of the Wisconsin Central Plain or Golden Sands.

Saratoga residents are revolted by the effort of the Wysocki Family of Companies to stick a massive Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) in Saratoga that would directly affect five neighboring counties and fear the CAFO will bleed pathogens in liquid cow manure into water aquifers, trout streams and area lakes.

Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and Rome and Saratoga Friendly are leading the fight, and the Town of Saratoga stands together with these citizens groups as citizens watch property values in neighboring Adams County plummet 20 percent and property values in Wood County remain stagnant.

Wysocki's sock puppet, State Rep. Scot Krug (R-Nekoosa), came under such political heat running for reelection that he had to flip/flop and express opposition to the CAFO (73 days before Election Day) though reportedly Krug was told by Assembly Speaker Robin Voss that James Wysocki, owner and chief financial officer of the Wysocki Family of Companies, said that while Krug's statement of opposition went too far for Wysocki's taste, Wysocki was assured by Voss Krug's wink-wink statement would not present a problem while the Republicans controlled the state assembly and the governor's office.

Voss' office refused to confirm or deny the report.

Saratoga resident, Bruce E. Dimick, reports the Saratoga Town Board "unanimously voted to contract for the placement of 10 groundwater monitoring wells that will encircle the proposed Wysocki CAFO in the Town of Saratoga."

By Bruce E. Dimick

At a well-attended Saratoga Town Board Meeting, the Town Board unanimously voted to contract for the placement of 10 groundwater monitoring wells that will encircle the proposed Wysocki CAFO in the Town of Saratoga. All the citizens that spoke, spoke in favor of the proposal with great passion. No citizen or elected official opposed. The citizens emphasized the need to get the well network in this fall so that baseline data can be gathered prior to any activity by the Wysocki organization. This will provide the town and its citizens with solid data for further legal action in the event that the Wysocki organization moves ahead with its plans and the aquifer that all the citizens of Saratoga depend upon is degraded.

This proposal will be put out to bid, but it is expected to cost something in the neighborhood of $60,000 the first year, and considerably less in subsequent years.   The key parameters that will be monitored will include:

• Determine the soil type and any impervious layers that may or may not exist in the borehole.  This is key data for any mathematical models used to simulate the effect of the CAFO on our aquifer.
• The shallow wells will vary from 20 to 50 feet depending on location and there will be two deeper wells at 50 - 70 feet.
• All water samples will be tested for pesticides, herbicides, coliform bacteria, total dissolved solids, total organic nitrogen and ammonia.
• In addition all samples will be tested for oxygen demand, nitrate nitrogen, chloride and phosphorus.
• Water depth will be measured every 4 hours automatically.
• Other tests may be added after an examination of the initial proposal by a committee of knowledgeably citizens and professionals.

It cannot be overly emphasized how significant this action by our town board is. They are definitely looking out for their residents. Wouldn't it be nice if we had this kind of support at the county, state, and national level as well?

Solastalgia—Sickness That the Place One Resides and Loves Is Under Immediate Assault

Clean Water Is Under Attack in Wisconsin; EPA Finds CAFO in Violation of Clean Water Act

Water is the lifeblood of the human body. (Mayo Clinic)

Water's vitality and beauty on Earth are equally clear; and water is so obviously interconnected with Earth that this reality is known or felt by most Americans—except politicians and industry.

In Wisconsin, where fresh water is abundant, the attack is getting worse and residents are both angry and uneasy.

Glenn Albrecht coined a term to describe (a sickness inflicted): 'solastalgia,' a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), which he defined as 'the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home.’' (Daniel B. Smith, New York Times (January 27, 2010))

We have been running posts here from citizens in Wisconsin whose wisdom clearly exceeds the policymakers—the Scott Walkers, the Scott Krugs, the Stephen Nass types—and the new pollution-friendly Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Waterdog - Tuesday at 5:30 PM in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"If regulatory agencies never go after the non-point sources that are adding 80-90% of the phosphorus to our waterways, our water quality will never improve. They know where the problem is, they just refuse to address it. Until that changes we just have to live with algae blooms on many of our lakes."

