Ashland Mayor Wants Environmental Impact Statement of Proposed Industrial Farm in Bayfield Co

A forum about the impact of CAFOs (Concentrated (Confined)
Animal Feeding Operations) on quality of life and health
in rural communities 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

The Mayor of the City of Ashland has requested a detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The letter by Mayor Debra S. Lewis requesting the EIS is dated last Friday and comes as sentiment against the proposed Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) has rapidly grown in Bayfield and Ashland counties in far-northern Wisconsin.

Lewis' letter is reproduced below:
---
February 27, 2015

Ms. Cathy L. Stepp,
Secretary Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 7921 Madison, WI 53707-7921

Via email: DNRSecretary@wisconsin.gov
Re: Badgerwood, LLC Hog Facility Reicks View Farm CAFO

Dear Ms. Stepp:

I write as the Mayor of the City of Ashland to respectfully request, in the strongest possible of terms, that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before taking any action to permit the operation of the proposed Badgerwood, LLC Hog Facility, also known as the Reicks View Farm Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in the Town of Eileen, Bayfield County. While the CAFO would be located outside of the City of Ashland, some of the CAFO's greatest impacts would fall directly on the City of Ashland, due primarily to the location of the proposed CAFO near the headwaters of Fish Creek, and to Ashland's location, just seven or so miles east, at the mouth of Fish Creek, where Fish Creek enters Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay.

I understand that the types of permits required for the CAFO to operate have generally been excepted by Natural Resources rule from EIS requirements, either as a "minor action" or as an "equivalent analysis action." However, I believe that the Badgerwood CAFO is of such magnitude and complexity that the DNR should exercise its discretion under NR 150.20(4), Wis. Admin. Code, to follow EIS procedures. Virtually every factor listed in NR 150.20(4)(b) points to the appropriateness of an EIS in this case.

The Ashland City Council recently passed, unanimously, a resolution calling on the Bayfield County Board to exercise its authority to adopt more stringent standards than contained in ATCP 51 to regulate CAFOs. In issuing the call, the City Council cited its concerns for safe drinking water, beach safety, tourism, and public health factors. I am confident that if the timing of the DNR's decision on an EIS for the project allowed it, the Ashland City Council would take similar action specifically to request that an EIS be required. As it stands now, the City's resolution directed to Bayfield County does state our policy on the matter and as such should be considered as a factor under NR 150.20 (4)(b)(2), that the "project may be in conflict with local . . . environmental policies."

The City of Ashland has the following specific questions which can only be answered by the careful preparation of an EIS :

l . What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the City of Ashland's drinking water?
2. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the Chequamegon Bay fishery?
3. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the City of Ashland's swimming beaches?
4. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on odors in and near the City of Ashland?
5. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on small-scale farming near the City of Ashland?
6. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on tourism in the City of Ashland?

I will briefly address each of these points so that you can understand why I am asking these questions. Clearly, at this point we all have more questions than answers, which is why an EIS is so important.

1. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the City of Ashland's drinking water?

The City of Ashland obtains one hundred percent of its drinking water from one intake pipe in Chequamegon Bay. The City's Utility Supervisor has advised the City Council that extensive algal blooms could greatly interfere with our intake and treatment of drinking water, requiring increased back-flushing of the system to unclog it, reducing efficiency, and raising costs. Installation of a second intake pipe would be a multi-million dollar project and is unaffordable for the City.

Chequamegon Bay has no algal blooms of any significance now. Our concern is that the CAFO will add nutrients to the Lake resulting in such blooms. We do not know how water circulation patterns in the Bay would affect our water intake were blooms to occur.

2. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the Chequamegon Bay fishery?

Ashland has a vibrant sport fishery on its doorstep in Chequamegon Bay. Summer and winter, visitors and locals alike find their way onto the Lake, contributing to our quality of life and the Ashland economy at the same time. Eutrophication, de-oxygenation, and fish die-offs would be devastating to this aspect of our lives and our economy. We are aware that CAFO's are thought to be responsible for eutrophication in other locales, and we are extremely concerned that it could happen here, too.

3. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on the City of Ashland's swimming beaches?

Ashland's primary swimming beach is adjacent to the Fish Creek estuary and less than one mile from its primary mouth. The water is clear and clean and because it is shallow, ideal for young children. Algal blooms resulting from excessive nutrient loading from the CAFO could ruin this resource, as could infectious agents from pig waste.

4. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on odors in and near the City of Ashland?

Ashland is a city of over 8,200 inhabitants. The prevailing west-to-east winds leave the City downwind from the CAFO and the fields where it intends to spread manure. Ashland is not an Iowa farm town where the smell of pig manure might be expected. Ashland is a lakeshore town where people come to breathe deeply of the fresh, invigorating air. We need to know if the millions of gallons of pig manure being collected and spread just a few miles upwind of us will detract from our fresh-air resource.

5. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on small-scale farming near the City of Ashland?

Small-scale, sustainable agriculture is a thriving and growing sector of our local economy. Awareness and selectivity of what we eat in Ashland is on the rise and becoming part of our local "brand." The Chequamegon Food Cooperative just completed a major enlargement, fueled in part by a booming interest in eating healthy and local foods. The Co-op in turn provides support for local farmers through a number of innovative programs. People in Ashland like pork just as much as the next guy — which is why small-scale, local, sustainable, family hog farms such as Maple Hill, just outside Washburn, and Angel Acres, just outside Ashland, are very busy. The risk of importing swine disease from Iowa and thus destroying existing local farms is of serious concern to those of us who see sustainable agriculture as a key component in our economy.

