On Friday, as part of an ongoing series looking at water pollution in the U.S., the N.Y. Times looked alleged water well contamination in Wisconsin by neighboring dairy farms. According to the article by Charles Duhigg, Brown County in Wisconsin is the home to 41,000 dairy cows that produce 260 million gallons of manure each year. In one Brown County community, Morrison, Wisconsin, one hundred wells were contaminated within months of each other. According to the test results on one resident’s well, “showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure.” The residents blame the dairies for the contamination.
The N.Y. Times used the article as an opportunity to highlight some of the problems faced by the EPA in regulating the large number of dairies and other CAFOs across the country. Current Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations allow farmers to self-certify that they will not pollute and escape CWA regulations. Clean water is a priority with the Obama administration and he has promised to regulated pollution from livestock waste. But with an overworked EPA it may be hard to effectively regulate the industry.
But the states are trying to fill in the gap, but face difficulties. According to the article, Wisconsin created rules to prohibit farmers from spreading manure in the winter. But the industry got exceptions to the rules that required the state to cover 70% of costs of following the regulations. So unless Wisconsin can pay 70% of each farmers’ costs of compliance, then farmers are not required to follow.
To view the N.Y. Times article, click here.
For more on the N.Y. Times ongoing series on water pollution in the U.S., click here.
Posted: 09/21/09