Below is a reply to Wisconsin State Assembly Representative Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater), contacted by Wisconsin citizen, Greg Farnham.
---
Thank you for your reply, Representative Nass.

I respectfully disagree with your conclusions, however, based on my 15 years of experience as a lake management district commissioner for Lake Sinissippi and the Rock River.

(1) I'm afraid that reality does not comport that DNR is constantly working to address agriculture's impact on water quality and the environment.

DNR Deputy Secretary Matt Moroney spoke at a gathering of agricultural producers in February 2013 and is on record as stating that DNR is no longer a strong advocate on environmental issues.  This regressive policy is reflected in the permissive issuance of wastewater discharge permits to CAFOs without adequate oversight to ensure compliance and an unwillingness to take effective action to enforce laws designed to protect water quality -- witness the egregious discharge violation by farmers that caused one million gallons of liquid manure to pollute the Little Eau Pleine River in Marathon County and which resulted in a trifling fine by DNR of $464!

After the failure of DNR to investigate and deal with manure runoff to the East Twin River in Kewaunee County, concerned citizens requested the US Environmental Protection Agency-Region 7 in Chicago to investigate the matter.  The EPA inspector found the livestock CAFO was in violation of three provisions of the federal Clean Water Act.

(2) Nor do I find that DATCP is constantly working to address agriculture's impact on our water resources.  

Last October I appeared before the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Board and requested the board to investigate failure of the Dodge County Land Conservation Committee to implement its approved land and water conservation plan regarding winter spreading of livestock manure.  DATCP denied the board authority to make such an investigation and took no action on its own to deal with inadequate implementation of the conservation plan by the county.

Section ATCP 50.04(3) requires all agricultural producers to have and follow a nutrient management plan to reduce runoff of nutrients to surface and ground water; however, there is no enforcement.   Most cropland in Dodge County is operated without a nutrient management plan -- only 33 % of county cropland is under a NMP [Nutrient Management Plan].  Neither DATCP nor our county LCC [Land Conservation Committee] enforce the provision.  Jefferson County is the bright spot in the Rock River Valley with 73 % of cropland in a NMP.  Dane and Rock counties have even less NMP participation than Dodge County -- Rock is 27 % and Dane is 26 %.

This coming Thursday is a meeting of the DATCP livestock siting technical expert committee.  Although a publicly noticed meeting and although there is considerable controversy regarding livestock siting and preemption of local zoning control over CAFO operations by DATCP, no public involvement or comment will be permitted at the meeting.  In my experience, DATCP is managed by and on behalf of agricultural producers and as a result public stakeholders are marginalized and their concerns minimized.

(3) The harmful effects of industrial agriculture to our environment, natural resources and public health have been with us since the end of World War II and those effects have been studied in a scientific manner for the past seven decades.  I believe there is nothing complex about the required conservation and management practices and governmental regulations and enforcement necessary to protect our land, water and air resources and safeguard public health.

The missing link, in my view, is the political will to take action.

We know the problem and we know what is needed to deal with it -- lack of compliance is the problem and regulation and enforcement are needed.   Point-source polluters such as municipal wastewater treatment facilities, factories and industrial operations, etc are required under the federal Clean Water Act to comply with CWA provisions.   Non-point polluters such as agriculture, on the other hand, are not required to comply - compliance by the farmer is strictly voluntary - and the job is not getting done.

The TMDL for the Rock River Basin indicates that the two largest contributors of phosphorus and suspended solids to the basin are agriculture and wastewater treatment facilities.  Wastewater facilities contribute 26% of the phosphorus and 3% of the suspended solids, while agriculture is the source of 64% of the phosphorus and 89% of the suspended solids (sediment).  The state is tightening the screws on our municipal treatment facilities to reduce phosphorus discharges through enforceable mandates, while essentially ignoring the biggest contributor of phosphorus - agriculture.
The US Government Accountability Office issued a report in January 2014 (attached) regarding achievement of objectives of the Clean Water Act.  The conclusion is sobering for those of us concerned with water quality:

Because the Clean Water Act addresses nonpoint source pollution largely through voluntary means, EPA does not have direct authority to compel landowners to take prescribed actions to reduce such pollution. In GAO's survey, state officials knowledgeable about TMDLs reported that 83 percent of TMDLs have achieved their targets for point source pollution (e.g., factories) through permits but that 20 percent achieved their targets for nonpoint source pollution.