6. What would the Badgerwood CAFO's environmental impact be on tourism in the City of Ashland?

By many measures, our area is the poorest in the state of Wisconsin. Our greatest source of wealth is our clean air and clean water. Without those assets we have nothing special to offer the visitor. The tourist coming "up north" wants to feel that he or she is going someplace special and pristine.

Many of us who live in Ashland have had the experience of standing by the shore of Chequamegon Bay, perhaps while on an evening walk or bike-ride, seeing a car or minivan pull up, maybe with license plates from South Carolina or California, and watching the driver and passengers get out, stretch, inhale a deep breath of Lake Superior air, and marvel at the blue water laid out before them. Often there is a smile; sometimes there is a look of amazement, and if there are children usually there is a race to the water's edge. Whatever it is, we know that the first experience of standing beside the largest freshwater lake in the world will stick with that person for a long time. Our nightmare: that same car pulls up, the driver steps out, takes a deep breath and chokes on the pig-manure scented air, and then has to tell her children to stay out of the algae and scum-laden water lapping on our beach.

The DNR needs to thoroughly assess the risk of this scenario coming about. The only way to do so is to perform a full EIS. The future of our lives as we know them in Ashland may well depend on the information that can only be developed through the EIS process.

Debra S. Lewis Mayor

cc:

Duane Popple
1300 W. Clairemont Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 54701
Via email: duane.popple@wisconsin.gov

CAFO Intake Specialist
WT/3
Wisconsin DNR
P.O. Box 715
Madison, WI 53707-7155
Via email: Tyler.Dix@wisconsin.gov

Scott Krug Joins Opponent in Call for No New High Capacity Wells, No Wysocki CAFO in Reversal

Dana Duncan, Candidate for
Wisconsin's 72nd Assembly District
is taking on pro-CAFO incumbent,
Scott Krug

Conversion or political expedience?

Updated - Whatever the explanation, grassroots activism still matters in central Wisconsin, and when a local citizens' groups forces a corrupt political opponent to adopt qualified agreement with their positions, the grassroots can claim victory.

Ask Protect Wood County and Rome and Saratoga Friendly and their two-plus years opposition to a proposed massive, Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) by the Wysocki corporation in northern Adams and Wood County (and abutting Juneau and Portage counties and the area stream, the Ten Mile Creek) in central Wisconsin.

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC) is as cynical and craven a politician as I have seen in Wisconsin politics, and this is plunging the depths of today's Republican Party dominated by corporate-owned extremists.

In this triumph of grassroots activists, citizens have pushed Krug to join Krug's general election opponent, disability rights attorney Dana Duncan, into opposing the proposed giant CAFO by the Wysocki corporation in a spectacular reversal on Krug's part who cited soaring level of Ecoli in area lakes (reported last week) and beaches as the rationale behind Krug's new position.

A common site in the Town of
Saratoga in Wood County

The high levels of Ecoli are caused by existing practices of Wysocki and other Big Ag operations dumping cow manure runoff into area streams, lakes and aquifers, and water activists have been warning about Ecoli for years.

Krug has known of Ecoli and other pathogen concerns for years thanks to the work of this constituents.

Facing a groundswell of opposition, Krug announced his opposition yesterday, the same week Protect Wood County and Rome and Saratoga Friendly jointly announced they are co-sponsoring a debate between Krug and Duncan to take place October 6, and the same week Krug said he is filing a libel suit against MAL Contends for pointing out Krug is cynical, corrupt and willing to support dumping toxins into area streams and lakes.

Opposing the Wysocki CAFO is better than telling CAFO opponent, Nancy Koch, to "quit your bitching," as Scott Krug said on July 19, 2012 at a special Saratoga Town Board meeting drawing 100s of people held at the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center.

Krug's press release announcing his reversal, 73 days from the November 4 general election, is reproduced below, as is his general election opponent's, Dana Duncan who excoriated Krug for waiting so long to come out against the proposed CAFO and high capacity water permits.

"It's obvious that the real reason for Representative Krug's sudden opposition to the CAFO in Saratoga and its high capacity wells has more to do with his floundering campaign than the high e coli levels in Nepco Lake and Lake Wazeecha," said Dana Duncan, Democratic Assembly Candidate for the 72nd assembly district now held by Krug. "For nearly three years local residents have vocally expressed their opposition to this project and up until now my opponent has refused to take a position on this critical local issue.

"This sudden change of heart on this critical local issue by my opponent is just a cynical attempt to distract voters from the fact that he has been wrong on this issue for nearly three years. This isn't leadership; this is simply a bold-face attempt at political manipulation. First, per diem, then term limits; how many other positions will he change to try to win this election?" 

Dana Duncan has long opposed the Wysocki CAFO and its requested 49 new high capacity well permits since the Wysocki Family of Companies formed two LLCs in 2012 and dropped like a bomb its plans to build the massive CAFO against the wishes of residents of this rural region called the Golden Sands.

The Duncan campaign said in a phone conversation this morning that Dana Duncan remains opposed to all new CAFOs under existing regulations devoid of wastewater treatment plans, noting there are several CAFOs now operating in and near Krug's district, and Krug has only come out against one proposed CAFO.

