It’s been an action-packed year is so many aspects of our world – politically of course, “pandemically” and economically. Here a few of the top environmental issues covered on WUWM in 2022.
CAFOS concentrated animal feeding operations
READ DNR may allow one of Wisconsin’s largest dairy farms to get bigger
For many Kinnard farms in Kewaunee County has become the poster child of environmental concerns and sadly farmer versus neighbor.
The Kinnards started with a small 14-cow milking operation in the 1940s. Over time it’s grown to become one of Wisconsin’s largest CAFOs.
They produce a lot of manure that has to be stored and then commonly spread on fields.
The Kinnards wanted to nearly double its herd and that has to be permitted by the Department of Natural Resources.
Kewaunee County where the farm is located is especially problematic because soils are very shallow in some areas the bedrock beneath is fractured. That geology — called karst — makes it easy for pathogens from manure to travel, including into private wells.
One Kewaunee County residents concerned about permitting more cows is Jodi Parins. She lives a few miles from the Kinnard operation and during a January 2022 hearing said her neighbors were already grappling with contaminated wells.
“In 2013, our groundwater was already in crisis mode at a 33% contamination rate,” Parins said.
The DNR subsequently limited Kinnard's permit to roughly its current herd size and ordered groundwater monitoring near fields where manure is spread. Kinnard Farms responded by challenging the DNR's decision. That challenge is now sitting in administrative law court where a settlement is hoped to be reached.
CAFO issues are complex and messy—literally.
The state recently charged a different dairy operator in Kewaunee County for illegally dumping almost 3 million gallons of manure. It was reportedly spread on already saturated fields, sending the excess manure into tributaries that feed into Lake Michigan.
Reducing household waste that lands in landfills
READ Milwaukee no waste, bulk store allows people to “live in line with their ethics”
One concern about the environmental impacts of landfills is their methane emissions.
Milwaukee resident and mom Jenna Meier took on the mission of reducing household waste to drive down materials landing in landfills to heart.
She opened a shop in the Walker’s Point neighborhood where people could buy basics in bulk: from shampoo and cleaning products to flour, oats and tea. Part of Meier’s mission was to carry products created by local makers
“The point of starting this store is that people shouldn’t have to work so hard to live in line with their ethics. It should be easy. We should make it accessible and affordable and easy for people to do that,” Meier said.
Since the story aired on WUWM there have been changes at the Walker’s Point shop.
Meier recently moved on to new projects, but her mission lives on. New owners took over the Walkers Point space and carry lots of bulk products just not food items.
Growing food and kinship
READ
Kinship springs from 40-year-old Milwaukee food pantryFood security is an issue that affects communities around the globe, including ours.
One program created to tackle the issue has operated out of Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood for decades.
Last spring Riverwest Food Pantry became Kinship Community Food Center. It serves more than 13,000 shoppers from across the city.
You have to experience a “shopping day” to appreciate the energy staff and volunteers exude. Everyone shares a meal and then clients choose the food items they’ll take home. Longtime volunteer Ellen Bartel calls the experience transformative.
“From the very beginning I felt that I was treated with more kindness and civility in these walls than I encountered in the broader world. Everyone has something to give and everyone has something to receive and that’s what I’ve found in my own experience here,” Bartel said.
At its foundation, Kinship is about growing relationships, connecting people with rental, energy assistance, training and employment opportunities and more.
The local food side is the produce Kinship grows in 11 large hoop houses 10 miles north of the center.
Cole Compton coordinates workdays mostly staffed by volunteers. Compton says this year their “shoppers” joined in on workdays as well.
“That’s really the main goal, to create an ecosystem of people who benefit from this fresh food and come here and be able to say they have a role in growing it,”Compton said.
Kinship surpassed its harvest goals by 20%, and has extended the growing season, nurturing crops in some of the hoop houses through the winter.
PFAS contamination mounting concern in Wisconsin communities
A huge family of manmade chemicals called PFAS are top of mind for a growing number of people.
Residents in the Town of Peshtigo and neighboring Marinette were first to raise concerns in Wisconsin when a number of their private wells were contaminated by firefighting foam from a facility upstream.
In October the Town of Peshtigo launched a lawsuit against companies the town chair wrote are responsible for “our water, our safety and ultimately our peace of mind.”
That same week, the DNR released an interactive tool that lays out locations throughout the state impacted by the chemicals, which includes Madison, French Island located outside La Crosse and Eau Claire.
Jesse Papez with the DNR explained the tool at a virtual press conference.
“Each orange block shown here with a black center is a different PFAS site. Zooming on a site with the number indicated on the map will reveal multiple sites. You can even enter an address or a layered key word in the upper right corner to get to a location more quickly,” Papez said.
There seem to be a growing number of orange blocks on the Wisconsin map.
This week, DNR staff will be trying to initiate PFAS standards for just a couple of the family of chemicals in groundwater
It has to be OK'ed by the Natural Resources Board. Earlier this year, the Board approved very conservative limits for two of the multitude of PFAS in drinking water as well as surface water—that means rivers and lakes—but voted down groundwater standards.
READ Wisconsin Natural Resources Board says no to regulating PFAS in groundwater
But not without a long debate.
Cindy Boyle pleaded for groundwater standards. She lives in the town of Peshtigo and chairs its town board.
“For four and a half years, I have been fighting every single day to set PFOA and PFOS standards. We are all on drinking wells in the town of Peshtigo — 4,000 people. One third of our parcels are impacted. [PFAS] continue to migrate. If we don’t have state standards, there is nothing we can do,” Boyle said.
One Natural Resources Board member seems to be at the center of controversy, including on the PFAS issue.
That’s Fred Prehn of Wausau. Former Gov. Scot Walker put him on the Board during his administration. And although Prehn’s term has ended, and Gov. Evers designee is waiting in the wings, Prehn has refused to step down.
During the PFAS groundwater standards deliberations, Prehn had this to say. He was reacting to the mayor of his own community of Wausau after she implored the Board to act.
“You want an instant fix that’s been around for generations at least my generation, and there will be fixes in place. But the fact that you put the Town of Wausau in hysteria is unacceptable to me. I hope the people of Wausau understand that’s being dealt with in a systemic, thoughtful, legal way,” Prehn said.
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