TOWN OF ISABELLE — A handful of Pierce County’s townships have looked into drafting ordinances to add more plans, requirements and regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to enter their township. After hearing from the public during a Sept. 9 gathering, the Isabelle Town Board unanimously approved an ordinance Monday, Sept. 15.

Maiden Rock township passed an ordinance in December, and other towns including Isabelle and Gilman have since looked into it. Isabelle established a committee to investigate the effects of CAFOs on the environment and infrastructure, holding a public hearing for a proposed ordinance during a Sept. 9 public hearing in front of a packed Tabor Lutheran Church.

Prior to the public hearing portion of the meeting, a handful of speakers who played a part in the drafting of the ordinance had a chance to address the crowd.

Proposers of the ordinance frequently use a graphic that displays what is required of a CAFO prior to an ordinance and after it is passed. Rather than taxpayers taking on enforcement costs and inspections being done every five years, the permittee takes on all costs for enforcement. Manure spreading and storage would also have outside enforcement rather than a self-reporting structure. According to Lisa Doer, a Polk County resident who has pushed for the ordinance in many of Pierce County’s town meetings, 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 all go from not required to required under the ordinance.

While the majority of people who spoke during the hearing were in favor of the ordinance, dairy farmer Mary Brand was one of the people to speak against it.

“It’s a little disappointing, this meeting, because virtually you guys don’t have an idea that’s accurate of what a CAFO farm does and has in terms of regulation,” Brand said.

Brand invited anyone to reach out to discuss the requirements from their farm to comply with the Department of Natural Resources or even to pay a visit to the farm. She pushed back on a previously discussed idea that the DNR does not have the staffing to properly regulate CAFOs, mentioning there are 25 full-time workers, four regional supervisors and four half-time support staff to watch over the 344 Wisconsin CAFOs. Brand said completing a Nutrient Management Plan costs about $20,000 as soil samples are submitted. Additionally, Brand referenced requirements to ensure no runoff onto adjacent property. She said even if the townships do not require things like the fire plan and carcass disposal plan, their lenders do.

“We’re regulated like crazy, and all of this regulation doesn’t add one dollar to our bottom line, all it does is cost,” Brand said. “When it costs, then our lenders say, ‘Well, now you have a million-dollar bill because of this regulation, you have to add more cows.’”

Brand said many farms have to grow larger than they even want to in order to stay afloat with the costs of regulation.

“It’s frustrating to me because the dairy industry and agriculture provides a lot of jobs, a lot of economic benefit. We’re not factories,” Brand said. “I have a son who would like to farm, and I don’t know what his future looks like in this kind of landscape.”

After Brand spoke, a resident in favor of the ordinance questioned her about what her issues are if many of these plans are already sent to lenders and the DNR.

“We have those plans, I mean we can. It’s just extra work. It’s not like we have a lot of extra time in our day. Extra expense,” Brand said. “There’s no return.”

County resident Tom Manley responded by saying if existing regulations were sufficient, communities would not be facing the issues that they are in Emerald (in St. Croix County) and near Ridge Breeze (town of Salem) because of the CAFOs.

Brand said her friend’s father served on the county board that dealt with the Emerald water issues. She said the board determined 50% of the wells contaminated were because of failed septic systems, to which Manley called nonsense.

“If the existing regulations were enough, we wouldn’t have 10-plus landowners coming forward from Ridge Breeze who had their land listed on the Nutrient Management Plan for manure spreading who did not give permission,” GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin Field Organizer Danny Akenson said.

Akenson said even after Ridge Breeze was required to produce signed affidavits for manure spreading, landowners still came forward to say they were not informed of being on the list. He also said the mortality plan submitted to the DNR was three bullet points long, saying they would call the DNR, DATCP and a few other companies.

“If regulations were enough, then that 4,000 hog facility would not have gone up in flames in Mondovi and had to have carcasses hauled off to a landfill days later,” Akenson said of a 2019 Mondovi fire that killed the majority of the 4,000 hogs.

Akenson closed by mentioning a conversation with a UW-River Falls professor about isotope testing (the type of testing used for the wells in Kewaunee County and she said isotope testing is not reliable until technology significantly approves.

“Water is life, we all know that. Without clean water, we are screwed,” Lisa Mueller said. “What’s the value of clean drinking water for not only human beings, but all the myriad of other organisms that rely on that water.”