Duncan said opposing one proposed massive CAFO out of "political expediency" is smart politics, but Krug's horrid record on the environment remains.

The Central Sands region relies heavily on tourism and recreation, and northern Adams County, for example, is the site of a planned golf resort now imperiled by the proposed massive CAFO and its estimated some 60 million tons of liquid cow manure produced annually. In a phrase: PGA-rated golf courses and cow shit do not mix.

Citizen Ystad Responds

"I appreciate that Scott Krug has finally come out and said what should be realized all the way up the chain in Madison. The central sands area is already in trouble from over pumping of high cap wells, and with the closure of area beaches we are seeing the result of overreaching agriculture polluting our groundwater and surface water," said citizen Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin in an email this morning.

"Most importantly, the Rome/Saratoga recreational area, a major contributor to state tourism revenue, and inhabited by thousands of families, is not the place to put a large dairy CAFO. This is a strong statement from a man whose party has been the friend of big ag in many bill proposals, and Scott needs to be commended for saying the right thing."
 

Right here in our local Lake Nepco -
Attack of the Blue/Green Algae.
Our reps, both local and at the state level,
better start getting a clue!
Water worries everywhere!
Nepco Lake for E. Coli and blue-green
algae. Just kayaked in the nastiest
water EVER.
We must fix these issues."
- Rhonda Cain-Carrell

For the politicians and agency people receiving this e-mail, please read carefully Scott's message. We have an environment in trouble here and in other parts of our state. Even ignoring the environment in trouble, there is the incompatibility of a large dairy CAFO sited within an existing, vibrant and growing recreational area. Everyone knows it doesn't fit here and stands to derail the tourism here. Why would you allow it to happen in the face of all these negatives and the nearly daily reporting of water issues all over the state?"

As a voter who cares about his environment, I need to know that the people I elect are protecting our environment, and our beautiful recreational area with the tourism dollars it can generate.  Many of us believe you can be a friend of agriculture and still do the right thing for the citizens in our state. I'm a concerned citizen and I vote."

Activism Pushing Environment

Personally, MAL Contends has been up in Wood and Adams counties some 10 times since 2012, and I can tell you that popular opposition against the CAFO is as strong a local political issue in Wisconsin this election cycle as I have seen next to the proposed GTac mine in Iron and Ashland counties in northern Wisconsin.

Krug's calling for a moratorium on high capacity wells in his district and his new opposition to the CAFO centered around Saratoga in the words of a long-time CAFO opponent appears as "a light on the road to Damascus. Or he [Krug] looked at the primary returns in Saratoga and Rome," referring the August 12 primary election that catapulted Duncan to a two-to-one victory over an opponent that Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate picked to run against the independent-minded Duncan.

Perhaps Scott Walker and Mary Burke will follow Duncan (and now Krug). Well, one conversion at a time.

Whether Krug was struck by lighting to borrow the Biblical allusion or the hard reality of losing an election against popular opposition, Scott Krug and Dana Duncan's Press Releases are below:

Scott Krug:

DISTURBING NEWS OF HIGH E. COLI  LEVELS LEADS TO CALL FOR ACTION

Madison –“With the news this week that Nepco Lake and Lake Wazeecha have disturbingly high levels of E. Coli (close to 30 times the level of safety) Representative Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) urged the DNR to deny the high capacity well permits currently being considered in Saratoga, and made the following statement:

"The progression of signs of deteriorating water quality ranging from lower lake levels to contaminated water bodies leads me to the believe that this area cannot handle increased pressures on water quality and quantity. Because of the serious concerns I have about the safety and quality of our water supply here in the Central Sands, I can't support the CAFO that is currently being considered for a high capacity well permits in Saratoga until those water quality concerns are addressed. While I appreciate the openness of the Wysocki family to negotiate on certain aspects of their project, it no longer appears that this project is feasible in any form, in an area that is so vulnerable for contamination. I ask the DNR to look into this E. coli outbreak and deny the high capacity well permits. 

"Our area has a long, proud tradition of agriculture and we definitely need to do whatever we can do to bring job growth to the area. But those considerations should not supersede the protection of the health and safety of our residents. Nor can they supersede the concerns associated with property value loss and decreased revenue from loss of tourism. 

“It was recently announced that the economic impact of tourism in Wisconsin went up 18% since 2011 to a staggering $17.5 Billion. The municipalities surrounding the Wisconsin Rapids area have started to pick up a great deal of steam in creating a new recreational haven for tourists from not only Wisconsin but all over the country. Compromising that momentum because of damaged natural resources would not be a wise long-term decision." 
CONTACT STATE REPRESENTATIVE: SCOTT KRUG:                     (608)-266-0216
#

Dana Duncan:

Duncan Campaign Forces Rep. Krug to Finally Listen to Constituents on Saratoga CAFO 

"It's obvious that the real reason for Representative Krug's sudden opposition to the CAFO in Saratoga and its high capacity wells has more to do with his floundering campaign than the high e coli levels in Nepco Lake and Lake Wazeecha," said Dana Duncan, Democratic Assembly Candidate. 

"For nearly three years local residents have vocally expressed their opposition to this project and up until now my opponent has refused to take a position on this critical local issue." Duncan continued, "In contrast, I've listened to these residents concerns and have taken a firm stance against high capacity wells which fail to consider overall impact to the area as well as all CAFOs in Wisconsin. I hope he will examine my other proposals and adopt them also.” 

