Water and Manure make a Nasty drink

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

2. 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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