County Board Meeting

County Board says 

state needs to give local 

control for CAFO regulation

By Ted Pennekamp

The Crawford County Board approved of a resolution urging the state to recognize local sensitivities and local control and to improve oversight of the Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permitting process during its regular meeting Tuesday morning. 

In the resolution, it was stated that it is largely recognized that Crawford County is underlain by a sequence of highly fractured, dissolved and permeable carbonate and sandstone bedrock, also known as Karst.

Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. In karstic terrain, underground waters can flow hundreds of feet per day, rather than the inches per day measured in non-karst regions.

Crawford County Land Conservationist Dave Troester told the board that counties in the northeastern part of Wisconsin, such as Door and Kewaunee counties, have been having severe problems over the last several years with groundwater pollution due to too much manure, and that Crawford County is trying to prevent the same from happening here.

“We’re trying to stay ahead of the game,” said Troester, who noted that Kewaunee County, which has a karst topography, has 20,000 people and 70,000 cows. It also has 16 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

Troester said that 30 to 40 percent of the private wells in  Kewaunee County are contaminated.

Crawford County has one CAFO, which is a hog operation near Wauzeka.

Any rules for siting or regulating CAFOs, said the county board, should take into account the local geological sensitivities, in addition to requiring detailed studies performed at any specific proposed site. These contingencies do not exist in the current regulatory framework for Crawford County or Wisconsin. Furthermore, the current regulatory framework failed to protect groundwater resources in the karst areas of eastern Wisconsin.

“The DNR has also been dropping the ball on monitoring CAFOs,” said Troester in noting that Crawford County wants the DNR to step back up to the plate and monitor CAFOs, mines, industrial wastewater treatment facilities, municipal wastewater treatment plants and WPDES permits as required by state statute. He said such monitoring may be taken over by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture in the near future.

By passing the resolution, the county board has determined that a situation exists which threatens the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Crawford County and that the county should be allowed to pass ordinances which take science-based measures that go beyond the state standards, as has now been done for counties in the eastern part of the state via Wisconsin administrative code changes.

In other business, the board:

•approved of a revision in the Crawford County Code of Ordinances that more clearly defines what an animal waste storage facility is and what the permit fees are.

•approved of Karen Reilly and Jane Schaaf to be on the health committee.