Citizen Ystad Speaks on Water Resources; Looking for Action

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

Citizens working with Saratoga Concerned and Rome Saratoga Friendly attended a Groundwater Summit this last weekend in Almond, Wisconsin in Portage County sponsored by the Central Sands Water Action Committee.

Residents in Juneau, Wood, Adams, Portage and Waushara counties should be on Code Red, as should all whole state.

Donald Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin is ready to go 15 rounds to protect Wisconsin's waters from polluters and cynical politicians. And Ystad is not alone.

The latest from Mr. Ystad:

As you can see from Rep Shankland's e-mail [below], the fight is far from over.  Ag lobbyists are working over their favorite lawmakers already. This will result in additional bills proposed to loosen what controls remain for protecting our water. We need to exercise our court of public opinion.  That's you and me, e-mailing and commenting on our water issues, and the threat to our growing recreational environment.  If you see an e-mail from me or a core group member titled action needed', please take the time to do a reply all so that the politicians and agency heads will know it's not just a handful of us who are concerned,

Ystad refers to Rep Shankland's (D-Stevens Point) note to Ystad and Bruce Dimick of Wood County:

Hi Bruce and Don,

It was great to see you both on Friday! Thank you for your thoughtful advocacy. I wanted to share with you this excerpt from the Wheeler Report on Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald’s priorities in January:

High capacity wells is an issue Fitzgerald said the Senate will be working on in 2015.  Fitzgerald said the Senate began working on the issue as a caucus but it fell victim to two major problems, a clear definition of the issue to be addressed and the end of session.  Fitzgerald highlighted the efforts of Sen. Kedzie working on high capacity wells to address a court case in his district while other members of the caucus wanted to address the issue on a statewide basis.  One of the major focuses for the caucus concerning high capacity wells is agriculture.  Fitzgerald said when the Senate returns it will be one issue his caucus will address. Fitzgerald said his caucus is also ready to work on reforms to workers compensation.  Fitzgerald said the caucus wanted to start reforms to the program during the 2013 session but ran out of time.

It looks like it could be SB 302 or worse. Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you very much!

Yours,
Katrina Shankland
State Representative
71st Assembly District

Also from Ystad comes his very latest:

Even Nestle knows agriculture needs to clean up it's act‏

Politicians and agency people,

Perhaps you already knew that Nestle, the worldwide beverage and food company, has taken steps to insure the long term viability of it's food and water sources, and to insure their good reputation in the marketplace.  If you were already aware, shame on you for allowing them to upstage you and take these steps before you did.  After all, they're a for profit company, while you are the protectors of our state's resources.  They evidently see very clearly that the public is becoming more and more concerned about the abuse of animals and the damage to our natural resources caused by weakened laws and reckless farming practices.

Here in the Rome and Saratoga recreational area, we face the prospect of a 5,130 cow dairy CAFO right in our backyard, threatening class "A" trout streams, lakes, and a vibrant recreational tourist area.  It's incomprehensible that this administration could allow this to happen.  We read every day about manure spills, beach closings, e coli in our lakes, increasing nitrate and phosphorous levels in our lakes, water levels dropping in our lakes and streams, and drinking water befouled by manure runoff.  You'd have to live in a cave not to take notice about what's happening to our environment.  And yet, a for profit company is taking steps to protect and preserve, while we hear that certain ag friendly politicians are gearing up to take another run at further weakening our environmental laws.  What's happened to the Public Trust Doctrine?  Is anybody listening in Madison?

I'm a concerned citizen and I vote, as do many of the hundreds blind copied here.

Don Ystad
Rome, WI

Nestlé Announces New Animal Welfare Program that Will Impact Its Suppliers

August 21, 2014 at 12:58 PM

Nestlé has just signed an agreement with World Animal Protection, an animal welfare organization based in London. The result is that hundreds of thousands of farms that supply Nestlé will have to comply with tighter animal welfare standards. Here is the company's complete statement on the agreement.

World Animal Protection has been working with Nestlé on how to strengthen it's current sourcing requirements, which already include spacing standards for livestock pens. Going forward, the company plans to eliminate the use of a variety of other practices by suppliers, such as the use of veal crates, cattle dehorning, swine gestation crates, poultry cage systems and methods that artificially speed the growth of animals. The company has also identified the following dairy farming/processing "priority areas" for improvement:

1. Manure management
2. Water savings
3. Control and reduction of pollutants loads in effluents
4. Reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of waste and by-products

Nestlé will begin a monitoring program to better understand and track the status of animal practices on farms. This will involve monitoring by an independent auditing firm that will be supervised by World Animal Protection. If a violation of company policy is found, Nestlé will work with the supplier so the farm can meet the required standards. If violations persist, Nestlé will stop doing business with the farm.

Wood County Health Dept Closes Multiple Beaches as Ecoli Breaks Out

Beaches closed in Wood
County suggest a problem
politicians will ignore

Update II: Update on Scott Krug's threat to file a libel suit; Krug backs off with a whimper.

To no one's surprise, Scott Krug's threat to pursue legal action has proven to be as credible as his claim to be working for the interests of clean water and the environment.

Krug is refusing to answer his office phone at his capitol offices, several writers contacting Krug, have said.

Krug is motivated by two things in his ill-considered libel suit threat: Stunning ignorance of libel law; and an appalling incapacity to say 'No' to Scott Walker and ALEC on Big Ag's liquid cow manure runoff gifted to the people of Wisconsin with all of its pathogens and toxins vectored into our waterways and aquifers.

