LEDGEVIEW, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Brown County Health Department wants people in Ledgeview to know that a toxic discharge from a farm is flowing in Bower Creek.
Ledgeview Farms is being blamed, which sits on the corner of Lime Kiln and Dickinson Roads.
People should stay out of any water source near the farm or Bower Creek, according to health officials.
The DNR is hoping the concern will only last a couple more days.
The flow from the farm has been stopped. Cleanup continues, however.
Brown County officials have confirmed silage leachate was first found in a waterfall-stream area just off of Meadow Sound Drive. Children and animals, the most at risk to become sick, were supposedly playing in the water.
“The tributary on Meadow Sound is a tributary to Bower Creek, which then extends to the East River,” said Mike Mushinski, Brown County Land & Water Conservationist.
Silage leachate is essentially water runoff from crops that farmers feed their animals in the winter, normally stored in a contained area.
“So the discharge is stopped now at the production site at the farm where this originated,” said Joe Baeten, the Northeast Runoff Management Supervisor for the DNR. “We’ve observed clean water flowing in that area. Now we’re currently remediating or working through the process of downstream from there.”
Silage leachate has a white, cloudy, look to it.
People in the area say they noticed something odd about this stream a couple weeks ago.
“Very poignant smells, discolored water,” said Jeanne McKenna of Ledgeview. “It just doesn’t look good at all.”
The DNR says it has been focused the last two days on stopping the discharge and cleaning up the affected areas, but it plans to do a full investigation to see if there was any sort of negligence at the farm.
“What appeared to happen here is they were harvesting their corn silage, putting it on a pile and there was excessive leachate coming from the pile,” said Baeten.
Neighbors say they hope the DNR can keep this from happening again.
“You just never know what’s going to happen as far as how much is being put out there and the health concerns that could come with it,” said McKenna.
If you come into contact with silage leachate, you’re supposed to not touch your mouth and wash your hands as soon as possible. Symptoms are fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Symptoms normally don’t show up for three to four days.