"This sudden change of heart on this critical local issue by my opponent is just a cynical attempt to distract voters from the fact that he has been wrong on this issue for nearly three years," said Duncan.  This isn't leadership; this is simply a bold-face attempt at political manipulation. First, per diem, then term limits; how many other positions will he change to try to win this election?” concluded Duncan. 
#
Campaign Contact: 
Thomas Duncan 
Campaign Manager 
Duncan for Assembly 715-451-0503 
duncanforassembly@gmailc.om

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

Wisconsin Answers Proposed Polluting Swine CAFO in Bayfield County

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

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

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

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

CAFO Q andA with Bayfield County Resident Rallying for Clean Water

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wood County Family Threatened for Opposing Proposed Factory Farm

"Your Hous [sic] Is Next," reads a threat left near the home and
on the land of a family protesting the proposed massive Wysocki
CAFO in central Wisconsin. It take a certain pathology of CAFO
owners to deliberately poison neighbors, and another pathology to
leave this type of sick threat. The note was left after the sign of a
cow (below) had the cow's head removed. Photo: Nancy Koch

Updated - What is happening in isolated central Wisconsin is political terrorism.

"Terrorism includes the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).

"We are troubled," said Nancy Koch to me, citing a threat left on a note at their Saratoga home in Wood County last week reading: "Your hous [sic] is next."

In a phone conversation, I advised the Koch family [no relation] to hang up the phone, get in touch with a sympathetic attorney in Wisconsin Rapids and call the FBI immediately.

Koch responded that she has been in touch with the Wood County Sheriff's Department which sent over a deputy.

The threat is associated with the Koch family's objection to the siting of the proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) that would confine over 5,000 cows and produce an estimated 50 million tons of liquid cow manure annually, using 37 high capacity water well pumps in a geological region where the acquirer basin is already strained by the most high capacity wells in Wisconsin.

The Wood County Sheriff's Department confirmed this morning they are in receipt of several reports of recent thefts and vandalism associated with crimes against the widespread political opposition to the proposed Wysocki CAFO.

Anti-CAFO sign 'decapitated' left near threatening note
with nail holes and appears to have been blown
by the wind to a tree in a nearby stand of
pine trees common to the area on the Koch's.
The pink cow is some three-by-six feet in size.

The Kochs have what has become a popular anti-CAFO symbol, a large pink cow sign reading "Stop Factory Farming" and "No High Cap Wells" located on their land. (at right)

The anti-CAFO sign "decapitated" is feet away from the threatening note with nail holes and appears to have been blown by the wind to a tree in a nearby stand of pine trees common to the area on the Koch's.

The Koch family is part of a large citizens' group in central Wisconsin opposing the proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) that would confine over 5,000 cows and produce an estimated 50 Million tons of liquid cow manure annually.

The massive site would destroy 8,000 acres of what is currently managed forest land.

"We are tired of these threats. We have been very polite in our Pink Cow/CAFO opposition fight and have made ourselves visible, why aren’t you?," reads an email sent by Koch to Mal Contends in the hope the perpetrators will read it. "Evidently cowardly acts are your style!, We have a hard time believing anyone could be against pink cows so drastically to stoop to such a pathetic level of cowardice."

The threat follows the theft of several other signs made by children in Wood County by other families similarly opposed to the dangerous CAFO operation. Nancy Koch said her family has had vandalism to her home since she publicly opposed the CAFO three years ago.

The following notes were sent to a reporter with the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Gannett Co.) by Wisconsin Rapids resident, Rhonda Carrell:

This sign was stolen last week as pro-CAFO forces are
now escalating to open intimation and theft to stop opposition.

Hi Deb,

The clean water cow depicting “water” was stolen from Ten Mile Ave. and Hwy. 13 at approx. midnight Sunday or early Monday morning (Nancy Koch knows the landowner, it’s her neighbor). The beheaded cow on Ten Mile Ave. at Richard and Nancy Koch’s home at around the same time. Evergreen and Hwy 13 on xxxxx’s property another was taken but that was not the kids artwork. [Three] were taken from Virginia Olson and Darren Kester’s property on Hwy. 13 near Larry Avenue. At approx. 1:30 am Mrs. Olson’s son was outside his brother’s home and a tall pick-up truck with lights on the cab above the windshield was parked in the neighbor Kolo’s driveway and went speeding off. One was also taken from Ironside’s property on Hwy. 13 near Blue Ridge. He was unaware of the thefts until morning. The cow stolen on Hwy. 73 west of highway 13 and was also a children’s project.

Pic’s of kids working on the cows will come one at a time from my cell phone. I cannot find a more efficient way to send. There will be more addresses to report as we start checking other locations, I’m sure.

Thanks,

Rhonda Carrell

Several signs were stolen last week as pro-CAFO forces are
now escalating to open intimation and theft to stop opposition.

Hwy. 73 west of highway 13 and was also a children’s project.
---
Hi Deb,

Just an update on stolen/vandalized artwork. A note was found in the ditch near Richard and Nancy Koch’s home that had apparently been attached to their beheaded pink cow, telling them, “YOUR HOUS IS NEXT”. They have had cow thefts before and had anchored her well, along with drywall screws and nails coming out of her. The note had been attached to her and blew into the ditch. They have been threatened before by a man in a big, loud white truck telling them he was going to burn them out of their house.