With the support of the Gannett Co news and editorial editors at the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, the rightwing Krug is still trying to portray himself as a champion for clean water and the environment.

Krug faces a head-on challenge in the November general election from Dana Duncan, a disability rights attorney from Nekoosa, who has made Duncan's opposition to a massive proposed concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) a centerpiece of his campaign.

Krug continues his support for the CAFO, and Scott Walker's policies at the DNR that encourage the CAFO.

Update: See also State Rep. Scott Krug finds Madison freelancer's blog post libelous (Jessica VanEgeren, The Capital Times), and Idiot WI state senator is idiot, does not understand defamation (Crooks and Liars).

"The Wood County Health Department has announced the immediate closure of White Sands Beach, Red Sands Beach and Nepco Beach due to high counts Escherichia coli, commonly known as E.coli," reports Deb Cleworth of the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune. "Routine beach samples collected on Friday prompted the closure, according to a news release from the health department. The samples exceeded the maximum E.coli level considered safe — 235 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. The tested counts registered at 6,400 to 6,500 cfu/100 ml."

No one can say they have not been warned.

Citizens' groups such as Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and citizens such as Gordon Stevenson, Chief of Runoff Management for the Wisconsin DNR from 2001-2011, among many other folks have been sounding the alarm for years.

I asked Stevenson over breakfast earlier this month how he would go about quantifying and verifying that the "carrying capacity" of cow manure runoff of two Wisconsin regions has been exceeded in the Central Sand Plains (central Wisconsin) and the Green Bay and Fox River Valley watersheds. 

Stevenson told me to "look at the water," and proceeded to explain how lakes, streams and ponds can be measured for pathogens, including Ecoli, and we will eventually see "Dead Zones" of lakes become Dead Lakes because of oxygen deprivation and toxic pathogen saturation.

We see this Do-Not-Swim, Beaches-Closed condition all over Wisconsin now (Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Wisconsin folks can look up their local bodies of water and see how they fare at the Department of Natural Resources' Impaired Water list, but the site is poorly designed and not user-friendly.

Meanwhile, policymakers in the Wisconsin Legislature and Scott Walker front for the polluters, toe the GOParty line and destroy community control of Wisconsin municipalities like the Town of Saratoga and the City of Nekoosa in Wood County.

As Erin Brockovich said recently, "Public Health must and always should be a priority," pointing out that Phosphorus runoff directed into lakes is horrible public policy.

The poisoning of our waterways of course does not happen without political protection of the polluters for whom public health is a nuisance to the special interests for whom politicians work.

In the Wood and northern Adams counties where the beaches are now closed, State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC) still plays his cynical, corrupt game providing political cover for the 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—which means your families' health is the cost of doing business.

Scott Krug says he will sue me for libel for pointing out the above, absent a retraction. [No retraction is coming for this child badly in need of adult supervision.]

Krug claims his independence and says he has "dealt DBA (the Dairy Business Association) and WMC (Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce) a big loss," in an email to Wisconsin citizen, Donald Ysted, copied below, taking credit for killing SB 302, which would have changed the law regarding the DNR procedure for granting high-capacity well permits but had strong opposition in the State Senate.

Krug is lying, and would not cross his patrons, WMC, who "recently [in 2012] honored Representative Scott Krug with the prestigious Working for Wisconsin Award at Heartland Farms Inc. in Hancock." (WMC, October 2012) Heartland Farms is a potato growing operation, big contributors to Scott Walker, and an avid opponent of local control.

"A Legislative Fiscal Bureau report in June identified 64 measures the (Republican) legislature and the governor have approved since 2011 that force communities to pay for state mandates or seize their authority to make decisions about public health, environmental, land use, transportation and other matters," notes Michael Buelow in the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign site (August 6, 2014). Krug followed the Party line on the votes listed by Buelow.

In 2009, Roger Bybee sounded the alarm about concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFOs): "John Peck (of Family Farm Defenders), only half-joking, suggests Wisconsin's longtime slogan, '"America's Dairyland,' may need to be updated. The new slogan: 'The Land of 10,000 Animal-Waste Lagoons.'" (Isthmus)

Five years later, we have to say we should have listened.

Meanwhile, citizen activism continues.

Donald Ystad, the candid citizen from Nekoosa, Wisconsin, forwarded the following email exchange as Scott Krug works for the polluters while Krug pretends to be fighting them. [Email addresses omitted.]

From: Scott Krug
Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: FW: Citizen Ystad Hits Sacred Cow, the Dairy Business Association, as Wisconsin Lakes Perish
To: Donald Ystad
Cc: , Nancy Koch, Criste Greening, Rhonda
Don

"The elephant" is obvious. DBA (Dairy Business Association) will try to do many things you may not like for many years to come.

 

If the goal of this group is to push away someone who has already dealt DBA and WMC a big loss you are succeeding. You know my record and you know where I stand.

 

I wish I could understand why some believe a minority party rep can solve all the area problems. It just doesn't make sense.

 

Criticism is part of the process, I'm more than happy to take my lumps when deserved, helps me learn from mistakes and become a better legislator. I won't stand for outright lies simply because there is some truth surrounding them.