Without changes to the act's approach to nonpoint source pollution, the act's goals are likely to remain unfulfilled.

(4) My experience tells me that industrial agriculture is not a good steward of our natural resources nor a good neighbor.  Good stewards don't pollute their neighbor's well with cow manure, spray liquid manure into the air where the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia drift cause asthma attacks in neighborhood children and elderly, improperly fertilize corn fields to the extent that nitrate levels in drinking water of private wells exceed state health limits, plow next to rivers and streams causing sediment runoff that chokes our waterways, or allow manure spills and nutrient runoff that pollute our lakes, rivers and streams killing fish, closing swimming beaches and causing harmful algae blooms.

I learned that just today a large manure spill (640,000 gallons) occurred in Door County.

(5) Our farming community has demonstrated that it is unwilling to voluntarily adopt conservation practices that would significantly lessen the resource impact and moderate the public health effects of current agricultural operations.   In Dodge County alone the USDA NRCS (United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Services) district conservationist has for the past three years sent back to Washington, DC funds budgeted for EQIP (Environmental Quality Implementation Program) conservation practices since there was no demand by county farmers for the program.  Everyone is planting ditch to ditch and expanded sizes of dairy herds.

So unless you and our other legislators take the time to truly understand that lack of compliance is the problem and engender political will across the aisle to take corrective action, then I fear your view of a "long term focus" will be reality.  

We will continue to kick the proverbial can down the road for the next generation and praise our farmers for being good stewards and complement leaders of DNR, DATCP and DHS on the great job they're doing, while our rural residents drink contaminated water, breathe polluted air and our lakes, rivers and streams turn green and brown.

I very much regret that I have yet to see anyone in Madison willing to help turn this ship around before it goes aground.  Perhaps you might be willing to take the lead in developing a political consensus for corrective action.  If we can assist in that regard, please let me know.
Sincerely,

Greg Farnham, Coordinator
Rock River Trail Initiative
Hustisford, Wisconsin (Dodge County)
(920) 296-8771
www.rockrivertrail.com

#

Changes Needed If Key EPA Program Is to Help Fulfill the Nation's Water Quality Goals 

GAO-14-80: Published: Dec 5, 2013. Publicly Released: Jan 13, 2014. 

What GAO Found 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states each have responsibilities for developing and implementing pollution targets, known as total maximum daily loads (TMDL). EPA oversees states' TMDL efforts by establishing in regulations minimum requirements TMDLs need for approval, providing funding, and furnishing technical assistance. States develop TMDLs and generally take the lead in implementing them by identifying pollutants that impair water quality and taking actions to reduce them. 

Of about 50,000 TMDLs developed and approved, nearly 35,000 were approved more than 5 years ago, long enough for GAO to consider them long established. State officials GAO surveyed in its representative sample of 191 TMDLs reported that pollutants had been reduced in many waters, but few impaired water bodies have fully attained water quality standards. 

The sample of 25 TMDLs reviewed by water resource experts GAO contacted seldom contained all features key to attaining water quality standards. According to the National Research Council and EPA, these features--some that are beyond the scope of EPA's existing regulations--include identifying pollution causing stressors and showing how addressing them would help attain such standards; specifying how and by whom TMDLs will be implemented; and ensuring periodic revisions as needed. The experts found, however, that 17 of 25 long-established TMDLs they reviewed did not show that addressing identified stressors would help attain water quality standards; 12 contained vague or no information on actions that need to be taken, or by whom, for implementation; and 15 did not contain features to help ensure that TMDLs are revised if need be.  GAO's review showed that EPA's existing regulations do not explicitly require TMDLs to include these key features, and without such features in TMDLs--or in addition to TMDLs--impaired water bodies are unlikely to attain standards. 

