By LeAnn R. Ralph
TOWN OF EMERALD — Since the manure spill at Emerald Sky Dairy in 2016, local residents have remained concerned that manure was never cleaned up from Wetland 1.
In July of 2022, officials from the state Department of Natural Resources conducted an inspection of Wetland 1, and in a recent report, DNR officials concluded, “Inspectors did not observe deposited manure solids or other indicators of an un-remediated manure discharge within Wetland 1.”
The report also notes that no water or soil samples were collected for lab analysis.
In other words, the report is based on a visual inspection, but water and soil samples were not analyzed to confirm or refute what the inspectors had observed.
According to a letter dated October 7, 2022, responding to the DNR’s inspection report from Steve Oberle, an agro-environmental consultant working with residents in the Town of Emerald, the reported manure spill in 2016-2017 at Emerald Sky Dairy was 275,000 gallons.
The stormwater pond at Emerald Sky Dairy was flushed after the manure spill, and the first-flush of manure liquids involved 1.6 million gallons, according to Oberle’s letter.
The second dewatering of the stormwater pond involved 3.4 million gallons.
The amount of manure solids removed from impacted wetlands from May 8, 2017, to June 5, 2017, was 3,456 tons, or seven million pounds.
Oberle goes on to say, “Although one can plainly see from these documents and photos that ESD manure discharges from December 2017 until late March 2017 directly impacted Wetland 1 — ‘exceeding wetland water quality standards’ and ‘compromising its wetland functional values,’ we are puzzled as to why Wetland 1 has not been a part of any cleanup and/or restoration efforts, since the spill occurred.
“To date, we have not been able to find any records documenting cleanup and/or restoration activities associated with Wetland 1 or follow-up assessments and/or sample/testing, including the most recent site inspection and sampling, that definitively demonstrate Wetland 1 (or any of the impacted wetlands) are currently meeting wetland water quality standards and/or wetland functional values.”
Value assessment
In his letter responding to the DNR report, Oberle refers to a “wetland functional value assessment” dated April 3, 2018, by Travis Holte, WDNR wetland identification specialist.
In his report, Holte states, “Inundation of the wetland area with manure completely removes the capacity of a wetland to store, retain or moderate storm or floodwaters. The plants and soil are covered with a material that does not allow for penetration/absorption by the wetland. The wetland surface on which this interaction takes place has been replaced/lost.”
Holte goes on to say, “Water cannot infiltrate into the wetland to recharge groundwater within those areas covered/inundated by the manure,” and “An inundated wetland area cannot filter or store any sediments, nutrients or toxic substances that would otherwise adversely impact the quality of the other waters of the state. The ability or capacity to provide this function is completely lost when the wetland surface is lost/filled.”
Holte states, “Several feet of manure, in my opinion, is not a suitable habitat for all life stages of aquatic organisms … Manure is not a typical amphibian breeding habitat.”
High nitrates
Why is it important that a manure spill be cleaned up or that excessive amounts of manure are not applied to farm fields?
The Town of Emerald has karst topography.
According to the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey’s website, “Karst is a landscape created when water dissolves rocks. In Wisconsin, dolomite and some limestone are typical soluble rocks. The rocks are dissolved mostly along fractures and create caves and other conduits that act as underground streams. Water moves readily through these openings, carrying sediment and pollutants directly into our groundwater.”
A number of residential wells in the Town of Emerald have tested high for nitrates.
As Oberle points out in his letter, the well at the Emerald Town Hall, across the road from Emerald Sky Dairy, contains four times the public health standard for nitrates.
“When the (Emerald Town Hall) well was first completed in 2007, the nitrate level was below the public health standard at 6.9 parts per million (ppm). Following ESD discharges to wetlands and nearby fields in 2016-2017, the Emerald Town Hall was retested for nitrate in 2020, and results were 40.3 ppm, over 4x the public health standard. Subsequent testing on this and other wells in the vicinity of ESD discharges and land-spreading have shown similar issues/trends including e-coli and ‘brown’ water,” Oberle writes.
Water testing in May of 2022 has shown that the well at the Emerald Town Hall now has five times the public health standard for nitrates.
Connection
Kim Dupre, a member of the advocacy group Emerald Clean Water 4 All, notes that in the Department of Justice settlement with Emerald Sky Dairy — in which ESD was fined $80,000 in 2019 for the 2016 manure spill — “Wetland 1 was specifically mentioned as being contaminated yet no remediation or clean up plan was created for that particular wetland in any of the open records requests documentation we received (though clean up plans were created for other wetlands on the property).”
Since the well at the Emerald Town Hall continues to test high for nitrates, “It prompted us to start wondering if there’s a connection between the lack of cleanup plan for Wetland 1 and contaminated drinking water in the area,” she said.
E-mail messages and telephone calls to the DNR, the DOJ, Governor Tony Evers’ office and the offices of state and United States senators have been taking place over the past year, Dupre said.
