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Spraying manure on rural communities?
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Edie Ehlert
Gays Mills
Updated: Apr 13, 2016, 12:16 AM
Published: Apr 13, 2016, 12:20 AM

Can you imagine living near fields being sprayed with liquid manure? A state authorized Spray Manure Workgroup formed in 2013 to research this practice.

Spraying manure into the air brings potential serious health and quality of life issues for neighbors. Hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and manure-borne pathogens in droplets can blow in the wind and lodge deep in our lungs, moving directly into our bloodstream. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) want to spray many millions of gallons of liquid manure they create on fields.

The Workgroup website, fyi.uwex.edu/manureirrigation/ has reports from the committee. Initially, citizens understood a public hearing would be offered to comment on the draft report. There will be an informational webinar, but no opportunity for public discussion. You can request the final report scheduled to come out in early April from Committee Chair Ken Genskow at kgenskow@wisc.edu.

Direct requests, such as asking for a public hearing on the results and support of a moratorium on manure spraying while further scientific study is done, to Mr. Genskow and request he share with the committee. Work with local government to put ordinances banning spraying manure in your township/county. An ordinance example is on the Lincoln Township (Kewaunee County) website: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1302564/lincoln-center-pivot-manure-irrigation-ban.pdf.

Presently, seven operations in Wisconsin spray manure on fields. North Carolina banned all new manure spray permits due to health hazards. For more information on manure spraying, go to kewauneecares.org.

Ehlert is President of the Crawford Stewardship Project.
County should extend CAFO Moratorium
More time needed for discussion
Cty Bd CAFO moratorium
ALMOST 80 citizens at-tended the Crawford County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The citizens were there to offer input to the board about whether the county should enact a one-year moratorium on CAFOs.
Published: Dec 14, 2020, 11:28 PM

                 Steuben

Editor,

As a concerned citizen and landowner in Crawford County, I am grateful that the Crawford County Board of Supervisors listened to the concerns of their constituents and passed the Moratorium on the Expansion and Creation of New Livestock Facility Siting Operations, a CAFO Moratorium, in December 2019. 

They recognized then, the importance of studying an issue that affects the health, safety, and welfare of all citizens and on Tuesday, they will once again have the opportunity to show support by voting to extend the CAFO Moratorium for one more year.  

As we all know, 2020 was an unprecedented year and due to COVID restrictions, the appointed CAFO study committee did not have the time to do their due diligence researching and learning about CAFO impacts, in depth water studies could not be completed as originally planned, and Board members have not had the necessary time to read, learn about and discuss County options concerning the siting and expansion of CAFOs in Crawford County. 

By extending the CAFO Moratorium, the CAFO Study Committee would have the time needed to thoroughly investigate the impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs within Crawford County may have on the County’s economy, environment, and citizens and it would give Board members adequate time to consider the information and how to best plan for the future of CAFOs in Crawford County.  

In the Crawford County Code of Ordinances, the responsibility of public office is stated as such: “Public officials and employees are agents of the public and hold office for the benefit of the public. They are bound to uphold…and carry out impartially the laws of the …County to observe in their official acts the highest standard of morality and to discharge faithfully the duties of their office regardless of personal considerations, recognizing that the public interest must be their prime concern.”

In the past months I have read many letters and articles from concerned citizens, township governing bodies, and local organizations like the Sterling-Crawford and the Vernon-Crawford chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Coulee Region Chapter of Trout Unlimited, to name a few, that all feel that it would be in the best interest of Crawford County citizens to extend the moratorium.

I, as a concerned citizen, am appealing to all County Board Supervisors to “recognize that the public interests”, the public’s concerns about the health, economic, and environmental impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs in Crawford County could have, “must be their prime concern,” and urge them to vote to extend the moratorium.

Gina L. Holtz