In response to GAO's survey, state officials reported that long-established TMDLs generally do not exhibit factors most helpful for attaining water quality standards, particularly for nonpoint source pollution (e.g., farms and storm water runoff). The officials reported that landowner participation and adequate funding--factors they viewed as among the most helpful in implementing TMDLs--were not present in the implementation activities of at least two-thirds of long-established TMDLs, particularly those of nonpoint source TMDLs.  Because the Clean Water Act addresses nonpoint source pollution largely through voluntary means, EPA does not have direct authority to compel landowners to take prescribed actions to reduce such pollution. In GAO's survey, state officials knowledgeable about TMDLs reported that 83 percent of TMDLs have achieved their targets for point source pollution (e.g., factories) through permits but that 20 percent achieved their targets for nonpoint source pollution. In 1987, when the act was amended to cover such pollution, some Members of Congress indicated that this provision was a starting point, to be changed if reliance on voluntary approaches did not significantly improve water quality. More than 40 years after Congress  
passed the Clean Water Act, however, EPA reported that many of the nation's waters are still impaired, and the goals of the act are not being met.  Without changes to the act's approach to nonpoint source pollution, the act's goals are likely to remain unfulfilled.
 
Why GAO Did This Study 

The 1972 Clean Water Act aimed to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters." Under the act, states must establish water quality standards; for waters that do not meet these standards, states must develop TMDLs, which EPA approves. TMDLs set targeted limits for pollutants but are not self-implementing; EPA and states help reduce pollutants by issuing permits for point sources, whereas they provide voluntary incentives to reduce nonpoint source pollution. 

GAO was asked to examine the TMDL program, specifically (1) EPA's and states' responsibilities in developing and implementing TMDLs, (2) what is known about the status of long established TMDLs, (3) the extent to which such TMDLs contain features key to attaining water quality standards, and (4) the extent to which TMDLs exhibit factors that facilitate effective implementation. GAO asked water resource experts to review a random sample of 25 long-established TMDLs and surveyed state officials who are responsible for implementing a representative sample of 191 long established TMDLs. 

What GAO Recommends 

GAO recommends that EPA issue new regulations for TMDL development, adding key features. Further, Congress should consider revising the Clean Water Act's approach to addressing nonpoint source pollution. EPA did not comment on the matter for Congress. The agency agreed with the need to add key features to TMDLs but did not agree to issue new regulations. GAO believes new regulations are needed. 

For more information, contact J. Alfredo Gómez at (202) 512-3841 or gomezj@gao.gov. 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-14-80 

Citizen Farnham Lied to by Wisconsin State Senate Office of Scott Fitzgerald on Safe Water

Home of Greg Farnham in Juneau, Wisconsin

As many Wisconsin politicians remain nothing less than hostile to protecting the environment, an incredible and short-sighted political position, perhaps there is nothing more hostile to citizens working to protect the environment than being told by a politician that they'll at least follow up and get back to the citizen, only to ignore the man.

Greg Farnham is waiting to hear from State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Clyman), and waiting. Perhaps Mr. Farnham should give Fitzgerald's campaign committee some money, this seems to work with Fitzgerald.

Greg Farnham 
Waterdown Farms

waterdown@powerweb.net

N5036 St. Helena Road                         

Juneau, WI  53039-9636

www.waterdownfarms.com

June 12, 2014

Dear Senator Fitzgerald: 

April 15th I met with Dan Romportl and Tad Ottman (legislative aides) to discuss concerns regarding human health risks from using aerial spray irrigation to dispose of manure at intensive livestock operations, a practice that is promoted by dairy and livestock producers and the departments of natural resources and agriculture, trade and consumer protection.  I provided them with technical documents regarding public health risks of manure irrigation as well as copies of ordinances of Wisconsin counties and townships that have taken their own actions to restrict manure spray irrigation in an effort to protect the health of their residents. 