In July of 2022, the DNR conducted the inspection of Wetland 1 and concluded “all is well,” she said.
More questions
Dupre points to an article published in the “Wisconsin Examiner” last fall about Emerald Sky Dairy and Wetland 1 in which DNR officials are quoted as saying that manure “is not recoverable material … not compared to other sites or parts of the site that remain contaminated.”
The “Wisconsin Examiner” article also states that DNR officials say dissolved pollutants eventually are washed downstream, and the DNR considers that adverse effects to water systems have been resolved by the settlement agreement with Emerald Sky Dairy, the fines imposed on Emerald Sky Dairy and any cleanup requirements.
The comments from the DNR prompted more questions from Dupre:
• Why is the site still contaminated?
• Where is the site contaminated?
• What is being done about the contamination?
• When dissolved pollutants are washed downstream, who does that affect?
• Were the other people downstream notified?
• What is being done to make sure citizens have clean drinking water?
• If fines imposed in the settlement agreement from the 2017 manure spill were meant to resolve “adverse effects” — does this mean that local homeowners receive free well testing? Money to pay for water treatment systems? New wells after the contamination?
Dupre says that to her knowledge, none of the local residents in the Town of Emerald have gotten free well water testing, and they have not received water treatment systems or new wells.
And meanwhile, at least as far as the Emerald Town Hall is concerned, the level of nitrate in the well water keeps increasing at a steady rate.
Expansion
Another concern is that Emerald Sky Dairy wants to renew the dairy’s permits and also is seeking permits to expand the dairy.
Dupre said she learned from the “Wisconsin Examiner” article that the DNR is conducting a groundwater quality report before the public hearing on Emerald Sky Dairy’s permit applications.
Residents in the Town of Emerald have not received notification of the groundwater quality report, she said.
Oberle concludes his letter to DNR officials by writing, “I cannot in good conscience tell local citizens that their short- and long-term water quality and health and safety concerns have been fully and completely addressed when thus far, WDNR has not produced any water quality (either for surface or groundwater) data to support that wetlands, local wells and streams impacted by multiple spills are in compliance with current surface water quality and groundwater (drinking water) standards.”
Dupre said in her conversations with various DNR officials, the message she has gotten is, “people are on their own,” in terms of dealing with nitrate and other well contamination associated with agricultural practices.
DNR officials consider the case brought by the DOJ and the resulting settlement to be the end of the matter, even though there is contamination of wells with nitrate and e-coli, and there does not seem to be a will or desire to help people living near Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), she said.
In fact, DNR officials seem to be especially solicitous toward the CAFOs and seem more concerned about their ability to expand than they are concerned about the people who live in the areas affected by CAFOs, Dupre said.
Among the general public, people tend to think the DNR “would never let that happen” concerning the contamination of wells in an area related to agricultural practices and other sources of pollution, she said.
Well-head protection
New construction in areas where CAFOs operate is encouraged to install treatment systems for nitrates right away, Oberle said.
Installing treatment systems is not going to change the fact that the groundwater is contaminated and is not going to help mitigate future contamination, Dupre and Oberle said.
Another problem with the manure spreading from CAFOs and the excess build-up of phosphorus and other nutrients is that it becomes impossible to raise certain crops, said Dupre, who is a master gardener.
While visiting family in Iowa, a family member said she was disappointed that her garden, which is planted near a large hog operation, was not producing any vegetables, she said, noting that the family member was especially upset that her sweet potatoes had not produced anything.
Soil testing revealed a high rate of phosphorus, Dupre said.
In addition to contaminating ground water, the build up of excess nutrients will make it impossible to raise food in certain areas, she said.
The remedy for the family member’s garden would be to put in raised beds and bring in soil from another area. The garden could also be improved by bringing in leaves to add organic material to the soil, but improving the soil itself to remove the excess nutrients would take years and years, Dupre said.
People should be aware that if a CAFO contracts to spread manure on their property, the future productivity of the soil could be compromised for years to to come, she said.
According to maps Dupre provided of phosphorus levels determined by soil testing in May of 2021 in farm fields northeast of Emerald Sky Dairy, near the unincorporated village of Emerald, the fields range from 19 parts per million of phosphorus to 71 ppm.
Healthy levels of phosphorus range from 25 to 50 ppm.
In fields south of Emerald Sky Dairy from soil testing in May of 2021, the phosphorus levels range from 91 to 118 ppm.
In the field directly north of the Emerald Town Hall from soil testing in June of 2021, the phosphorus level was 120 ppm.
According to information from the DNR, there are 327 CAFOs in Wisconsin, the majority of which are dairy, although there are some hog, beef, chicken and turkey CAFOs.
According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture profile of St. Croix County, there are 1,444 farms in the county covering 279,191 acres, with an average farm size of 193 acres.
Of those farms in St. Croix County, 44 percent are devoted to crops, and 56 percent are devoted to livestock, poultry and products.