Scott

  

On Aug 18, 2014 8:36 AM, "Donald Ystad"  wrote:

Scott,

I wondered what your reaction would be when I forwarded his (Mal Contends) blog post to you. Your response regarding this issue is what I question about you as my Assemblyman, Scott.  No mention of the fact that he's right about the DBA trying to take away a community's right to regulate pollution of their waterways.  Instead, you totally ignore that and focus on his supercilious comment about you and Walker.  I've seen that before when I've e-mailed you requesting support to bring in other agencies to help preserve our recreational/tourism area here.  You totally ignore the elephant in the room and focus on some trivial comment.  While no one really believes you are scheming with Scott Walker to pollute our lakes, many believe the Walker administration and those connected with him side with ag way too often where our environment is concerned.  And that's why our lakes and groundwater are suffering.  You've seen the recent blue/green algae warning for Nepco Lake.  Your award from the League of Conservation Voters makes you the "best of the worst", so to speak.  With a lifetime conservation voting record of 38%, you have the best Republican record, but it's far from a good conservation voting record.  And, as a voter concerned for my recreational area, that is what concerns me. (emphasis added)

So, your sharing the threat of the party going after Mike Leon for his post does nothing for me.  I continue to be torn regarding whether I'm better off with a questionable representative of the party in power, or a strongly supportive representative of the currently weaker party.  Time will tell.

Don Ystad

On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 8:56 PM, Scott Krug wrote:

We've informed Mr. Leon of the libelous nature of his forwarded blog post and we will be persuing legal action.

Scott Krug

On Aug 17, 2014 8:45 PM, "Rep.Krug" < wrote:

________________________________________
From: Donald Ystad
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2014 10:22 AM
To: Rep.Krug
Subject: Fwd: Citizen Ystad Hits Sacred Cow, the Dairy Business Association, as Wisconsin Lakes Perish

An example of what you are up against.

Don

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Mike Leon
Date: Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 10:13 AM
Subject: Citizen Ystad Hits Sacred Cow, the Dairy Business Association, as Wisconsin Lakes Perish

To:


http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2014/08/citizen-ystad-hits-sacred-cow-dairy.html

Adams County Wisconsin Fights for Safe Water Amid Gov. Race and Republican Attack on Local Control

Entire regions of Wisconsin face disaster
from polluters and Republicans.

'88% of our county water recreational property is on the state's impaired list'

Madison, Wisconsin — One of the damages inflicted on Wisconsin by Gov. Scott Walker (R) is the malicious attacks on local control for the benefit of Republican donors.

If Walker and Republicans can chase out multi-generational families, disembowel local democracy, then the remaining residents as a whole will be more pliable, better victims

Below is an email from Don Ystad working on protecting Adams County in central Wisconsin by establishing and codifying local bodies of citizens as they face assaults from Republican state government and Republican-supported polluters.

Ystad and other residents held a public Oct. 16 citizens' meeting with the Adams County Board.

Ystad, and neighbors have been deep into this kind of community work for years now. 

Below is an email sent by Ystad on the outcome of the latest meeting, replete with facts and recommendations to safeguard the county from polluters and increase local democracy.

---

Chairman West,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share our concerns and suggestions for steps that would help improve our declining recreational water quality and our loss of tourism revenue in our county.

The 5% loss in county tourism revenue alone last year equals nearly $17 million. Add the lost opportunity cost of the statewide 3.2% gain and the potential for increased water recreational property value, and I think all would agree that there is a sizable upside to taking steps immediately to improving these impaired waterways. 

As mentioned, 88% of our county water recreational property is on the state's impaired list. Action is needed to reverse these declines. I hope you or Casey can forward to other county board members and applicable committee members. I will forward to the citizen groups to which I have access.

Following are the suggestions discussed last night. I've included those I brought up, as well as those from attendees:

1) Encourage increased involvement of Land and Water Conservation Department (LWCD) and other departments with citizen lake groups. An example is the nine key element plan which was started as a citizen involved participation project, but was redirected with the change in the the LWCD. Another example is the minimal communication of lake issues at the LWCD committee meetings. We can do better than that.

2) Hire a part-time or contract grant specialist to assist LWCD and lake groups to obtain funds for improvement projects. We lost grant funding last year.

3) Hire a a part-time lakes expert to provide guidance to our young LWCD department, and to help spearhead lake improvement efforts like the nine key element plan and improvement projects for our other impaired waterways.

4) Enforce setbacks for all county waterways and expedite the rewrite of the shoreland protection ordinance. Determine if we can enforce the 35' buffer now, in spite of the state changes a few years ago. See Bar Association of Wisconsin.

5) Organize the county-wide septic system database. Improve inspection, reporting and condemnation process.

6)Strengthen and support the county lake alliance. Establish a stronger connection to the LWCD committee and others, including the county board. Help create a link between lakes dwellers and agriculture, and support water improvement projects in common.

7 Involve citizens in a county forest program

8) Consider a task force for CAFO regulation in the county

9) Consider a task force for high capacity well regulation in the county

10) LWCD and other build relationships with neighboring counties that share our watersheds. Promote producer led watershed councils, and facilitate interaction with other counties and with lake and agriculture groups within them.

And, perhaps even more importantly, place each of these suggestions on the county board agenda or agenda of related committees so that concerned citizens can be aware of progress.

For the citizens in attendance at the meeting, and those copied through the e-mail train, communication goes both ways. We need to be a part of this by inserting ourselves in the county government process. That means attending meetings, volunteering, and being an active part of the efforts to repair our county water bodies.

