The following is from a post on DailyKos:
This dairy CAFO, in the Town of Rosendale, we call it CAFO-RD, asked for a permit to Confine 11,500 Animal Units. The WDNR wrote an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) telling everyone why this CAFO wasn't a good idea. The 197 page EIS points to issues like the 127 species of birds, invertebrates, and suchlike that could be harmed in nearby grasslands, marshes and fields. It mentioned the 94 million gallons of cow manure that would be land-spread on 5631 acres of crop land, across 4 major area watersheds and already EPA 303d-listed waters (The largest untreated sewage area in the state of Wisconsin...even the cities of Milwaukee and Madison, though slightly larger, at least have some sewage treatment.)
The EIS discussed the negative traffic impact to small rural roads per year (26,000 truckloads of manure, feed, and suchlike.) This was a minor problem compared to the harmful effects of air quality, the pervasive dust, and the likelihood of manure spills into nearby surface and groundwater.
The EIS further criticized the locating of this CAFO on this delicate karst region of Wisconsin (karst, is a geologic condition where the porous nature of the soil provides an easy conduit to the groundwater.) The particular problem in this case is where much of the land-spreading will be done on topographic surfaces estimated to be less than 24 inches to groundwater in some places.
Karst was actually named for a region in Slovenia that I've visited. You can see details and pictures of the Slovenian karst caves here. It's easy to understand why this is not a geologic formation where you'd want to deposit tons upon tons of manure.
So after all of that analysis, the Wisconsin Department if Natural Resources decided to issue a permit for this new, enormous dairy. The reason? The dairy will bring in an estimated $70 million per year in revenues. Plus $100 million required to build the CAFO. This is despite their own EIS, plus testimony and petitions from various outside groups. Now that the OK has been given for the dairy, there's a 30 day comment period ending December 3, 2009. What a mess. |