I asked Messrs. Romportl and Ottman to review the information with you and convey that I find state action in this matter to be irresponsible.  I shared with them my belief that the health and well being of our rural residents in CAFO counties have been marginalized by agency leadership at DNR and DATCP.  I also find that DHS Secretary Rhoades has demonstrated she is uninterested in the serious public health consequences from manure irrigation and the need to find safer methods to dispose of rapidly growing quantities of livestock manure.  

It was my understanding that Messrs. Romportl and Ottman were going to review the information and discuss it with you, and then let me know their recommendations; however, I've not heard from them.   

As part of constructive dialogue I'd like to share additional technical information with you that I believe casts an even greater sense of urgency on the need for our state agencies to recognize the serious human health risks inherent in aerial spray irrigation of animal manure and to act responsibly. 

Nancy Khardori, M.D., Ph.D., Division of Infectious Diseases, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, is author of "Overview of Potential Agents of Biological Terrorism" available on the university website (http://www.siumed.edu/medicine/id/bioterrorism.htm#a).  Dr. Khardori reports that spray aerosols are the most effective means of dispersion of biological weapon systems, with secondary or tertiary transmission of pathogens and toxins person-to-person and via vectors. 

Even more chilling is the fact that a number of bacterial agents of bioterrorism are pathogenic microorganisms found in livestock manure (US Environmental Protection Agency).   These include: 

 

• •Bacillus anthracis   Category A bacterial agent of highest priority.  Anthrax can be easily disseminated or transmitted person to person with high mortality.  B. anthracis was weaponized by the US in 1954. 
• Category B bioterrorism agents of second highest priority include Salmonella species, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Cryptosporidium parvum and Cloxiella burnetti. 
• Brucella species  Category B bioterrorism bacterial agent causing brucellosis.  Easily transmitted, stable to environmental conditions and long persistence in wet ground.  Infection by skin contact, ingestion and inhalation of contaminated aerosols.  Highly infectious with only 10 - 100 viable cells required. 
•  Clostridium tetani  Category B tetanus biological toxin 
• Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B  Category B biological toxin from Staphylococcus aureus.  This toxin was one of seven agents in the US biological warfare arsenal in the 1960s. 

This is what leadership of DNR, DATCP (Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection) and DHS (Wisconsin Department of Health Services) plan for our rural communities -- to expand the use by livestock operations of aerosolizing liquid manure and dispersion of pathogens and toxins identified as agents of biological warfare and bioterrorism to ourselves, our neighbors and our animals! 

DNR Deputy Secretary (Matt) Moroney spoke at a gathering of agricultural producers in February 2013.  He is on record as claiming collaboration between DNR and producers is to facilitate dairy industry expansion.  His message at the seminar included statements that DNR is no longer a strong advocate on environmental issues and further that DNR is supportive of manure spray irrigation.  These words are from leadership of the agency providing over $300,000 of public money to fund supposedly objective research on manure irrigation by agricultural scientists. 

Further, I understand that DNR has arranged for the quantitative microbial risk assessment for human health risk determination to be conducted by a forage research scientist with the US Department of Agriculture, not by medical officials and experts in public health. 

Given the overlapping interests in this arrangement, there appears to be significant prejudice in the research plan and health risk assessment and I see little reason to trust the outcome of the DNR project. 

I believe there is sufficient concern regarding human health risks to request a moratorium on the manure irrigation project until a more complete scope of work is defined and further that an agency with public health responsibilities and accountability is designated to conduct human health risk assessment. 

I'm not anti-farming nor a tree hugger.   I believe you know that my wife and I own 400 acres of farmland on Lake Sinissippi.  My grandfather was a dairy field man for Nestle creamery in Waterford, Wisconsin, and I have fond memories of riding with him to his farm patrons in the early 1950s.  My father was a dairy chemist in the industry.  My business career was in international marketing in the dairy and food industries, and in the 1980s I served as a US representative to the International Dairy Federation in Brussels, Belgium. 

I don't believe the livestock CAFO concept is sustainable.  The costs to our rural communities and residents, our environment, human health, the workers on the farms and the animals themselves are too high -- witness the tragic drowning of 2,000 pigs in a manure pit at a swine CAFO in Guelph, Ontario a month ago. 

