Wisconsin dairy {industry} fights again as cities goal to curb CAFOs

Studying Time: 8 minutes

Marenda Porter’s new house in Ledgeview, Wisconsin, appeared like the proper match for her household of 4 kids. The rising suburb outdoors Inexperienced Bay was a tight-knit neighborhood with close by land for her youngsters to discover and house for a big backyard. 

Then there was a knock on the door. 

A number of days after transferring in, involved neighbors knowledgeable her that Ledgeview Farms, a big dairy farm behind her house, was planning to increase, which included constructing a manure pit to retailer thousands and thousands of gallons of waste subsequent to the subdivision.

Over the subsequent a number of years, Porter started noticing manure runoff within the creek her youngsters would play in. Initially from rural South Dakota, she had been round farming her entire life, however this felt totally different.

“We don’t even need to take into consideration well being penalties as a result of it’s out of our management, until we have been to choose up and transfer away,” she stated. “However at this level, it’s simply not possible for us to do this.”

Residents, together with Porter, overtly complained concerning the farm’s operations and the chance related to a waste pit close to their properties. The city denied the farm’s allow utility, saying the growth would violate a newly up to date city ordinance. 

In late 2023, the farm responded with a lawsuit in opposition to the city.

The authorized struggle between the massive dairy farm and town authorities is an instance of a rising development within the nation’s Dairyland. As Wisconsin dairy farms get greater and municipal and state governments impose new restrictions in response, the dairy {industry} is more and more combating again by way of the courtroom system. 

Lots of the dairy farms which have sued municipal and state governments are represented by Michael Greatest & Friedrich LLP, a nationwide regulation agency that helped craft state statutes to weaken native management over agriculture.

Since 2018, massive Wisconsin dairy farms have filed 13 lawsuits in opposition to municipal and state governments, based on an Examine Midwest evaluation of courtroom information and state allowing knowledge for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

Dairy farms with roughly 700 or extra milking cows are thought of CAFOs, requiring a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) allow.

“The development does appear to be transferring up, notably for CAFOs and state agency-based litigation. The native municipality-based litigation tends to rise, as effectively,” stated Adam Voskuil, a workers lawyer on the environmental regulation agency Midwest Environmental Advocates. He doesn’t symbolize both get together within the Ledgeview Farms lawsuit.

The rely solely displays the subset of CAFO conflicts that made it to the courtroom bench: Farms settle many circumstances with municipalities or state businesses beforehand, generally after an enchantment or public listening to. Farmers additionally settle authorized disputes with municipalities after submitting a discover of declare.

“As knowledge comes out that exhibits the consequences of (CAFOs on) groundwater contamination, native governments and the state authorities begin responding with the authority that’s been given,” Voskuil added.

Whereas the general variety of Wisconsin dairy farms has declined by almost two-thirds over the previous 20 years, the farms that stay have grown greater. 

The state’s dairy {industry} is estimated to be price almost $46 billion, based on College of Wisconsin-Madison analysis. Most of Wisconsin’s dairy is used to make cheese.

“Demand for dairy merchandise general, each United States home and export demand, continues to develop,” stated Charles Nicholson, an agriculture and economics professor on the College of Wisconsin-Madison.  

Bigger farms imply extra cattle. Extra cattle means extra waste and runoff issues for close by communities, particularly in areas of inhabitants development. Livestock waste runoff has been linked to numerous public well being issues resembling cancers, toddler deaths and miscarriages. 

In its lawsuit over the city’s allow rejection, Ledgeview Farms claimed it had a proper to farm and use its services because it was earlier than the city’s ordinance modified. Farm proprietor Jason Pansier declined an interview with Examine Midwest, as did his lawyer.

Ledgeview lawyer Larry Konopacki stated the city has a accountability to guard varied — and generally competing — pursuits, resembling the expansion of a giant dairy farm and the expansion of a residential space.

