At their March 10 meeting, the Crawford County Land Conservation Committee (LCC) voted unanimously to establish an ad hoc committee to review the CAFO Study Group report generated in 2020. The new group is being referred to by LCC Chair Supervisor Gary Koch as the ‘Large Livestock Operations Study Committee.’

“I think it’s a good idea to take the old report generated in 2020, which really never went anywhere, and go through that document with some of the same kind of representation as people who worked on it originally,” Koch told committee members. “We had a great outpouring of input from individuals from Crawford County who had a lot to say about what they didn't like about large farming operations, and I felt like because of the state code and our regulations, we really couldn't do much for those folks. I felt like I wasn't representing all of Crawford County, and maybe there's a way that we can tweak our regulations or recommend to the state that they change some of their rules to help with some of the holes.”

Troester explained that committee members Supervisors Mary Kuhn and himself, and new committee member Russ Wilson, along with Chad Sime and Bart Mitchell, a nutrient management plan writer, Dave Troester and Travis Bunting from the Land Conservation Department, Sara Tedeschi and Beth McIlquham from UW-Extension, Sonya Lenzendorf or Dawn Adams from Public Health, and Forest Jahnke of Crawford Stewardship Project, are the group proposed to take up the 2020 report.

Koch pointed out that Troester had also been fielding questions from townships in Crawford County. Those towns, such as Utica and Freeman, are in the midst of their Comprehensive Planning process, where the subject of large animal agriculture has been a topic.

“Some of the towns are looking for some guidance from the county on that very topic,” Koch pointed out. “And Crawford County itself will be heading into a comprehensive planning situation, and obviously it was part of the discussion in our last comprehensive planning process, and I'm sure it will be this time as well.”

Koch said he didn’t expect the work of the subcommittee to be a long, drawn-out process. Nor, he explained, was he asking for a moratorium on new livestock facility siting permits until the sub committee completes its work.

“I'm just asking for the sub committee to take a hold of this document, review it, and take into account all of the things that we heard during the course of those two public hearings for the Gruber Livestock permits, and all the meetings that we had surrounding them,” Koch explained. “I just think it's a good idea to take the report apart and put it back together again. If there's something we can do to change it, fine, if we don't want to, fine. But, I think we should take the opportunity to look at it before we’re faced with another application.”

The group agreed that the first meeting of the sub committee would be scheduled to begin following the end of the LCC meeting on Tuesday, April 14. They also agreed that an agenda would be posted for the meeting, and that interested members of the public could attend to listen to the discussion.

Data centers

Another topic that came up at the LCC meeting was the topic of data centers. A large community meeting had been the Sunday before, April 8, in Potosi with comedian Charlie Behrens attending.

“There's the fear with this new big power line projects coming into the area, that data center development will follow,” Troester told the committee. “I have had at least one township inquire about them, and what I knew about them, asking if they should be alarmed? And I really don't know much, other than they're big and massive, and need a lot of power and a lot of water.”

Troester said that he could start looking into the subject more if that is something the committee wants to take a look at. One committee member urged the committee to “get ahead of it before it’s here.”

“Grant County is doing stuff already because they're totally opposed to it, and I think they're trying to make it as difficult as possible to get a data center there,” Supervisor Mary Kuhn said. “So, I think it's something we could need to look into.”

Koch responded that he would put the topic on the agenda of the next LCC meeting. He asked Troester to reach out to people in Grant County that are already dealing with the issue to see what he could learn.

Well testing

Troester reported to the committee that a big workload for his department recently had been preparations for a new round of Driftless Area Water Study well water testing. The initiative is once again taking place in Crawford, Vernon and Richland counties.

“Over 120 people are going to participate in Crawford County, with our goal having been 100,” Troester told the committee. “Richland was over, and I think Vernon was right at about their 200 samples. So we were about 40 some samples over our goal. The lab in Stevens Point told us that some people would probably drop out, and if not, they would cover it.”

The samples were collected on Tuesday, April 17 in all three counties. In Crawford County, collection stations were established at the County Administration Building in Prairie du Chien, Wauzeka, Ferryville, Seneca and Gays Mills. The samples will be driven to the lab in Stevens Point early the next morning.

“If everything lines up, the Center for Watershed Science educators from UW-Stevens Point will provide a presentation following up on the well testing in June,” Troester said. “The testing results will be summarized, and it will be open to people whose wells were tested, as well as the general public. No individual well testing results will be shared, but educators will try to help people understand more about what the test results mean.”

In other business

In other business, the committee:

• learned that producer Russ Wilson would take Chad Sime’s place on the committee
• learned that Becky Nagel of Sanitation & Zoning had issued 13 POWTS permits the prior month, and had conducted seven soil tests
• learned that the Wisconsin Department of Administration website says that Crawford County’s deadline to update its Comprehensive Plan is August of 2027
• unanimously recommended to the Finance Committee that funds be approved to contract with MRRPC to get the Comprehensive Planning process started as soon as possible
• heard that the county will hold a Spring Electronics Recycling event on Friday, April 17, on St. Feriole Island in Prairie du Chien, and that the event is open to everyone in the county.