ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – Advocacy groups say the hazardous, uncontrolled growth of industrial dairy pollution is running rampant in Kewaunee County.
That’s the finding of a new 140-page report by local, state and national organizations led by the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, or SRAP.
SRAP teamed up with organizations Family Farm Defenders and Kewaunee CARES to research, publish and provide recommendations for the report, which cites multiple violations, hundreds of manure management failures and a host of operational problems at the 16 large industrial dairy concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
“We came to Kewaunee County because industrial dairies are out of control and the Wisconsin DNR is out of touch,” according to SRAP Regional Coordinator Scott Dye. “The ongoing contamination of Kewaunee County’s land, water and air and people right under the nose of the state agency meant to protect them is indefensible, has created a public health emergency and requires immediate action.”
Lynn Utesch, who’s a grass-fed beef farmer in Kewaunee County, help start the community group Kewaunee CARES.
“Wisconsin DNR has failed to carry out its most basic mission: to protect the health of Wisconsinites and the Walker Administration needs to read this report, admit its shortcomings, and change policy now,” said Utesch.
The groups say the blame goes beyond the DNR and the governor’s office, saying part of the issue is the geological makeup of Kewaunee County. The county, in addition to all or part of 40 other counties, sits upon karst. Karst is the highly fractured, shallow carbonate bedrock that allows pollutants to easily enter shallow groundwater supplies.
However, both men point the finger at a history of the DNR not enforcing permit laws, lack of oversight of the CAFOs and the adoption of the 2004 Livestock Facility Siting Law.
“This nation has an enormous industrial dairy pollution problem,” says Dye. “But our report is hard evidence that the pollution of Kewaunee County ranks among the most hazardous of any community in the United States.”
Both men likened the conditions in Kewaunee County to a third-world country.
