ELLSWORTH — Upon hearing public comment from those in favor and against ordinances that add barriers to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) entering communities through adding planning requirements, the Pierce County Groundwater Advisory Committee is expected to continue conversations on the topic in the coming months.

The topic has made its rounds through some of the county’s townships including ordinances passing in Maiden Rock and Isabelle and being considered in Gilman, among others. A general ordinance that has been pitched throughout the area adds air pollution controls, an infectious disease plan, carcass disposal plan, biosecurity plan, road plan, water use plan, impact on property value analysis, fire response plan and financial bond in case of a factory closure to the already necessary planning. Among other reasons, opponents to the ordinance have cited CAFOs already holding many safety and environmental plans and being held to many Department of Natural Resources regulations without the ordinance. At the Isabelle public hearing regarding the ordinance, a handful of county dairy farmers said subjecting the larger dairy farms to more regulations will be costly and could drive some farms out of business.

At the Oct. 20 Groundwater Advisory meeting, representatives from GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW), an organization that helped kickstart People Protecting Pierce and has consistently advocated in favor of ordinances to add hurdles for CAFOs entering townships, presented.

Judy Krohn, a landowner in Maiden Rock, led off the presentation. Krohn was a part of the team that passed the ordinance in Maiden Rock in December 2024, the first passed in Pierce County. Krohn said the sand mine raised similar concerns in the community 10-15 years ago.

“We have yet to ascertain whether or not [the DNR] has followed up with the remediation requirements for that, now shuttered, sand mine and properly capped its high capacity wells,” Krohn said.

She brought a list of findings to the board, including a survey showing 63% of respondents support land use regulations to protect groundwater, maps showing the majority of land being susceptible to groundwater contaminants and another chunk of land was rated unfavorable for manure application.

“In 2024, the Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council reported that nutrient application from fertilizer and manure on agricultural fields accounts for 90% of nitrates in groundwater,” Krohn said. “As you highlighted earlier, models estimate that 13.5, or you said, 14% of Pierce County wells have nitrates over the 10 milligrams per liter standard.”

Over the past two years, Maiden Rock has provided test kits for its residents which were sent to UW-Stevens Point.

“I’m happy to report that, so far, our own well water has tested well within the safe limits for nitrates and coliform,” Krohn said.

Krohn asked the committee to consider allowing Polk County resident Lisa Doerr to present at the next meeting. Doerr has been a staple at many of the meetings pushing for CAFO operations ordinances. She first got involved when a 26,000-hog farm sought to enter her community. She has since played a role in the passing of ordinances at both Maiden Rock and Isabelle.

Margaret Chelsey of Isabelle’s committee, that recommended the approval of an ordinance to the town board, said that ordinance was backed by research and studies.

“The ordinance is backed up by local and general findings about our area and the CAFO industry,” Chelsey said. “We’ve seen that current regulations do not properly protect our groundwater, and that previous attempts to update regulations and identify nitrogen sensitive areas for manure application have been slowed by lobbyists.”

Chelsey said the state has spent millions to clean PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and hold polluters accountable, funds that have not been released because of “loopholes.”

On the flip side, dairy farmers Mary Brand and Dean Doornink led the conversation against the ordinances. Brand, an owner of Brandvale Dairy in Ellsworth, said they are required to inform the DNR every year of how much manure is spread. Brand also asked that if the committee continues to look into the item, they need to seek balanced voices.

“I would like to, I guess, caution you as I’m listening to the comments that are being made that you go to the source for a lot of your answers,” Brand said. “A lot of what you’re hearing tonight is actually not factual.”

Dean Doornink, a dairy farmer from Baldwin, grew up on a farm where manure was spread daily. He said they became one of if not the first permitted CAFOs in Wisconsin back in 1990. At that time, they were required to test all wells within five miles of the farm.

“The well right across the road from our proposed site tested high in nitrates. I said, ‘My goodness, we don’t even have a barn here yet. How could we have contaminated that well already?’” Doornink said.

He said upon investigating, there was a barn up the hill from the well that was contaminating the well; however, without knowing all the details it would have seemed his family’s farm was at fault.