Rhonda Carrell

Homes Under Attack in Wood Counties: Big Ag Suspect Number One

Message from proposed Wysocki CAFO to residents in
Wood County delivered in April 2015

Threats, Death Threats, Vandalism, Assaults and Now Slander

Residents in Wood and Adams counties in central Wisconsin working to halt a massively polluting proposed industrial dairy operation, a CAFO, are crime victims being met by a new spate of theft, criminal destruction, intimidation and a possible cyber attack on a home in the Town of Saratoga. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

The proposed siting of the massive 5,300-animal, 7,000-acre Wysocki CAFO has already driven down property valuations in the area because of the predictable consequence of the pollution and inflictions on health that come with CAFO operations. (Mal Contends)

Ten more signs vandalized the weekend of May 29-31, 2015
in Wood County.

On one hand are multi-generational families working to stimulate the economic activity associated with tourism and recreation, and to protect their homes and their families' health.

Then there is James Wysocki whose proposed CAFO is already depressing a troubled economy, and should the CAFO ever begin operations tourism, recreation, streams, lakes and aquifers—already being drained by Wysocki's high capacity water wells used in potato-growing operations—would in short order become relics and the area an economic wasteland.

Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors are fighting back but Wysocki is protected politically by Gov. Scott Walker and local Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) whose first public words on the proposed CAFO siting were "Quit your bitching," made to Nancy Koch, on July 19, 2012 at a special Saratoga Town Board meeting drawing 100s of people so the meeting was held at the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center.

"Your Hous [sic] Is Next," reads a threat left near the home and
on the land of a family protesting the proposed massive Wysocki
CAFO in central Wisconsin. It take a certain pathology of CAFO
owners to deliberately poison neighbors, and another pathology to
leave this type of sick threat. The note was left after the sign of a
cow (below) had the cow's head removed. Photo: Nancy Koch

Wysocki and his political allies in the GOP have nothing but contempt for the people of central Wisconsin.

"These good people are trying to protect their homes and existing lifestyle from this proposed CAFO that would surround their homes with the stink, dirt, noise, and water quality issues that come with these huge industrialized farms. Any of us would do the same to protect our own property values, and in fact, those of us living in the surrounding area will be the worse for it if this goes through. The odors from their existing CAFO in Armenia can be smelled 11 miles away in Nekoosa. How far away are you from the proposed CAFO?," writes area resident, Don Ystad in an email.

A resident of Wisconsin Rapids, in a letter to the Wood County Sheriff, references threats and vandalism on land owned by Thor Lasy—a cordial 84-year-old retired businessman with property in Wood County, who has not even taken a position on the proposed CAFO—but is a recreational enthusiast who believes a depressed area economy could become vibrant again if people could come together and promote the recreation and tourism potential of the region. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune).

Following is Rhonda Carrell's letter of Wisconsin Rapids:

Sheriff Reichert,

I am aware that Thor Laisy has spoken with you. ...

Every time I enter a meeting that pertains to Saratoga and see city police or sheriffs deputies, I just cringe. ... We are residents of an area where a bad business plan is in the process of being executed. We have been wronged. Our lives have turned into a living hell because this will not go away. We, at our home, have been on the receiving end of so many possible acts of intimidation, I will not be able to recite them all. I have, at times, felt unsafe on my own property and keep a gun close. I am alone a lot because my husband works out of town. This has taken a major toll on my health and our lives.

1. Man threatened me at the Saratoga Town banquet hall (in the parking lot) before the first meeting pertaining to the proposed CAFO. I was circulating a petition in the parking lot pertaining to asking our Town Board to fight the proposal. I asked my husband to keep an eye on him. When he left, he got into a Wysocki truck.

2. Man threatened my life if I did not back off from opposing this project at the PAC Center in Rapids on July 17, 2012. He then went and stood at the end if the row where my family and friend were sitting and stood there the entire time.

3. The night before we submitted 43 lbs of info to the DNR as part of the EIS, I was sitting in our living room going over materials to be submitted. After 11:00 pm someone was banging on the French doors next to where I was sitting. It happened in the middle of the night on the French doors outside our bedroom. We could not locate who it was by the time we got outside. Our deck is almost 700’ off Evergreen Avenue. This was not a coincidence. No one would just stumble onto our deck.

4. We have had broken glass at the end of our driveway NUMEROUS times and roadkill twice.

5. My husband was at our mailbox parked in the ditch (not in the road at all). He heard a vehicle coming toward him, accelerating quickly, and looked up just in time to see a late model green Ford F150 4X4 supercab (identical to my husband’s truck except color different) swerving toward his car. The truck missed him by an estimated two inches. The truck had the Wysocki logo on the door. We asked around to see who it belonged to because it was not one of their field trucks and were told, at the time the incident occurred, the only green late model supercab in the fleet belonged to Louis Wysocki’s grandson.

6. Computer has been hacked. Will not type all details. If interested, I will share details. Phone also hacked via email.

7. We have had many signs & pink cows stolen as have my husband’s parents on Mill Avenue. They have had their ditch torn up many times. Their home is across the road from Wysocki field in Saratoga.