Respectfully,

Don Ystad

Citizen Ystad Hits Sacred Cow, the Dairy Business Association, as Wisconsin Lakes Perish

Nepco Lake in Central Wisconsin in the Past
[See picture below for the present]

Update IV: Scott Krug's threat to pursue legal action has proven to be as credible as his claim to be working for the interests of clean water and the environment.

Update III: In the week of August 18 since Scott Krug issued his libel threat, Krug has gone dark, refusing all responses to press queries on the libel threat. Yesterday, Krug said he is against the proposed massive Wysocki CAFO and 49 high capacity water wells that environmentalists have criticized Krug for not fighting. Also, this week Krug belatedly accepted a debate with his general election opponent, Dana Duncan, sponsored by Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors and Rome and Saratoga Friendly. Krug refuses comment on his position on the existing CAFOs in or near his district, and still refuses to address nonpoint source runoff pollution from farming operations, a problem getting worse as lakes, streams, rivers and other bodies of water are polluted by land regions with carrying capacities of runoff already exceeded.

Update II: Running scared now, Scott Krug's Capitol office is dodging phone calls, picking up only calls preceded by *67. One staffer reached this morning after hitting *67, with an apparent IQ of 90ish, said Krug's office is "unaware of the situation" regarding Krug's stated intention by email to sue for libel.

Interesting. Below is the email from Krug (with the email address omitted):

From:	Scott Krug (xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com)
Sent:	Sun 8/17/14 8:52 PM
To:	malleon@live.com

   

The post forwarded to me is libelous and we will persue action.

#
Update: State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids) is threatening legal action against me for "libel," Michael Leon, citing the below post.

Krug alerts me, and several of his constituents, last night that in an email with the subject heading, "Really," that: "The post forwarded to me is libelous and we will persue (sic) action." Scott Krug's email is indicated as having been sent to me Sunday night: "Sun 8/17/14 8:52 PM."

Krug refers to an email forwarded by Don Ystad, citizen of Rome in northern Adams County, in which Ystad sends the URL of this piece.

Krug sent an email to Ystad (dated Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 8:56 PM) reading: "We've informed Mr. Leon of the libelous nature of his forwarded blog post and we will be persuing (sic) legal action."

Attempts this morning to reach Krug by email, and by phone at his campaign and office in Madison have been unsuccessful

Stay tuned.

As for Rep. Scott Krug, Mal Contends makes the following statement: Scott Krug should study the elements of a civil action under libel law. Bring it on, Krug, if you dare.
---
"We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." - Aldo Leopold

The last three years in Wisconsin citizen groups have emerged across the state to protect community control in defense of Wisconsin families and vital resources such as clean water.



"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

Outside of the Citizens Concerned about the Proposed Penokee Mine (Facebook) (and the Penokee Hills Education Project), among the most articulate groups of Wisconsin citizens are the folks fighting a proposed massive concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) factory farm that would directly impact four counties in the Central Wisconsin Golden Sands region: Wood County, Adams County, Portage County and Juneau County.

Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors; Friends of the Central Sands (Facebook) and Rome and Saratoga Friendly (Facebook) know well the danger dumping literally millions of tons liquid cow manure into Wisconsin waterways and drinking water aquifers.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources under the administration of Scott Walker wants to stand by and watch as the acceleration of the death of Wisconsin's 15,000 lakes continues from the existing practice of dumping cow manure into the environment.

Exaggeration? I wish.

And cynical, corrupt politicians are providing political cover for the polluters.

Scott Walker is allied with Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC) who is supposed to be protecting his constituency from being poisoned.

Instead Krug is 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.

Unconscionable.

Don Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin has this to say in an email sent to politicians, DNR personnel and fellow citizens:

Here's why I have an issue with Big Agriculture: Our communities have banned residential use of phosphorous fertilizers, and we implemented enforced testing of septic systems every three years to reduce the possibility of phosphorous leaching into our waterways. We monitor the transfer of unwanted aquatic species from lake to lake and we have enacted a shoreland protection ordinance to further protect our waterways from runoff. And here we have the Dairy Business Association petitioning their members to reverse the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) change to NR 150, allowing communities to establish their own ordinances to limit runoff into waterways. We have 7 years of hard evidence showing flows from upstream agriculture entering our lakes have 4 times more phosphorous than anywhere else in our lake.

I've learned to mistrust the various agriculture interests touting their concern for the environment, whether it's the Wisconsin Potato growers telling me they are not to blame for our water issues, or the Wisconsin Vegetable growers claiming they practice water conservation while they submit record numbers of high cap well permit requests. They have proven that their only desire is to have unfettered access to the public's water, with no control over how they treat the land. Their claims to be 'the stewards of the land' ring hollow with those of us watching the decline in our environment. I understand that there will always be greedy business people to take advantage of our rights. What I don't understand is why some of our agency heads and politicians allow themselves to be influenced by these self serving Big Ag interests at the expense of our environment and their own constituents. Maybe they need to read the many newspapers around our state to get a sense of the groundswell of public opposition.

I'm a citizen and I vote, as do the concerned citizens blind copied here. [emphasis added, and text edited slightly for clarity]

Mr. Ystad and his fellow citizens are right on all points.

Obtuse Wisconsin politicians like Scott Krug and Scott Walker should listen for a change.

Said Krug's general election opponent, Dana Duncan of the Village of Port Edwards: "CAFOs are to agriculture what Sweatshops and child labor are to manufacturing."

Duncan ran his primary election campaign, emphasizing the need to protect Wisconsin waters from CAFOs and other polluters.

