Wisconsin DNR and DoJ Give Citizens the Shaft

It's almost summer in Wisconsin. Vectoring millions of
tons of pathogen-laden cow manure in liquid and aerial
emissions into surface waters and aquifers
has the go-ahead from the Wisconsin Department of
Justice, the Department of Natural Resources and Scott
Walker, the titular and corrupt governor of Wisconsin.
Image: Midwest Environmental Advocates

Republican War on Wisconsin in Fifth Year

Non-enforcement of regulations against pollution and poisoning of Wisconsin rural communities serves polluters, and a secondary objective to drive socially aware families out of state

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Wisconsin Department of Justice (DoJ) refuse to act against water contamination by cow manure and pathogens in Kewaunee and Door counties, clean water activists noted this weekend. They say this non-enforcement stance is a statewide policy.

Kewaunee County residents, Nancy and Lynn Utesch, point to emails (below) sent and responded to by a Wisconsin assistant attorney general dated September 22, 2014.

In an email to Asst. Attorney General and Director of the Environmental Protection Unit with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Thomas J. Dawson, Nancy and Lynn Utesch reference a piece here entitled Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation.

The Utesches write in part to Dawson, "I do believe you should know the truth of what is going on--on the ground and in communities suffering from the ill effects of non-enforcement, non-regulations and fines that should be warranted for their reckless and dangerous behavior to citizens and the environment."

When something does finally happen, Mr. Dawson, it will be with the full knowledge of yourself, and the DOJ department, and through informative articles and information that the self-policing citizens are doing."

Something had happened days before in Kewaunee County in northeastern Wisconsin.

Reports Jim Lundsrum in the Door County Peninsula Pulse (Nov. 12, 1014):

A young family visiting Door County for a weekend in mid-September, [2014, days before the Utesches emailed the DoJ's Dawson], were the subject of a public health investigation when they returned to their Calumet County home and their four-month-old daughter came down with an illness that was identified as E. coli bacteria from a bovine source, [cow manure].

‘The department of health got involved. They asked me where I was. That was several phone calls, to try to narrow it down,’ said the infant’s mother (she asked that we not use their names).

It turns out the family had stayed that weekend at a West Jacksonport, [Door County], home now identified as in the area of concern for well contamination after a Sept. 8 manure spreading session that included spreading into a sinkhole. This was the Monday after torrential rains wreaked havoc and saturated the landscape. …

 ‘The department of health nurse said since the E. coli was combined with a campylobacter bacteria, that’s really indicative of a bovine source. They were able to track it to the source based on the type of bacteria in the water.’

The mother said she does not understand why manure spreading is not more regulated. …

‘Especially with the fractured bedrock and shallow soil. It doesn’t take much for it to get in the groundwater.’ …

For other reports and analyses of water contamination across the state, see "Manure spraying under scrutiny," (Seely, WisconsinWatch); and "Health Risks of Manure Spray Irrigation," (Kewaunee CARES).

In all, 17 people including the infant were sickened in one September 2014 incident from one near-CAFO that then became a CAFO-sized factory farm, Haberli Farms, in 2105, (Lundstrum, Door County Pulse). The DNR and DoJ conducted no investigation of the incident.

The September 2014 incident was followed by a report issued some 14 months later showing, "More than one-third of wells in dairy farm-intensive Kewaunee County were found to be unsafe because they failed to meet health standards for drinking water, according to a new study," (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Today, drinking the water or bathing in the water in Kewaunee County and in numerous other areas across the state is rolling the dice with your health, ("Bacteria in state’s drinking water is ‘public health crisis’ Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents are at risk of illness from waterborne pathogens in private and public drinking water supplies," (Seely, WisconsinWatch).

Asst. Attorney General and Director of the Environmental Protection Unit, Wisconsin Department of Justice Dawson replied to Nancy Utesch:

Ms. Utesch: As indicated in our letter to you of September 6, 2013 (attached), the DOJ enforces Wisconsin’s regulatory laws on referral primarily from the DNR. Our office has no independent environmental investigators or authority to prosecute violations except upon investigation and referral from DNR. Therefore, your concerns should be directed there. Thank you.

A request for comment sent by Mal Contends in a May 23, 2016 email, (below), to the DoJ was not met with a response.

Since 2011, the DNR has been radically transformed by Scott Walker and Republicans and turned into a vehicle to facilitate pollution instead of protecting natural resources, (The Political Environment).

Industry is not only free to pollute, it now free to plunder Wisconsin aquifers and surface water.

On May 10, 2106, Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel issued a formal opinion stripping "the ability of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to protect our waterways from wells that pump 100,000 gallons per day or more. This opinion ignores decades of legal precedent and sound science, and puts Wisconsin’s waterways at even greater risk of drying up," (Wheeler, The Capital Times).

Good news for industrialized, polluting agricultural operations such as Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy LLC in Kewaunee County, (Golden, WisconsinWatch).

Bad news for Wisconsin families.

"More streams, lakes, and wells will go dry at a time when these resources are already stressed, to the detriment of other property owners, recreational water users, and the environment. Citizens are already sick and tired of having to go to court and do the job the DNR should be doing to protect the state’s resources," said Christa Westerberg, attorney for Friends of the Central Sands, reacting to Attorney General Schimel's give-away opinion to Big Ag polluters, (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal).
 --
Wisconsin DoJ, and Nancy and Lynn Utesch Emails notes reproduced below:
 ---
Johnnie,

Looking for a comment Re allegations of non-enforcement of regulated pollution events in Kewaunee County. Allegation is made by Lynn Utesch of Kewaunee County.

Utesch references emails, (from 2014), sent to and received from Asst. AG Thomas J. Dawson.