“Frankly we’ve got very restricted instruments to make use of as a result of, in Wisconsin, we’re a really professional ag state,” he stated.

Years of authorized battles

In 2017, Ledgeview Farms utilized to construct a brand new manure pit that will maintain upwards of 13 million gallons of waste, a transfer that will permit the farm to extend its herd measurement.  

Porter and her neighbors have been frightened concerning the influence of elevated waste close to properties and our bodies of water. Even then-Inexperienced Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, who lived within the space, expressed concern.

The once-predominantly rural city of Ledgeview had turn out to be a hotbed for suburban cul-de-sacs and housing developments. The city’s inhabitants elevated by a 3rd from 2010 to 2020, topping 8,800, based on U.S. Census knowledge. 

The five-county area additionally had the most important share of CAFOs within the state. The buffer between residential neighborhoods and industrial dairy farms was shrinking.

The city board denied Ledgeview Farm’s allow utility to construct a brand new manure pit.

The state’s Livestock Siting Evaluation Board, circuit courtroom and courtroom of appeals all sided with the city’s determination to disclaim the allow. The farm appealed to the state Supreme Courtroom, which declined to listen to the case. 

In 2021, the farm opened a manure pit within the neighboring city of Glenmore, the place it now transports a few of its Ledgeview waste. Glenmore zoning administrator Ben Schauer stated the pit is in operation and might maintain upwards of 20 million gallons of manure.

Along with denying the allow, the city of Ledgeview ordered the farm to keep up its herd at or beneath 1,000 animal models and to deliver the farm operations into full compliance with state and federal regulation.

Herd measurement has been a contentious difficulty for the farm. 

Throughout the allowing course of for the manure pit utility, Ledgeview Farms declined to supply the city with its herd numbers. In response, the city acquired a warrant for city inspectors, accompanied by the county sheriff’s workplace, to hold out an inspection. 

However the farm’s house owners refused to let city officers take a head rely, based on a city memo obtained by Examine Midwest. Whereas refusal to adjust to the warrant might have led to an arrest, city officers finally requested the sheriff to depart with out making any arrests. 

In a latest wastewater allow utility to the state, Ledgeview Farms stated it had slightly below 2,000 cattle with plans to have greater than 3,000 inside 5 years, based on information from the Wisconsin Division of Pure Sources. 

The Wisconsin DNR declined to touch upon authorized circumstances between dairy farms and native municipalities. 

In its most up-to-date lawsuit, Ledgeview Farms argued it must be allowed to function because it at present does as a result of its massive, free-stall barn was constructed earlier than the city’s ordinance lowering the cap on herd sizes.

“Previous to 2017, the Pansiers had in place services that allowed them (to have) — and actually did have — a number of thousand cows of their services,” stated Eric McLeod, lawyer for Ledgeview Farms, referring to the farm house owners throughout a July 12, 2024, oral argument in Brown County courtroom.

City attorneys argued in July that the choose ought to throw out the lawsuit on the premise that the farm was working illegally previous to the 2017 ordinance.

“The file demonstrates that this can be a bad-acting farm,” stated Ledgeview lawyer Matthew Fischer. “They’ve violated principally each environmental state and federal rule. It’s not stunning that the city needs to cease these violations.”

Neighbors of the farm have seen these violations firsthand.

Porter stated she’s witnessed overspreading of manure on close by fields and located runoff from the farm in her yard. She stated neighbors have moved out as a result of the waste and odors have been overwhelming. 

“We virtually by no means open the home windows as a result of it stinks so unhealthy,” she stated.

Litigating for the {industry}

On the July oral argument listening to, a dozen members of the Pansier household packed the rickety, wood benches of the small Brown County courtroom. A handful of Ledgeview officers sat on the opposite facet of the room whereas Ledgeview Farms lawyer McLeod stated clashes between massive farms and suburban residents had turn out to be frequent apply.