Safe, clean drinking water should be a foundation of the state of Wisconsin, it used to be.

Clean Water in Wisconsin Comes in Focus

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm.
Clean water activists statewide fear a future where
clean and safe lakes will become a memory.

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin lakes are not bottomless sewers that take in millions of gallons of liquid cow manure and like magic create speaking-clean water safe for swimming, fishing and boating.

Rather, factory farms and other rapacious agricultural practices destroy and poison the water in the land of 15,000 lakes with devastating health, economic, and quality-of-life consequences.

These outcomes are acceptable costs to Big Ag, Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Wisconsin Republicans who run state government for polluting operations.

Congrats are in order for Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal for his critical reporting on the health of the Yahara lakes in Dane County in an important series this week. See also the related site, the Yahara lakes project.
---
This weekend also comes news from 100 miles north of Madison that three factory farm owners — Wysocki Produce Farms, B and D Farms and Okray Farms — "say they have joined together to help supply clean, safe water to residents with high nitrate levels in their wells" in the town of Armenia in Juneau County in central Wisconsin, reports Karen Madden in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

Wysocki Produce Farms, B and D Farms and Okray Farms are industry suppliers of pathogen, nitrate and phosphorous-laden cow shit to area communities.

After poisoning the private water wells of objecting families, the Wysocki corporation is offering cartons of uncontaminated water in trade. This is widely considered not to be an equatable deal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating the water poisoning in the region.

Area residents are sounding a skeptical note as they work to stop operation of another proposed massive factory farm in the town of Saratoga in Wood County. The Golden Sands factory farm is owned by the Wysocki corporation.

"I'd feel much better about it had they, (factory farm owners), done it without the EPA and county health officers breathing down their necks. They're trying to get in front of a very ugly situation made public because of citizen pressure from Saratogans and Armenians. The Wysockis didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts, and it wasn't done because a state Senator or Assemblyman stepped in. This is the result of well-directed citizen activism. Well done my friends!," writes Don Ystad in an email to clean water activists this weekend.

Ystad live in Adams County, some six miles south of the proposed Wysocki factory farm.

Ystad's reference to a "state Senator or Assemblyman" points to central Wisconsin legislators, State Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa), both of whom are politically owned by factory farm interests.

Krug faces presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party nominee for the 72nd assembly district, clean water activist David Gorski, in the general election this November.

These is caution optimism that Wisconsin has finally, after years of citizen action, come to the point where Republicans can be defeated in the gerrymandered legislative districts.

An activist rightwing Wisconsin Supreme Court bent the law to arrive
at a pre-determined decision green-lighting a proposed massive factory farm
in central Wisconsin. Corrupt justices hold a 4-3 majority at the
Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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.
---
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

Farmers investing in community earn respect, Polluting CAFO‏s have none

Families in central Wisconsin working to stop an industrialized factory farm from beginning operation know one outcome is certain.

With the inception of a Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) comes pollution to water, air and earth to which children are especially susceptible.

Academics call these health and environmental costs, negative externalities.

Families call them mortal threats to children and health—as in Kewaunee and Door counties in northeastern Wisconsin.

Notes Jim Lundstrom last year in the Peninsula Pulse. "A young family visiting Door County for a weekend in mid-September 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."

Typical. Near deaths are becoming common now across the nation, a warning impossible to ignore.

Scott Walker has called for more mega dairies, CAFOs, producing liquid cow manure by the millions of gallons annually running off into surface water and aquifers. Walker of course rakes in $100,000s from Big Ag, and proposes eliminating the EPA after gutting the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

When sociopaths such as Walker and James Wysocki, a Wisconsin CAFO polluter, propose more land being used as a huge toxic waste dump, nothing good follows. Land and water are not infinite sewers.

Adams County (Wisconsin) resident, Don Ystad, wrote an op-ed column in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune this weekend. An excerpt follows.

Writes Ystad in an email:

Concerned citizens, friends and neighbors,

For those of you who do not receive the Tribune ... I was introduced to the Malm family and their farm a few weeks ago. They embody the term "America's Dairyland".  You would enjoy knowing them. They are polar opposites of the Wysockis who care only about profits and nothing about community, neighbors, or the environment.

From the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune:

By Don Ystad

We’re watching a cow enter the automatic robotic milking parlor and Bob Malm says, "Sally, the kids and I left the sand country of Minnesota, where you have to pour tons of fertilizer and millions of gallons of irrigation water onto your forage crops. We found this rolling terrain in Clark County (Wisconsin) with solid, nutrient-rich soil and enough natural moisture that we don’t irrigate any of our 700 acres. I’ve not lost a single crop since buying here in 1981, and we don’t irrigate. The rich soil here has enabled us to build a profitable dairy farm that provides a decent income for the three generations of Malms who live here and work the farm." ...

Bob [Malm] is not a fan of huge dairy concentrated animal feeding operations. In fact, he left the sand country of Minnesota for the historically rich soil of Clark County to get away from sandy soils that don’t naturally hold nutrients or moisture. He’s seen how hard farming in sandy soils can be on the ground water levels and water quality. And he understands the 'carrying capacity' of the land, applying manure at a concentration of 3 acres per cow instead of a typical CAFO’s 1.2 acres per cow.