Utesch says:

- There is no enforcement of regulations Re CAFO pollution in Kewaunee County
- That the DoJ has been made aware of pollution events
- And includes an email from Dawson (below), reading in part: "As indicated in our letter to you of September 6, 2013 (attached), the DOJ enforces Wisconsin’s regulatory laws on referral primarily from the DNR.  Our office has no independent environmental investigators or authority to prosecute violations except upon investigation and referral from DNR.  Therefore, your concerns should be directed there."

Can you email me an on-the-record comment Re Utesch's allegations?

Thx!

Mike Leon

Michael Leon
Marketing and Public Relations Consultant
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/

---

Date: Sun, 22 May 2016 14:51:24 +0000
From: lnutesch@yahoo.com
To:
Subject: Fw: MAL Contends . . .: Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation

The non-enforcement going on in our communities, and the resulting pollution and contamination.  The DOJ is aware.

n

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Lynn Utesch To: "Dawson, Thomas J." <DawsonTJ@DOJ.STATE.WI.US>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 4:47 PM
Subject: Re: MAL Contends . . .: Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation

Thank you Mr. Dawson. 

 I do not send you things to inundate you with information. 

 I do believe you should know the truth of what is going on--on the ground and in communities suffering from the ill effects of non-enforcement, non-regulations and fines that should be warranted for their reckless and dangerous behavior to citizens and the environment.  

When something does finally happen, Mr. Dawson, it will be with the full knowledge of yourself, and the DOJ department, and through informative articles and information that the self-policing citizens are doing.

Sincerely,

Nancy Utesch

---

From: "Dawson, Thomas J." <DawsonTJ@DOJ.STATE.WI.US>
To: 'Lynn Utesch
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 4:20 PM
Subject: RE: MAL Contends . . .: Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation

Ms. Utesch:

 

As indicated in our letter to you of September 6, 2013 (attached), the DOJ enforces Wisconsin’s regulatory laws on referral primarily from the DNR.  Our office has no independent environmental investigators or authority to prosecute violations except upon investigation and referral from DNR.  Therefore, your concerns should be directed there.  Thank you.

 

Thomas J. Dawson, Director

Environmental Protection Unit

Wisconsin Department of Justice

17 West Main Street

Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7857

(608)

From: Lynn Utesch [mailto:lnutesch@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 3:06 PM
To: Dawson, Thomas J.
Subject: Fw: MAL Contends . . .: Sixteen CAFOs in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Define Devastation

 

http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2014/09/sixteen-cafos-in-kewaunee-county.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MalContends+(MAL+Contends+.+.+.)&m=1

Citizen Ystad: CAFOs Threaten Tourism, Golf Resort and Tax Revenue

Proposed Massive Golden Sands Dairy,
 in Adams and Wood Counties, Wisconsin

"In centrally located Adams County, (property) values tumbled 20.3 percent, the most of any county in the state," according to a Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance report released in August. (Carlson, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.)

In Wood County, property values stayed flat.

Because tourism, recreation and lake homes are abundant in the region, the Taxpayers Alliance's report was troubling to area residents, many of whom blame the proposed massive Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) by the Wysocki corporation.

Even as construction of a proposed multi-course Sand Valley Golf Resort is proceeding (Lawder, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune) and an area hotel is planned, existing CAFOs and the Wysocki CAFO would exceed the "carrying capacities" of the central sands to absorbs the 10s of millions of liquid cow manure, said Gordon Stevenson, former runoff management chief for the DNR (2001-2011), in an August interview here.

The public posture of Michael Keiser Jr. who is running point on the resort project is effectively let's see how one course does and decide how to proceed on that basis.

The threat to surface water and aquifers by CAFOs still has many in the area shaking their heads because they see the successful operation of Sand Valley and the proposed massive CAFO as mutually exclusive.

Put another way, residents fear that the 10s of millions of pathogen-laden liquid cow manure and liquid cow manure lagoons that would dot the region do not mix well with the proposed high-end golf resort.

An open letter to Gov. Scott Walker from Don Ystad, retired business consultant, resident of Rome and opponent of the Wysocki CAFO proposal follows.
---
Governor Walker,

Think about the recent reports of the E Coli poisoning of a visiting family in Door County just a few weeks ago and the negative effect on Door County tourism if this persists. The E Coli strain was tied to cow manure, not surprising since 30% of drinking water wells are unusable because of high nitrate levels in neighboring Kewaunee County where there are 15 dairy CAFOs. This is a dangerous trend for our tourism economy, not to mention the health and well being of our citizens and visitors. As a citizen of Rome facing the possibility of an 8,000 acre, 5,130 cow dairy CAFO right next door in Saratoga, I'm concerned for our future. As a community with a healthy and vibrant recreational tourism industry based around our existing lakes, Arrowhead golf courses, Tri-Norse ski jumping facility, Dyracuse ATV park, new Wisconsin Trapshooters state facility and now the Sand Valley Golf Resort, will we face the same future with drinking water wells polluted and our visitors sickened by agricultural runoff?

Coming from a dairy farming family, I support the reasonable growth of family farms. But Rome and neighboring Saratoga are population-dense, existing communities with a solid history of commerce as an established residential/recreational area providing revenue to Wisconsin's tourism industry. Adams County ranks 15th in tourism revenue in Wisconsin and the Rome/Saratoga area contributes $20 million annually to area businesses. The Town of Rome contributes nearly a third of the total tax revenue to Adams County. Allowing an 8,000 acre dairy CAFO to insert itself within this existing recreational community can only lead to our decline. Your intervention is needed to preserve these communities and allow tourism revenue to grow as Sand Valley Golf Resort attracts visitors from around the country.

Thanks,

Don Ystad