8. I have been followed several times by a Wysocki worker. Sometimes in work truck, sometimes in a different vehicle. I don’t know who he is but it is uncomfortable. He may be the same man that threatened me at the PAC & Saratoga Town Hall.

9. Someone used a shotgun to destroy a scarecrow that was wearing a Protect Wood County T-shirt displayed at the end of our driveway.

I have actually heard the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce blamed us for the tipping over of a beautiful stone community events sign just south of the Nepco Lake bridge. I have heard the developers who own the land have repeated this untruth. WHY would anyone do that? Through a source within the DOT, I was told the developers tore it down themselves for one reason or another. I’m not clear as to who owned the sign but have been concerned about this accusation since I heard of it. This is simply NOT true.

We are here and were living our dream until all this started. We do not deserve what we have been going through. I’m certain I have left out many incidents, but I believe this is enough to help you understand something isn’t right.

Late Sunday night and into Monday morning many of our signs were damaged and torn down. One resident who will not speak up said theirs were damaged at approximately 1:20 am Monday. Whomever is doing this drops someone off by the signs/cows and the person working on signs has tools. There have been bolts, nuts and other materials used to erect the cows left on the ground after they have taken them down. This is the current description on what occurred early Monday. We are aware of 1- pink cow beheaded and 4 other anti CAFO signs on Hwy. 13 at top of 5 Mile Creek hill being thrown out in the road, 1- large pink cow at Evergreen & Hwy. 13 and also tore down the 4X8 STOP THE WYSOCKI CAFO sign & frame, 1-large pink cow at Ten Mile Creek, 1- small pink cow beat up with a hammer on 10 Mile Ave. East of Hwy. 13, 1- large pink cow beheaded & tipped over at Bell Road along Hwy. 73 aling with 2- 4X8 signs, one a painting of cupped hands holding water and on the back of that was a STOP THE WYSOCKI CAFO.

I’m told this info should be referred to Deputy Christiansen with case #15-8145 attached. If you wish to speak with me, our number is [xxx].

If you could help, please do. We have just been doing our best to live some sort of normal life in the middle of this mess.

Sincerely,

Rhonda Carrell
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494

Town of Rome Sends DNR Letter to Kill Massive, Proposed CAFO

334 Halberds Court;
Rome, Wisconsin

The Town of Rome, Wisconsin is an idyllic community in northern Adams county offering residents and retirees a scenic country life, peace and quiet and recreation in central Wisconsin.

This peace, in fact the future of the Town and surrounding region is imperiled by a proposed massive dairy CAFO (concentrated agricultural feeding operation) that would deliver pathogens into the water, land and air of the Central Sands.

The proposed CAFO is called the Golden Sands Dairy CAFO, now under consideration from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Citizens groups are fighting back, including Protect Wood County and Rome Saratoga Friendly (Facebook). [These groups are still waiting on presumptive Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee, Mary Burke, to issue a position paper protecting the water and Wisconsin families from CAFOs, and to make this a priority in her campaign, and failing that at least issuing a public statement calling for stopping the poisoning of the region.]

Local governments are not waiting, and are making their voice heard by the DNR, what used to be an independent agency but under Gov. Scott Walker has become a corrupt arm of corporate interests that no longer give an impartial hearing to "environmentally-motivated opponents of frac sand mines, big dairy expansions and mountain-top removal iron mining in the Bad River watershed," as Jim Rowan writes.

Time is not on the side of the conservationists and those working to protect natural resources.

"The ecological carrying capacity on at least two of Wisconsin’s agricultural landscapes has been exceeded: that includes much of Northeastern Wisconsin as well as the Central Sands. These landscapes are literally bleeding excess nitrogen and phosphorus into groundwater and surface water," said Gordon Stevenson, a 26-year veteran of the DNR where his last assignment was serving as the Chief of Runoff Management until his retirement in January of 2011.

CAFOs typically take the cow manure mixture, store some of it in lagoon and spray the rest of the toxic brew:

Below is the letter submitted to the DNR by the Town of Rome Board of Supervisors in Wood County:
---
July 24, 2014

Mr. Russ Anderson
WDNR Environmental Review Coordinator
3911 Fish Hatchery Road
Fitchburg, WI 53711
RE: Golden Sands Environmental Impact Statement

Dear Mr. Anderson,

The Town of Rome is located two miles south of the proposed CAFO, and borders the cropland on which the manure will be spread and where many of the forty high capacity wells will be located. Rome has 2741 full time residents, and has 4262 residential properties with improvements, many of which are vacation homes. Rome is a recreational and retirement community. Many of the full time residents bought property as a weekend retreat, and then moved here after retirement. They chose Rome because it was a quiet community with clean water, clean air, and an abundance of natural resources in the area that provided many recreational opportunities. This continues to be why many people buy in Rome.

The proposed CAFO now threatens the environment that brought people to the Town of Rome.
 
Experience has shown that there are many environmental issues surrounding other CAFO operations in Wisconsin, and in the Midwest. There are air quality issues which should be controlled by the State and Federal air quality standards, but are difficult to monitor and enforce. The odor from the Factory Farm operation, and from the fields where the manure is applied is not controlled. Manure odor is very offensive to most people, and it will easily travel into Rome when the wind is blowing from the north or west.

