CAFO 2016 manure spill settled despite unsettling state trend

COUIRTESY PHOTO Independent Register
A photo from 2017 on-site inspection of Emerald Sky Dairy’s 2016 manure spill shows the stub end of a yardstick, almost fully submerged in a portion of the spill that totaled an estimated 275,000 gallons. The manure from a cracked transfer pipe sat unreported more than 3 months in a ditch, wetlands and pond at the 1600-cow dairy operation.

By Tony Ends, Correspondent –

Picture for a moment what you love about the land we call Wisconsin.

Plunging into a cool, clear pond after a long, hot day putting up hay. Wading into a marsh and casting for bass or bluegill as cranes wing noiselessly across a setting sun. Feel and fragrance of rich, silt loam on your hands as you work, weeding down rows of tender plants in dawn’s silence.

Natural lands – meadows, wetlands, forests – where every creature, from bugs to badgers, links a chain of life to human beings. Farmland and countryside, prairie and bison made for you and me.

Now visualize all that beauty – submerged, unreported on one farm more than 3 months – beneath 275,000 gallons of spilled liquid manure from a cracked pipe.

Pick up the July 17th print edition for full story….