“My father had no idea about Nutrient Management Plans. Each one of these farms has a Nutrient Management Plan to make sure that the amount of nutrients going on the land do not exceed the nutrient capability of that land,” Doornink said. “The concern about over application is a joke, because every CAFO has to report where that manure went on a yearly basis.”

Doornink cited a statistic that there are about half the amount of cows in the state as there were at its peak. The majority of those cows come from CAFOs, meaning they are under a Nutrient Management Plan. He said 100 parts per million phosphorus is the maximum before spreading is no longer allowed, and CAFOs cannot spread in the winter because the soil cannot absorb it.

With the contested expansion of Ridge Breeze Dairy, a CAFO in the Town of Salem, supporters have mentioned they are applying for about three times the necessary manure spreading acreage, meaning Ridge Breeze would not need to spread on every acre every year.

GROWW Field Organizer Danny Akenson contested the phosphorus claim of Doornink.

“I do not believe that that is true. I believe that the regulation states that once it is over 100 parts per million phosphorus, the phosphorus content has to be pared down, but it can still have manure spread on it up until 200 parts per million,” Akenson said.

Gilman Town Chair Phil Verges discussed concerns about collecting stormwater before it runs off to adjacent property. Verges said with an 11-acre barn, 270,000 gallons of water would come off of it. While stormwater ponds are required during construction and for feed pads, he said it is not required upon completion and he would like to see that required.

“Most of the 70-acre site (where Ridge Breeze is located) is impermeable. This rainfall could instead flow into the Rush River,” Verges said. “Imagine the potential erosion to surrounding farm fields as these heavy rain events occur more frequently.”

The expansion proposal allows 80 million gallons of manure to be spread on 6,500 acres, enough for 12,000 gallons per acre a year

“Under current DNR regulations, CAFOs are allowed to put manure on fields so long as phosphorus tests from the field are less than 200 parts per millions,” Verges said. “The optimal phosphorus level for growing corn is 20-40 parts per million.”

Town of El Paso resident Kay Kashian said she followed a 4.5-inch rainfall from Ridge Breeze, finding mitigation measures were not doing their job.

“I went up there. I saw the water flowing away from there. The retention barricades they had for their construction site were not enough to hold that water from flowing into those dry creek beds,” Kashian said. “I took some video footage… of what is normally a dry creek bed, was a roaring torrent of brown water rushing into the Rush River.”

One resident said people come from other counties to fish the rivers. Along the way they spend money at Pierce County businesses. They did not want to see that go to waste.

Brand responded by citing a recent DNR fish count, finding 7-800 trout over a three-hour count along 390th Street.

“Farmers care about what they do. They know better than anyone, if they aren’t taking care of the land, taking care of the animals, the animals and the land are not going to take care of them,” Brand said. “There is a lot to lose if we would have the dairy industry leave our Pierce County, and I think we’d all go hungry.”

A case that has been continually brought up at area meetings is Emerald Sky Dairy in St. Croix County. Unreported manure spills and high nitrate levels became major concerns for residents before it was sold, now owned by the Breeze Dairy Group, going by the name Croix Breeze Dairy. The previous owners were fined $100,000 over the last decade according to Wisconsin Examiner. Resident Laura Carlson asked if current requirements are sufficient for CAFOs, how did Emerald Sky go wrong?

Brand said the Emerald case was eight years ago, and two owners later there have been no more issues.

After hearing from the public, the committee discussed what the future would be for the agenda item. Questions including where they could find common ground between the supporters and opposition, potential implementation of composting to decrease truck traffic and herbicides because of its killing of weed seeds and ways to determine whether well contamination has stemmed from farms, septic systems or other causes.

Overall, board members were thankful for all the input received, looking to research the notable information. After the presentation, the Groundwater Advisory Committee agreed to hear a future presentation on the Operations Ordinance at a future meeting. The ad-hoc committee has been actively studying concerns around water quality in Pierce County for two years after being formed by the county board in late 2023. They recommended a 5-year well testing program that was approved by the county board earlier this year. Their next meeting is tentatively set for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17.