There is a new campground less than two miles from the CAFO being built by the Wisconsin Trapshooting Assn (WTA) on the site of their world class trapshooting complex. Their operational plan calls for attracting campers even when there are no trapshooting events. The income from the premier quality campground which will have 204 drive-through full hookup sites is needed to fund the operation of the complete facility. The presence of the manure odor, and the noise of the 24/7 operation will have a negative effect on attracting campers to make the campground successful. The WTA is projecting an investment of $4.9 million into this project which includes a “Learning Center” for use by schools statewide for educational events. The annual income from the campground, shooting facility, and Learning Center is projected to be $1.4 million per year, which will be jeopardized by the CAFO being located so close.

The Town of Rome is going to be the site of the Sand Valley Golf Resort which is under construction now. This will be mega golf facility that will draw visitors from around the country and world to play their links style courses. The developer chose the Town of Rome because of the rural area away from industrial development, the abundance of open rolling terrain, natural resources for other recreational activities, and clean air and water. Their long range business plan calls for developing five courses, lodging facilities, and full service club houses at an investment of $100 million. When finished, this operation will employ hundreds of people in well paying positions. Even though the facility will be located in southern part of Rome, many of the guests will be arriving from the airports to the north where they would see and smell the CAFO as they arrive. This will be another major source of income for local residents and businesses, as well as tax revenue for the Town, County, and State. The successful operation of this facility would be jeopardized by the CAFO.

The proposed 6000 acres of cropland with forty additional high cap wells will have a negative effect on Rome’s lakes and groundwater. Private water wells around other CAFO operations and near high concentrations of cropland have experienced increased nitrate levels, and contamination from the chemicals and pesticides used to the point where the well water is not safe to drink. Ground water levels have dropped as witnessed in the Plainfield and Plover areas. The Rome Town Board passed a resolution last year opposing the method that the DNR uses when issuing high cap well permits, because they are not considering the cumulative effect of multiple wells in the same area. This was forwarded to the Governor and State officials with no response.

There are about 3500 private wells in Rome with 1500 located within the three mile radius of the proposed high cap wells. In addition, the Rome Water Utility serves 1300 customers in the Lake Camelot area from their wells located 2.3 miles from the proposed high cap wells. Engineered studies have shown that there is a three mile cone of depression of ground water levels around each high cap well.   Many of the 1500 private well owners stand a good chance of having their wells contaminated, and/or dried up when the ground water levels drop.  They would then have to drill deeper wells, and/or purchase expensive filtration equipment to have safe drinking water. The cost to each property owner could be $3000 to $5000 or more. This could easily have a cost of $4.5 to $7.5 million to Town residents within the three mile radius of the high cap wells. The nitrate contamination would go beyond the three mile radius which would affect even more wells.

The same issues will threaten the Rome Water Utility wells. In 1995, the Water Utility found that two wells were contaminated with nitrates from the agricultural area east of Rome resulting in the wells being taken out of service. A new well had to be drilled at a cost of $600,000. Since 2006, another new well was drilled and the filtration equipment updated at a cost of $1.6 million. If the Water Utility’s current wells become contaminated with nitrates, the cost of the necessary filtration equipment will be over $2 million, plus the waste disposal for the nitrate residue would be about $40,000 per month, or $480,000 per year. These costs would need to be charged back to the Water Utility customers.

In addition to the air quality and ground water issues, some Town of Rome residents will have to contend with additional noise from the Factory 24/7 operation, and the additional 24/7 truck traffic through Rome. Rome would no longer be a quiet place to live.

A number of residents have already stated that if this CAFO is allowed, they will be selling their property as they did not move to Rome to live under these conditions. They want to sell their property before the value of Rome property drops as a result of the CAFO. Residential property in the northern part of Rome will see the greatest impact. There are numerous papers written documenting that the value of residential property within three miles of a CAFO declines, some places have been as much as 30%. As more properties are put on the market, all Town property values will be affected. There will be fewer buyers that want to buy in Rome, and put up with the air, water, and noise issues. When the supply exceeds the demand, property values drop. A good example of this was when the Town’s residential property values dropped $190.4 million (26%) from 2009 to 2013. This was because there were a lot of properties on the market, and nobody was buying. This will happen again if the environment that brings people to Rome is compromised by air, water, and noise issues. The 2014 assessed value of the residential property in Rome is $574.4 million. Even a modest 5% decrease in property value would be $28.7 million loss. A 10% decline would be $57.4 million. Rome expects to see very little additional revenue from the CAFO, and the 25 farm hand employees that the CAFO will employ, so the economic impact to the Town of Rome will be all negative. When you look at all of the factors, this could easily be over $50 million when you factor in the lost to the tourism industry, to businesses, both local and county wide, to the construction industry, and less jobs available. How will the Town of Rome, Adams County, and the residents be compensated for that loss?

In conclusion, this CAFO is proposed to be located in the middle of two residential communities. This is the worst possible location for this kind of operation.  Consideration needs to be given to the fact that a private party wants to make a huge profit at the expense of the Town residents, both Saratoga and Rome. There are areas in central Wisconsin where there is open land with very few residents per square mile, and located many miles away from residential communities. If this type of operation is going to be permitted, that is where it should be located, not in Saratoga. We agree that the agricultural and dairy industries are a vital part of Wisconsin’s economy, but the tourism and recreation industries also contribute many dollars to the economy. There needs to be a compromise reached to share and preserve our natural resources. In order to preserve wild life habitat, control soil erosion, and clean the air we breathe, there needs to be limits established to control the amount of forestry land that can be converted to cropland in any given area.  We ask the Department of Natural Resources to take on the responsibility that has been assigned to them, to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources, especially clean water and clean air.