“I’ve dealt with many varieties of these disputes regarding massive dairy farms, and so they at all times come up within the context of when of us construct residential developments adjoining to current dairy farms,” he stated. “What occurs is the parents who constructed the properties in rural areas typically discover that they don’t like dwelling subsequent to a farming operation.”

Litigating these disputes has turn out to be a serious enterprise for Wisconsin attorneys like McLeod. 

In a evaluation of lawsuits filed by CAFO allow holders, Examine Midwest discovered the bulk have been litigated by the nationwide regulation agency Michael Greatest & Friedrich LLP.

Michael Greatest has 5 workplaces throughout the state and is a member of the Dairy Enterprise Affiliation, American Dairy Alliance and the Wisconsin’s Meals and Beverage Enterprise Community. 

Their attorneys helped create the Wisconsin Livestock Facility Siting Legislation, which CAFO critics stated created industry-friendly requirements and prevented native governments from explicitly stopping the growth of agriculture services. 

David Crass, who has labored for Michael Greatest for over three a long time, drafted the Wisconsin Livestock Facility Siting Legislation, which handed in 2004. Crass was working for the Dairy Enterprise Affiliation, a registered lobbying group of dairy producers and farmers, which lobbied for the creation of the regulation.

The passage of the Wisconsin Livestock Facility Siting Legislation, which went into impact in 2006, “marked a serious turning level for the state’s dairy {industry} — and a signature second for our agricultural apply, which stays extremely attuned to our shoppers’ points and desires within the authorized, regulatory, and social climates the place they function,” based on the regulation agency’s web site.

Crass and the Michael Greatest regulation workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark. 

Michael Greatest attorneys have additionally routinely defended farm operators in opposition to fines for violating metropolis permits and native air pollution ordinances, Examine Midwest present in its evaluation of lawsuits.

McLeod, the lawyer for Ledgeview Farms, previously labored for Michael Greatest, the place he represented a big dairy farm in a 2004 authorized battle in opposition to a rural city in one of many first situations of the regulation being utilized in courtroom. 

McLeod, who at present works for Husch and Blackwell, declined an interview request with Examine Midwest. 

On the opposite facet of the state, extra enterprise teams have turn out to be invested in related authorized battles. 

Wisconsin Producers & Commerce, the state’s largest enterprise affiliation, not too long ago sued the city of Eureka over an working ordinance that restricted the operation of CAFOs.

“If we permit native governments just like the city of Eureka to violate the regulation, we’re going to hazard and probably kill a significant side of our state’s economic system,” stated Scott Manley, WMC govt vice chairman of presidency relations, in an announcement of the lawsuit. “These farms have already got a mountain of laws.”

WMC represented dairy {industry} teams in a lawsuit in opposition to the state’s DNR final yr. Enterprise Dairy Cooperative and the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance argued that the division overreaches by requiring CAFOs to have wastewater permits. The case was dismissed. The teams didn’t reply to a request for remark. 

This wasn’t the primary time {industry} teams tried to decontrol how the state runs its wastewater allowing for CAFOs. In 2017, the Dairy Enterprise Affiliation sued the DNR, claiming the division’s change to runoff administration was not sensible or science-based for Wisconsin farmers. The affiliation settled with the company that very same yr and was represented by Michael Greatest attorneys within the lawsuit.

The Dairy Enterprise Affiliation declined an interview with Examine Midwest. 

Matthew Sheets, a coverage organizer for the Land Stewardship Mission, a Minnesota-based sustainable agriculture nonprofit, stated municipalities typically need to enact controls over CAFOs that trigger well being or environmental considerations of their neighborhood, however the concern of lawsuits and authorized battles creates a chilling impact. 

“It’s a reinforcement of the concept if you’re massive sufficient and in case you have sufficient cash to deliver a lawsuit in opposition to a municipality and you’ve got extra money than they do, they’re going to not need to step in your manner,” he stated.

A model of this story was initially printed by Examine Midwest.