Nothing new to report on Emerald Sky Dairy manure spill

By LeAnn R. Ralph

TOWN OF EMERALD  —  Although a massive manure spill occurred at Emerald Sky Dairy in late 2016, almost a year and a half later, residents in the township are still waiting to find out if any enforcement action will be taken.

The Emerald Town Board learned at the February 14 meeting that there was nothing new to report about the Emerald Sky Dairy manure spill.

The state Department of Natural Resources began investigating the manure spill after it was reported in March of 2017.

Emerald Sky Dairy is classified as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO).

A CAFO is defined as 1,000 animal units or more, which translates into 700 milk cows, 1,000 beef steers, 2,500 pigs that are 55 pounds or larger or 55,000 turkeys. A dairy cow is 1.4 animal units.

Emerald Sky Dairy’s current conditional use permit allows up to 3,400 dairy cows, or 4,760 animal units, and the existing operation has about 2,500 animal units or approximately 1,750 dairy cows.

Residents living in the Town of Emerald noticed in December of 2016 what they described as a manure spill.

By March of 2017, the Tribune Press Reporter had attended two meetings recently at the Emerald Town Hall, and both times, people talked about liquid manure “filling a ditch” near Emerald Sky Dairy.

“According to DNR staff, the majority of the [manure] release is contained in a wetland area, downslope from the farm’s waste storage facility,” according to an e-mail in April of 2017 from Andrew Savagian, Section Chief with the DNR’s Office of Communication.

“The wetland drains through a ditch and enters a storm water pond about 1,200 feet away. The storm water pond is impacted by liquid and solid manure, and the outlet has been closed to prevent additional impacts to a wetland area downstream from the storm water pond,” he wrote.

“Department staff are continuing to investigate the situation while working with the dairy and contractors to continue the cleanup of the spill and develop a long-term restoration plan,” Savagian continued.

Since then, the DNR has turned the case over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice for review.

Emerald Sky Dairy, formerly known as Emerald Dairy and formerly owned by John Vrieze, was sold to Todd Tuls. The Tuls family also owns large dairies in Nebraska and in Rock County near Janesville.

At one point, Tuls requested a conditional use permit to increase the number of animal units to 8,804. The proposed expansion would translate into 6,289 cows.

Before Emerald Sky Dairy could expand, the facility would need a conditional use permit from St. Croix County.

The last time Emerald Sky Dairy was on the agenda for the St. Croix County Board’s Community Development Committee was April 20, 2017, for an update regarding the Emerald Sky Dairy spill.

The application for Emerald Sky Dairy submitted to St. Croix County in 2016 for a conditional use permit to expand was incomplete and was returned to the applicant for additional information.

Before a decision could be made on the conditional use permit, the St. Croix County Zoning Board of Adjustment would have to hold a public hearing.