Respectfully,

Town of Rome Board of Supervisors,

Republicans Open New Office in Wisconsin Rapids to Fight Citizens' Groups

Working to preserve water, tourism and recreational destinations by opposing Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operations (CAFOs), residents in central Wisconsin have been busy for the last two years.

The Republican Party opened a new office in Wood County last week in Wisconsin Rapids (Cleworth, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune) to counter citizen action 39 days from Election Day.

"We just want to preserve our water; streams, groundwater, lakes. Don't we owe this as a responsibility to future generations," said Rhonda Cain-Carrell of the Town of Rome.

Republicans just want to preserve the millions of dollars it gets from the Factory Farm industry.

Cain-Carrell is a member of two citizens' groups, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and Rome and Saratoga Friendly (Facebook) fighting the proposed Wysocki CAFO that would be centered in the Town of Saratoga and abut four counties in central Wisconsin in a region known as the Golden Sands.

In just two years, the two groups have radically changed public opinion on the massive, proposed Wysocki CAFO that would dump millions of gallons of liquid cow manure into the environment, while sucking up ground aquifers (where folks get their drinking water) with 39 high capacity water wells (10 other well permits remain in limbo).

The sitting State Representative Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) after over two years of stringing along mostly Adams, Wood, and Portage county citizens suddenly issued a press release 74 days from Election Day saying he is now opposed to the siting of the Wysocki CAFO.

This is a testament to the political clout of the citizens' groups.

Krug wants to keep his gerrymandered seat after breaking his promise to only run for two terms in 2010, and the proposed CAFO is about as popular as, well, liquid cow manure.

Krug is so much in fear of the citizens' groups that Krug told one member, Donald Ystad of Rome in northern Adams County (and this writer), in emails that Krug would file a lawsuit against MAL Contends in August (VanEgeren, Capital Times) after I pointed out Krug is a "cynical, corrupt politician" providing political cover for polluters, and "assisting Scott Walker, Walker's DNR and the Dairy Business Association in their project in which one objective is to contaminate and literally toxify Wisconsin lakes and other waters."

Krug is a recipient of the Dairy Business Association's (DBA) 2012 Legislative Excellence Award. DBA is a massive dairy lobby in Wisconsin.

Krug repeatedly demanded that my conclusions be retracted. I told Krug in emails that truth is an absolute defense against defamation accusations, and I refused. Krug never followed through on his threats.

Some two weeks later, Krug flip-flopped and said in a press release that "it no longer appears this [CAFO] project is feasible in any form in an area that is so vulnerable for contamination. ... I ask the DNR to look into the E. coli outbreak [in area lakes from existing liquid cow manure by the Wysocki corporation] and deny the high capacity well permits" (VanEgeren, Capital Times).

Krug did not explain if the language "it no longer appears .... feasible in any form" suggested that at one point Krug felt the Wysocki CAFO was feasible. Neither did Krug explain why he changed his position.

Krug's opponent, Dana Duncan, has been an avid opponent against the CAFO since June 2012, when the town of Saratoga was informed of the Wysocki CAFO's plans.

"Our lifeblood is going to be tourism,” Duncan said. "I want this area protected for overall economic development and our health. It’s beautiful. I don’t want to see it end" (VanEgeren, Capital Times).

CAFOs have proliferated under the administration of Scott Walker and the DNR, which is charged with considering environmental impact. They have given out CAFO and high capacity water well permits like candy at Halloween, in accordance with Scott Walker's repeated statements.

"I will make sure the DNR treats Wisconsinites as customers, not criminals," then-candidate Walker said in 2010, saying the state Department of Natural Resources was "out of control" (Verburg, Wisconsin State Journal).

Walker's opponent, Mary Burke, rejects Scott Walker's unprecedented environmental makeover of the DNR.

"[Look] how far we’ve come since that terrible day (June 6, 2012) when Wysocki dropped his bomb on our communities. This is how we all found one another. For all of you, I’m grateful. We WILL win this thing. Thank you for all you do," said Cain-Carrell in an email to citizens of Adams and Wood, and area counties over the weekend.

The citizens of central Wisconsin have come far.

Scott Krug has not.

Krug takes orders and the higher-ups in the Republican Party reportedly sanctioned Krug's lip-service reversal on the proposed CAFO after an assurance to James Wysocki, the CAFO's CEO, that a change in policy would never get through the Republican caucus, and Walker would not change policy at the DNR.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' (R-Burlington) office refused to return a phone call after a message was left on this matter.

On October 6, Monday (6:30 - 8:30 P.M.) at the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and Rome and Saratoga Friendly will co-host a candidate forum with Dana Duncan (D-Port Edwards) and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa).

If you are in the area, I would advise not missing this one. An overflow crowd is expected.

Bayfield County Board Approves One-year Moratorium on CAFOs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Write Frank Koehn and Neil McClelland:

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

To the Bayfield County Board

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disease

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

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

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

Manure Injection

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

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

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

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

Seasonal Employment

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

Feed

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

Road Problems

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

Respectfully submitted by,

Frank Koehn and Neil McClelland