The Malms are the kind of farmers we embrace as 'America’s Dairyland.' And, as my Rome and Saratoga (Wood County Wisconsin) neighbors would agree, we don’t want to live in the midst of Wysocki’s proposed 8,000-acre, 5,300-cow dairy CAFO, whose operators have no concern for the health of the thousands of us living within harm’s way, and no concern for the existing recreational environment we live in. The sandy soil around the Rome and Saratoga area mimics the soil the Malms left for greener pastures. The Malms had the good sense to avoid environmentally sensitive sandy soils and located their farm in good soil within existing farm country. They’ve earned our respect. Not so much the Wysockis.

Let’s hope common sense prevails as the Department of Natural Resources considers permits later this year.
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Erin Brockovich Hits Dumping Phosphorus, Cow Manure into Water

Unless one believes Wisconsin waters
are sewers with infinite carrying capacities,
our new moto on our car tags
should soon be: America's Pathogens

When one hears the terms: Toxic algae bloom, discharging nutrients into water, Do Not Drink the Water and big agricultural interests okay with this tragedy, Wisconsin—America's Dairyland and the Dairy Business Association come to mind; not just Toledo, Ohio and Lake Erie.

Big Ag in Wisconsin shouldn't be okay with this situation.

No matter where you live, the land and water are not sewers with infinite carrying capacities.

Erin Brockovich comments yesterday on the Toledo, Ohio situation suggestive that Wisconsin's current Do-Not-Swim mandates will soon become Do-Not-Drink-the-Water mandates across the state (especially in areas such as the Central Sands) as one day after lifting the do-not-drink-the-water warning, "Toledo’s mayor on Tuesday urged residents to conserve water for the remainder of the summer as the toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie remains a threat to the city’s drinking-water supply." (Rosenkraus and Harris-Taylor, Toledo Blade)

The toxic algae blooms in lakes are a direct result of an overabundance of Phosphorus from cow manure runoff into the water and as Gordon Stevenson—who served as runoff manager of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for some 10 years (retired in 2011)—points out the "carrying capacity" of Phosphorus in the Golden Sands and Eastern Wisconsin regions are on the verge of being exceeded which will result not just in "dead zones" found now but in dead lakes.

Town of Nekoosa resident, Don Ystad who owns a home on Lake Camelot in the Town of Rome, Wisconsin, said the "tremendously high phosphorous content" already has rendered lakes in northern Adams and Wood County on the DNR's Impaired Water list, which the DNR under Scott Walker designed to be user-unfriendly. [Check the site out, there is no list.]

And when the carrying capacity of the region Ystad (Central Sands) lives is exceeded, the groundwater is next.

Ystad and 1,000s of residents in central Wisconsin in Wood, Portage, Adams and Juneau counties are working to stop the inception of a massive concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) in central Wisconsin that would dump some 50 million gallons of liquid cow waste per year into the environment, with no wasterwater treatment.

That the equivalent of what a "city with a population of 106,000 people" produces every single day, notes the Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors website, only cities with 106,000 people have wastewater treatment plants.

Writes Erin Brockovich:

"I have received hundreds of questions concerning the water quality issues in Toledo, Ohio over this last weekend. The algae bloom clearly visible from outer space is of complete and utter concern to me as we continue to evaluate the practice of discharging nutrients into our drinking water supplies from a myriad of agricultural interest. Clearly these dangerous practices must stop. The health and safety of the greater Toledo community was and will ever remain in jeopardy if these practices are allowed to continue. This is not the first time this water supply has been put in jeopardy. While the City of Toledo under the leadership of Mayor Collins did an incredible job in dealing with this problem the facts are the city must be better prepared to deal with this problem when it is only certain to return. The City has approved a capital improvement plan to address over $314 million in needed upgrades at the Collins Park Water Treatment plant but has only spent $28 million to protect public health. The treatment plant should have had the granular activated carbon in use at the time of the algae bloom which would have protected the public. Instead the City only deploys granular activated carbon after an emergency. Public Health must and always should be a priority."

Someone should tell this to the Dairy Business Association before we can't drink our own water.

The Dairy Business Association whose members self-consciously dump cow manure into our environment should rightfully change their "feeding the world" PR message to "Poisoning the water."

Enabling politicians in Wisconsin such as State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC) Scott Walker [and too many Democrats as well] should take a trip back to Wood County or Adams County or Juneau County, grab a few mason jars and fill them up with liquid manure from existing CAFO manure lagoons, bring the jars back and keep them on their desks, if they have no problem with liquid cow shit.

Wisconsin Is Water; Protect Us

'If Wisconsin is looking for a growth industry, tourism is it.'

Wasn't disappointed in the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate last night, expect noise and a void.

Mary Burke did point out Scott Walker selling out pristine northern Wisconsin for a few million dollars in exchange for legislation to rip an open pit mine in Iron County.

But it's citizens who bring information. Thankfully, Wisconsin newspapers are still alive and local coverage is not dead.

One can look at the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune letters section on a given day and get the truth of where we're heading as a state. For example:

"I’m OK with a politician occasionally embellishing the facts, but tourism is the growth path for the Rome area (in central Wisconsin) and I want to know my representative (Scott Krug) is actually and proactively working at it. My experience says otherwise and unless I see a plan from him, I’m not sure he deserves my vote. This makes me question everything else (Krug) says," writes Don Ystad of Rome.

Ystad's concern with the environment is not confined to central Wisconsin, nor with lakes and aquifers.

Rivers are the canary in the coal mine, and they are under assault with Scott Walker selling out our rivers as well. See the River Alliance of Wisconsin (Facebook).

