What is government for if not
to regulate in the best interest of the people?
Polluted Water is becomming
hazardous to our health, but we need it to live!
Take action, contact your Local County Supervisor and your State
Rep and Senator
1.
Water and
Manure a nasty drink Links
Water and Manure, a nasty drink
10/08/2000
Water runs in rivers under
all of Wisconsin. Often you can find good quality, and plenty of water at a
depth of Twenty to thirty feet. The majority of wells were "point wells" in
the area. That is not a far depth when thousands of gallons of Manure are
located nearby. The regulations for manure storage and disposal need much
consideration. Bunk Silos also have a leaching problem, and need to be
regulated.
50% of the
US uses ground water for drinking.
95% of rural
US uses ground water.
Surface
water pollution is temporary.
Ground water
pollution is PERMANENT!
Nitrate from manure is
inorganic, water soluble and very mobile in soil. Nitrate is poison at levels
above 10 ppm nitrate. The spreading of manure must be regulated according to
the soil ability to handle it. Once saturated with nitrate, the nitrate will
enter the ground water, our drinking water. There may be a need to govern the
closeness to large feedlots, so adequate acreage is available to dispose of
the waste.
Other areas to consider,
e-coli recently killed people in Canada. The e-coli was believed to have come
from a nearby farm, entering the water supply. Drugs, including antibiotics,
hormones, strong pain killers, tranquilizers, and chemotherapy chemicals given
to cancer patients have been found in drinking water which got there by waste
from animals and people. Mad Cow disease, and other diseases are also
concerns. All of these items, found in manure, do not break down and become
harmless.
The Wisconsin DNR lost its
credibility when Governor Thompson took over its Administration. We need an
elected Administrator of the DNR as it was before Shawano County Board of Supervisors is considering a
Moratorium on "Factory Farm" regulations. I think it is imperative that a
moratorium be introduced, until regulations to protect our water is developed.
.
It was brought up that a
Dairy Corporation is seeking a site, perhaps in Shawano County. This is
another area of concern, as a Dairy generates much waste, regulations must be
in place before a corporation could begin operation.
If the farms proceed, and
indeed cause health problems, it could be very costly for them. It also could
affect our water, and our lives.
Will these decisions be made
by dollars, or sense?
Bruce Eggum, Morgan Siding WI
eggum@frontiernet.net
Sent SEL 10/07/2000
10/08/2000
Large farm operations
are not a “bad thing”. They utilize labor efficiently. It is likely that large
dairy and beef operations will be the norm soon. That is not the problem. The
problem is operating these large feedlots in a way that does no harm to our
water and ecological system.
The dangers and
problems are many and costly. Here are a few.
1. Storage of manure
and feed could leech down into the groundwater or contaminate surface water
that flows into streams and rivers.
2. Spreading the waste on land must be monitored so that land is not saturated with nitrates, chemicals and other hazardous items. Methods to eliminate “runoff” must be developed and required.
3. Monitoring these
items is costly. It is estimated that it costs $14,000.00 to $35,000.00 to
monitor one feedlot system annually. Who will pay this price? Should these
feedlots be licensed so a portion of this cost is born by the business needing
the service?
4. The State of
Wisconsin has been “pushing” large feedlots. The DNR has violated both Federal
and State law to allow these operations. The State has provided grants to
operators to develop large feedlot operations. Will the State provide some of
the money necessary to monitor these operations?
I am providing a few
links to sites that have studied these problems. There are many such sites and
I encourage you to utilize search engines to find information. Please email
any information to me so I may post it. I would like to provide more
information on the positive side of large feedlots.
I am not optimistic that large operations will be the solution to our failing farms. The prices
for commodities and milk is simply to low. Providing more milk will not increase the price,
on the contrary it will lower it. The solution is marketing milk as the valued food it is.
This has NOT been done adequately. Consumer concern for anything with the word “fat”
connected to it is based on manipulated facts. Protein is very necessary, and protein is
carried in fat. Nuts have protein, nuts also have fat. The calcium in milk is very digestible
and necessary. The osteoporosis and other bone, joint problems we now see have increased
since milk was discouraged.
Now the Links:
UPDATE 07 04 02 --------- DEAD link at UW !!!!
Wisconsin University and other Universities have long studied these matters. This is the UW Dairy
Manure and Management web page. http://www.cals.wisc.edu/manure/
DEAD Link! This was quite good! Where did it go??? Google does not show a replacement. Only an
independent person saying farmers and city folk will have to work it out???????
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/pubs/briefs/024.html
Me thinks the State of Wis
does not CARE if you drink water with URINE, FECAL matter, NITRATES (poison) etc......
IT is HIGH time we people start expecting OUR government to run like WE want it to.
(maybe we need to make new job discriptions
for senators, representatives, govornors etc......................)
The US animal manure regulations page is slow loading as it contains “slides”. It does have some
good information. http://www.admin.ces.purdue.edu/anr/anr/swine/pptregs/index.htm
Waste Management Initiative, A National Research and Extension Initiative of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Land-Grant Universities and Partner Agencies. This page describes in detail some of the
dangers we are dealing with here. These are life and death issues, not something to ignore.
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/wmi/
The Environmental Issues in Livestock Production home study series was developed for livestock
producers, educators, students, and others seeking to better understand potential air and water quality
impacts of animal agriculture, and to learn more about management practices that can minimize these
impacts. http://www.ae.iastate.edu/treat.htm
The Manure Menace, from the Atlantic Monthly describes the dangers to be aware of. Observing the
map, you can see that areas, which already have large feedlots, also have a contaminated soil level.
Obviously guidelines and regulation are needed to reduce this contamination.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/05/map.htm
Rachels, is an excellent site for ecological and other research has this article. I encourage you to visit this
site when you have time to familiarize yourself with the wealth of information here. (I ain’t seen it all yet
my own self) This article shows the prescription drugs from man, livestock and poultry which have
entered our drinking water.
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=501&bulletin_ID=48
Wisconsin DNR is NOT in compliance with State and Federal Water Laws
http://www.wsn.org/factoryfarm/DNRlaw.html
Core 4 has some information on clay lined manure storage lagoons. Still in the “testing stage” it does
provide some information on lagoons. Obviously there needs to be some type of monitoring of these
facilities. Who will bear the cost? Could a University be persuaded to do this as a research project?
This site speaks of a 100-cow herd monitored. Now we are talking 700 to 1000 animals.
What problems will this amount of cattle generate?
http://www.ctic.purdue.edu/Core4/Nutrient/ManureMgmt/Paper93.html
Iowa State University has a great deal of information including design, regulation and dangers of
Feedlot Lagoons.
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/immag/
Ohio State University has very useable information here. Guides to determination of land saturation
from phosphorus and nitrates as well as information on feed storage (bunk silos) .
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/b604/
Texas Animal Manure Management Issues This site has loads of information including a
“Frequently Asked Questions” page.
This is a good starter and includes links to information from other researchers.
http://tammi.tamu.edu/
USDA National Animal Manure Management Project. There is a great deal of information here
as well as a downloadable data base with research and documented information.
http://www.reeusda.gov/agsys/adds/livestok/namm.htm
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