To the editor,

How is everyone liking all the manure hauling in Pierce County - the large number of trucks and the pervasive manure smell, even through the Village of Ellsworth? This is what your fellow county residents living next to CAFOs experience every day during manure hauling events. 

I am sure you all have experienced something similar. Last week, I needed to drive into Ellsworth twice from 400th Street. During those two short drives I encountered over 35 tankers hauling manure through downtown Ellsworth from Ridge Breeze. This is at the quantity with 1,700 head of cattle; if they are allowed to proceed with building their larger manure pit, they will have 6,500 cattle pooping. Four times their current size means four times as many loads throughout the year.

The wear and tear on our roads, the pollutants being spread across our region, the dangerous driving conditions this volume of traffic creates, and the impact to our quality of life, will be immense.

On Friday, as I was heading to Red Wing, I was stopped at the stop sign at Highway 10. I looked both ways twice; to my left the lane was completely clear for as far as was visible, to the right I saw a tanker followed by four vehicles near the quarry, about 300 yards away. Checked both ways again quickly, because it was clear, and began to pull out into my right-hand turn, concurrently, three vehicles behind the tanker decided to pass it. I had to slam on my brakes and was missed by less than 12 inches from being in a pile up of four passenger vehicles and a semi.

Highway 10 had become a one way, two laned highway in a matter of seconds.

Kay Kashian

Ellsworth