A healthy environment is good business, something Ystad appreciates as a retired successful business consultant.

"Studies show that tourism generates $17.5 billion in economic impact in Wisconsin, more than 185,000 jobs and $2.3 billion dollars in annual tax revenue. In 2013, visitors to Wisconsin spent $10.6 billion," writes the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW).            

A healthy environment is much more than good business, it's a legacy we owe our children, our grandchildren and all future generations. We are water creatures, part of a complex system of  which water is central.

Residents in a high-end tourist destination, Door County, know this well.

Check out the Peninsula Pulse up in Door County; that's local coverage.

So as Republicans kill local control and the capacity of the DNR to control polluters, on the current trajectory that Scott Walker is sending us, we will find that befouling Wisconsin's waters is killing our state's most precious resource.

This is bad business too.

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

Citizen Ystad Makes Appeal to Save 'Dream' Golf Resort in Central Wisconsin

Increasing opposition to proposed
massive CAFO in Adams
and Wood counties in central
Wisconsin. Threat to Dream Golf Resort
Photo by Mary Captain-Braund

'I have no patience for the bureaucrats playing dumb on the sidelines while our recreational community is threatened by this proposed CAFO'

Melanie Lawder has another excellent piece on the economic boom Mike Keiser's proposed golf resort would deliver onto the area in central Wisconsin known as the Golden Sands. (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

Lawder and the Tribune are writing up a series on the proposed resort in the town of Rome in northern Adams County.

The latest piece focuses on the jobs and economic benefits as reflected in a similar success story by Keiser at the world-famous Bandon Dunes golf resort in the state of Oregon to which Keiser's Sand Valley Golf Resort is often compared.

Keiser's Sand Valley resort is under construction on a 1,400-acre site in Rome on the bottom of an ancient glacial lake, and his course architects are designing a five-course resort that would conform to the golden sands geology of the region also known as the Wisconsin Central Plains.

A reader doesn't have to read Golf Digest for a description of the 'Dream' resort that has everyone from golf fanatics to casual retirees breathing heavy. The economic potential is enormous, and the innovation is roundly applauded.

See for example, Teddy Greenstein's piece in the Chicago Tribune, and Gary D’Amato's piece in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Everyone is extremely supportive. It's like a lovefest," said Keiser, referring to the reception his project is receiving in central Wisconsin.

Keiser isn't kidding.

The region already features lakes, streams, restaurants and is a tourism and recreational destination.

The potential from a resort - self-consciously conforming to existing geology and so laden with sand the sand courses would present little strain on water aquifers - is expected to attract golfing tourists and pros from around the world after the first course opens in 2017.

Can't miss, right?

There's a threat to this project, and this problem is not just throwing cold water on Keiser's (and not just his) dream.

This obstacle is no game. It is throwing toxic and disgusting liquid brown cow manure on this party and residents and retirees living in the Adams, Wood and the surrounding counties wish this were a distasteful metaphor.

Runoff

The problem is a massive, proposed Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) owned by the Wysocki Family of Companies, an outfit that is already sucking up massive quantities of groundwater and sending back toxic-filled liquid cow waste, just a few miles from the site of Sand Valley.

The incongruity and danger to Keiser's resort is not lost on residents.

Here is another communication from Don Ystad who owns a home on Lake Camelot in Rome where he likes to entertain his grandkids and relax when he is not fighting Wysocki, and protecting the water and land for his community.

Policymakers would do well to listen to this man:
---
Governor Walker, Mary Burke, representatives, agency people, and the hundreds blind copied here,

You're probably tired of hearing from me. 

Especially when I point out the elephant in the room when articles appear about the great recreational area here in Rome and Saratoga and the expected growth from developments like Mike Keiser's Sand Valley Golf Resort. 

Wow! 475 full time jobs and 125 part time jobs, plus all kinds of supporting businesses popping up to support the recreation and tourism it provides.

If it's anything like Bandon Dunes, the benefits will be felt throughout the state as golfers come to Sand Valley, then visit other premier courses in Green lake and Kohler, among others, not to mention our very own Arrowhead courses.

What will they think as they are driven through the stench of the Wysocki's planned dairy CAFO along Highway 13 between the Wisconsin Rapids airport and the new course in Rome?

Residents of Nekoosa complain about the stench from the Wysocki's current dairy CAFO, 11 miles away from them in Armenia.

With Sand valley within 4 miles of the planned dairy CAFO in Saratoga, what will the odors be like?  And, if as experts predict, our water quality and lake levels suffer from the planned CAFO, what effect will the diminished recreational area have on those who pass through Rome on their way to this premier golf resort?

As administration heads, agency heads, state representatives and voters, do you stick your head in the sand (no pun intended) and ignore the fact that there can be a tremendous boost to recreation and tourism here in an area already tailored to recreation and tourism? 

The approximately $20 million spent by area residents and visitors could easily double once this development is in full swing. 

Every one of you knows the proposed CAFO is incompatible with the current Rome/Saratoga recreational environment, and standing on the sidelines and allowing this to happen is just plain wrong, whether you are a voter, or an employee of this state. As some of our representatives speak out about the incompatibility of the proposed CAFO, the message needs to ring clear in Madison. For those of you blind copied here, you can send that message by replying to those addressed here, or just wait until November when you place your vote.

I am a concerned resident of Rome, WI, and I vote.