And I envision serious, long-term problems for our state with the current administration policy of unfettered expansion of dairy and livestock CAFOs.  Aggressive promotion of manure spray irrigation by DNR and DATCP is an ill-advised consequence of that policy.  We're buried in manure, farm fields are saturated with waste and nutrients, and additional land for spreading is unavailable in many areas. 

I believe we can evolve a more balanced approach to farming in this state that places a limit on expansion of CAFOs and instead encourages and supports economic development of farms with sustainable land-use practices and opportunities for our rural young people.  I hope you are willing to explore more sensible options for our farm families and rural residents.  In the meantime I believe there is a clear need for you to demand responsible action by our state agencies to protect public health from the hazards of manure spray irrigation. 

Sincerely, 

Greg Farnham 

Big Ag Going Wild on Toxification of Wisconsin Waters to Pols' Silence

CAFO and liquid manure spraying are
killing Wisconsin waters -
Image from the Wisconsin
Initiative on Climate Change Impact

Mary Burke had this to say about directing toxins into Wisconsin lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers: Dead silence.

When it comes to the health of Wisconsin waters and the people of Wisconsin, silence is not golden, it's deadly.

A few weeks back a typical dullard politician, State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids), threatened me with a libel suit for pointing how his corrupt policies [Krug doesn't make a move without an okay from the Party] are destroying the lifeblood of the Central Sands by the vectoring of toxins in liquid cow manure into the region's waters.

Krug backed off of course from his ill-advised threat, as every coward from a lightweight like Krug to a heavyweight like Michael Best and Friedrich's, (LLP) David A. Krass (representing Dairy Business Association (DBA) interests) do when confronted with facts.

Special delivery of liquid cow manure to Wisconsin streams and lakes -
Courtesy of Scott Krug, Scott Walker and the Dairy Business Association
[Notwithstanding Krug's public reversal on the proposed
Wysocki CAFO in mid-August]

The truth is Scott Walker's transformation of the independent Department of Natural Resources into a pollution-friendly arm of the Walker administration is a betrayal of several protections in the Wisconsin Constitution (emphatically so of the Public Trust Doctrine) of our "more than 15,000 inland lakes, 33,000 miles of rivers and streams, 5.3 million acres of wetlands, 471,329 acres of state forests, and a location alongside the Mississippi River, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior." (Jason J. Czarnezki, Marquette Law Review)

Equally true is that Mary Burke has to this point been silent on Walker's betrayal, despite the widespread belief, likely true, that Ms. Burke is as appalled as the folks in Kewaunee, Wood , Adams and Iron and Ashland counties.

Burke has made a political calculation out of fear of Walker and the DBA, and deceives the Wisconsin people with her silence every bit as Scott Walker does with his convoluted lies.

Other folks in Wisconsin are more candid, and not afraid.

Donald Ystad of Nekoosa and Rome: "A sympathetic county employee, who says we may well win the fight against the proposed Wysocki dairy CAFO, but Adams County should look to the south of Rome, along the Highway 13 corridor, all the way down to Adams-Friendship where a dairy industry gone wild may see their next opportunity. East and south of Dyracuse Mound (Motorcycle Recreation Area) there is nothing but pine forests and scrub, very few people, and the much-sought-after aquifer that underlies the Central Sands. That's something that should scare the heck out of Adams county residents as if they didn't have enough to worry about farther east in Richfield near Highway 51 (I-39). Holy smokes, where does it end?  Is he predicting another Kewaunee, with dairy CAFOs stacked up all the way down to the Dells?  Think about it next time you drive south through Big Flats on Hwy 13 to Adams-Friendship and beyond to the Dells. Then think about the (Walker)administration's desire to further expand dairy business in Wisconsin. I sure hope he's wrong."

For more candor, read on the linked pages:

Don Ystad in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
Lee Luft in the Green Bay Press Gazette
Greg Farnham in the RockRiver Times