This is my first attempt at blogging, so please be patient :-)
http://gazettextra.com/news/2010/aug/25/farmer-details-dairy-plans/
My Grandmother's favorite saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" would be great advice to follow in this situation. The precautionary principle states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.
This principle allows policy makers to make discretionary decisions in situations where there is the possibility of harm from taking a particular course or making a certain decision when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. The principle implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.
Since the Rock Prairie Dairy proposes to sit right smack dab in the Turtle Creek water shed, and the Turtle Creek watershed is ALREADY considered an impaired waterway, it seems only natural that we as a community would ask the DNR that there is some sort of assessment BEFORE the dairy is built, instead of AFTER, when there is little to do, except clean up the mess. The DNR has decided that the project does not warrant an environmental study. http://gazettextra.com/news/2011/jan/25/farm-impact-study-nixed/
This brings to mind my conversation with a local County Official, who tried to calm my concerns about the dairy. "Would you rather have 10 dairys with 500 cows each, which are not so highly regulated by the DNR, or one mega-dairy that is highly regulated"? My answer was immediate. "BP was highly regulated too." The other issues, in no particular order, are that this type of dairy is not a dairy, it is a factory, and should be regulated as such. This type of dairy is not sustainable - meaning, that the sheer amount of manure that will be produced is that of a city of 400,000 people, yet there is no sewage treatment facility. The amount of water being sucked out of our aquifer is staggering.... and the money brought in by this dairy will leave town the next day. Anyone that argues "jobs" as part of this project is fooling themselves. This highly automated operation will hire an on site manager (so far, Tuls' 18 year old son", and a dozen or so minimum wage workers. This operation will produce so much milk, that local farmers may soon find themselves out of a job, especially since there isn't a shortage of milk!
So would I rather have 10 dairys with 500 cows each, supporting 10 local farming families that care deeply about our local environment and give back to our community every day by eating, shopping and living locally? You bet. If you have strong feelings about this project also, take some time and do your homework. Educate yourself and make your own conclusions. But if you, like me, feel that an environmental assessment is THE LEAST that the DNR can do before this project is built - to protect local families from environmental concerns, or those that are living downstream, then take action. Get involved.
DNR Documents relating to this project can be found here:
http://search.dnr.wi.gov/search?q=rock+prairie+dairy&entqr=0&getfields=*&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&client=DNR_frontend&ud=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=DNR_frontend&site=default_collection
**TAKE ACTION BY FEBRUARY 4TH AT 4:30 PM**
Contact Mark Cain at the DNR no later than 4:30 PM on 2/4/2011
Phone: 608-275-3252 FAX: 608-275-3338
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
3911 Fish Hatchery Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53711
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/eis/eis.htm
As local residents, we need to demand that there is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before this project moves forward. This proposed dairy is sitting in the Turtle Creek Watershed, which is already an impaired waterway.
A group of concerned citizens have been meeting weekly to try to block the dairy. Contact Dwight Brass if you are interested in becoming involved at janicen@ticon.net
Freedom!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't even begun to touch on that outrage yet. In a way I fear I will finally offend even the thickest skin of some of my readers. Tuls obviously searched around for a soft spot he could exploit and found it in Rock County. I'm totally baffled by some of the support this guy gets for essentially proposing a farm animal waste management process that sprays layers of cowsh*t and urine syrup over the land while he sits hundreds of miles away toking on a cohiba. You want that in matte or silky satin? Gloss will cost you extra. Yummy.
Anyways, it's good to see another "unaffiliated" blog fire up in Rock County and keep sending me those alerts.
160 acres for 5,300 animals?
ReplyDeleteTake the time to watch the film "Poisoned Waters" at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
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Peter Lane Taylor, a writer and TV producer, stated in his article "Florida Dairy Farms and Springs Protection: Got Solutions?," published on www.floridasprings.org (accessed June 17, 2008):
"Cows are prolific producers of manure and urine. In an average day of grazing, milking, and just mooing about, one dairy cow can generate over 100 pounds of manure and urine...
In areas and facilities where cows are milked, fed, and staged between the various phases of the milking process, wastes are removed through pressure-washing, and in some cases, even bulldozing. Once flushed from these facilities, the wastes - now a semi-solid sludge - are directed into holding ponds to await their final disposal through one of two techniques.
In the first of these techniques, the mixture is spread in a thin layer over a large field by truck so that the nutrients can be absorbed as fertilizer by a variety of nitrogen absorbing plants like alfalfa and other grasses. In the second, cow manure mixture is further diluted with water and sprayed over a large area by a center-pivot irrigation system. In reality, neither of the techniques is full proof; a percentage of the nutrients bypasses the root system and enters the underground aquifer."
You guys need to get off your high horse and go visit a large dairy. Small family dairies are not regulated and do far more damage than a large dairy. Drive down a country back road and ask yourself as you look at these "innocent" little farms; "How does the water flow when it rains?" The answer: downhill! The rain flows off their barns into their cowyards, picking up urine and feces as it flows out into the ditch or into the local creek. These are the same farms/family farmers, that scoop up manure by the bucket-load, put it in manure spreaders, and spread it on top of the ground. Sometimes on top of snow; and once again, it rains, or the snow melts, and voila, manure in our creeks and waterways.
ReplyDeleteNow don't get me wrong here, I'm not jumping into the fanclub FOR the dairy; but if you cry about polluting our waters and damaging the environment, you need to blame everyone that is responsible. Don't point your fingers @ big business.
You guys appear to have a real bad case of the "NOT IN MY BACKYARD" syndrome; just like those crybabies called HOMES down in Illinois.
The manure produced by these dairies is a valuable, NATURAL fertilizer. That when applied with diligence, provides a very valuable way to increase crop output.