I appreciate Mike Keiser's foresight in picking this unusual, natural sand barren to build his course, while returning it to it's original beauty.  My vote this year is all about protecting our recreational area and promoting our positive growth. I have no patience for the bureaucrats playing dumb on the sidelines while our recreational community is threatened by this proposed CAFO.

Don Ystad
Rome, WI



Proposed Nightmare CAFO

 Dream Golf Resort

Rep Scott Krug Told Pro-Water Activist: "Quit Your Bitching," Citizen Don Ystad Didn't Get Krug's Order

Scott Krug's con game: Not working
Krug likes to portray himself as an
environmentalist. Fact:
Krug's Sierra Club -
John Muir Chapter Rating is
a dismal Eight Percent

"Quit your Bitching," said Rep Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids and ALEC) to Saratoga resident, Nancy Koch of Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors.

Nancy Koch of the Town of Saratoga was listening to Terry Rickaby (Saratoga Board Chair) and Big Ag's James Wysocki two summers ago.

Wysocki and his company officials did a PR gig 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.

Wysocki's song and dance included how wonderful the Wysocki's Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) is going to be, and that area residents will like it.

Wysocki left out of his presentation that residents' preference is not relevant to his corporate plans.

Koch remarked how the Dairy Business Association (DBA) and Wysocki were trying to shove a proposed massive Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) down the throats of residents [in Wood, Adams, Portage and Juneau counties], and that the DBA and Wysocki co-authored the Wisconsin Livestock Siting Law (and the administrative law implementing it) that helps CAFOs site their operations against the objection of local communities.

"Quit your bitching," said Scott Krug to Koch at the Town Hall Meeting. Other attendees confirm the remark

Koch first mentioned this incident to me July 5, 2014 at a breakfast in Wisconsin Rapids at a restaurant on 8th Street, attended by members of Protect Wood County and Rome and Saratoga Friendly.

Emailed Koch yesterday, "Early on in this fight when I contacted Scott Krug at his Republican e-mail address I asked for his help with this CAFO issue. In the e-mail, I reminded him who I was ---- that I was the one he told to 'Quit your bitching' at the Wysocki presentation at the Performing Arts Center in Wi Rapids. I never got a response to the e-mail or an apology."

Approximately 50 million gallons of liquid cow manure would be produced every year, and "forty-nine high capacity wells would be capable of pumping 7.3 billion gallons of water from the groundwater aquifer annually" would be drained by this one proposed CAFO.

Wysocki, the DBA, Scott Walker and Rep. Scott Krug want this CAFO and will not let residents stand in the way of Wysocki's plan for the residents' community. Wysocki company officials live far and safely away from their cow manure dumping grounds.

Special delivery of liquid cow manure to Wisconsin streams and lakes -
Courtesy of Scott Krug, Scott Walker and the Dairy Business Associations

As for Scott Krug's statement that he is filing a libel suit against me for writing that Krug is a cynical, corrupt politician ... providing political cover for polluters and Krug is 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; well, Krug has now gone dark, apparently convinced by attorneys that truth is an effective defense against libel suits.

Fortunately for Wisconsin, Rome citizens Donald Ystad has not gone dark.

Here is Ystad's latest communication to Wisconsin policymakers referencing a CAFO in Kewaunee County:

Here's a question for politicians and agency people copied here: What can be done to make the water drinkable again for the residents of Kewaunee County? Really, can anything be done? 

 

Selfishly, as my community faces the spector of a possible 8,000 acre dairy CAFO  directly within our existing recreational community, what assurance will we have that our drinking water won't also be tainted, that our lakes and streams won't be decimated by withdrawals from high cap wells with more capacity than all the municipal wells in Waukesha County, that our air quality won't be reduced to the point that visitors begin staying away from the Wisconsin Trapshooters home facility. Our lakes, our existing Arrowhead Golf Courses, or the new Sand Valley Golf Resort?  What happens to our already suffering property values?  Are you aware there are nearly 1,500 private drinking water wells within a three mile perimeter of the proposed high cap wells?  Are we going to be asking the same questions about our community in 5 years?

I fall back on the Public Trust Doctrine which states that these are waters of the state. When I see comments that DATCP and DNR officials said nutrient management plans are designed to minimize, not completely eliminate, pollution, I cringe,  Why shouldn't I and and every resident of this state expect clean water, whether in groundwater, surface water, or in farm runoff?  At a time when the news is full of stories with drinking water sources tainted, area beaches closed and communities where over 30% of private wells are polluted, don't you think we are facing a crisis with our water?
  
When scientists tell us that ag pollution accounts for 75% or more of the pollution in our water, I ask what is being done to minimize it?  Our community requires septic system inspections every 3 years, has banned residential use of phosphorous fertilizers and is rolling out a Shoreland Protection Ordinance to protect our water.  My family has a long history of dairy farming in Wisconsin, but for me, the DBA (Dairy Business Association) has become the face of the enemy,  I'm tired of their fighting every attempt to bring a solution to our water issues, pointing blame at everyone but themselves, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying in Madison to weaken environmental laws and gain favor of politicians.  It's time for a change in approach to protecting the waters of the state, before all our drinking water is fouled.

 

I'm sure you are all as tired of hearing from people like me, as I am writing e-mails like this.  In truth, I could find concerns about our water issues in a newspaper every day.  It's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.  The hard part is getting through to you and overcoming the million dollars spent annually by the ag community lobbying to weaken controls over our water.  Fortunately, the groundswell of public concern continues to grow.

I'm a concerned citizen and I vote, as do the hundreds blind copied here.

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