Judge upholds clean water regulations for factory farms in challenge against DNR
MADISON – In a win for clean water advocates, a Calumet County judge this week struck down a challenge to the Department of Natural Resource's abilities to regulate factory farms and how they deal with waste from their animals.
Calumet County Circuit Court Judge Carey Reed issued an oral ruling striking down the challenge brought last spring by the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative, which argued the agency didn't have the authority to require large farm operations to obtain water discharge permits before pollution occurs. The groups were represented by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobby.
Environmental groups celebrated the decision, calling the suit "misguided" and "reckless."
“This ruling is critical because it preserves the DNR's ability to address water pollution that can be caused by these facilities, at a time when many surface and groundwaters around the state are contaminated with animal waste," Clean Wisconsin attorney Evan Feinauer said.
“These large operations can produce as much waste as a small city, and the state must be able to monitor and control how, where, and in what quantities manure is stored and spread on the landscape. That’s why for nearly 40 years, the DNR has required large CAFOs to have permits to limit this dangerous pollution. Allowing large dairies to sidestep oversight would have been catastrophic for water protection in our state."
The Wisconsin Farmers Union also expressed support for the upheld regulations.
"This ruling not only upholds critical clean water protections but also reinforces the imperative of responsible practices in agriculture,” Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said in a release. “The current rules create transparency and ensure that CAFOs are accountable, not only to regulators but also to their neighbors, who have a right to know that CAFOs are operating responsibly.”
The discharge permits are among some of the only regulatory guides in Wisconsin for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs — farms that have 1,000 or more animal units. The permits require farms to have plans on how to store and get rid of the massive amounts of manure produced by the animals.
In the complaint filed last May, the dairy groups argued that obtaining a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit is a time-consuming and costly burden for farms. Farms must apply for the permit a year prior to becoming a CAFO, detailing in the application their manure storage and wastewater treatment facilities, types of outdoor animal lots, feed storage areas and runoff control systems.
The process also includes a hearing in which members of the public can comment.
The complaint points to two federal court rulings that found that under the Clean Water Act, CAFOs could not be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to get a permit before pollution happens.
During his ruling Tuesday, Reed cited state statutes that outlined the importance of protecting public water sources for the public, fish and aquatic life, as well as to protect the scenic and ecological values of water.
WMC part of other lawsuits seeking to limit DNR authority
WMC is currently also involved with several other lawsuits against the DNR, targeting the agency's ability to require businesses to clean up contamination or test for contamination.
In 2022, in a separate case in Jefferson County, a judge said the DNR could continue to sample for PFAS for informational purposes, but enforcement couldn't be taken against polluters or property owners without PFAS standards in place. He also ruled that any sampling results should be considered public records.
The case was dismissed last year by the appeals court, because standards went into effect for PFAS last summer, therefore allowing the DNR to more widely sample for the compounds.
In another case, a Waukesha County judge ruled in favor of WMC and an Oconomowoc dry cleaning business, determining that the DNR could not require the cleanup of toxic "forever chemicals" because they were not specifically listed as hazardous substances and did not have specific numerical levels to trigger a cleanup. The decision was appealed and is currently awaiting judicial assignment.
More: Massive Kewaunee factory farm, DNR reach settlement on manure spreading, water monitoring
In a third case filed by WMC, the organization is representing business owners who were told to clean up petroleum contamination on their property before they could sell. The owners argued that they shouldn't be required to clean up the contamination because they did not cause it.
That case is waiting to be taken up by a judge in Jefferson County, where it was filed.
WMC, Venture Dairy and the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance also were involved in a threatening letter sent in 2020 to Polk County Board members who were considering a CAFO moratorium for the county. The groups said the supervisors could face charges of misconduct in office if they passed the moratorium, resulting in a number of members backing down from passing the ordinance.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin judge upholds clean water regulations for CAFOs
