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| 8/23/02 |
The owners of the dairy have agreed to pay $51,250 for damage caused
by their spill. A major portion of the forfeiture will be used to purchase
conservation easements, including vegetative buffers, in the Big Eau Pleine
watershed. The buffers are considered "one of the best ways to control
run-off pollution," says attorney Andrew Hanson of Midwest Environmental
Advocates.
Hanson’s Madison-based public interest law firm was hired by the Wisconsin River Country chapter of the Sierra Club after the winter spill. Using a provision in the federal Clean Water Act that gives citizens the power to sue polluters, the Sierra Club went to court, saying they were going stop Maple Ridge Dairy "from dumping manure into Wisconsin’s rivers and streams."
Local Sierra Club chapter president Richard Wentzel lives where he grew up, about four miles from the Big Eau Pleine River and eight miles from the manure spill. "I feel its time somebody did something," Wentzel says, noting a history of fish kills from pollution in the Big Eau Pleine. Wentzel, who also fishes the river, adds that "water protection is an increasingly important thing."
The DNR’s Terence Kafka says the agency first heard about the spill when an adjacent landowner contacted them. Their subsequent investigation into the Feb. 27 accident revealed multiple violations of Maple Ridge’s animal waste permit with the agency. These include spreading manure on an unapproved farm field, spreading on frozen ground with a slope greater than 9 percent, allowing manure to run-off the intended site, and failure to file the annual manure management report.
Hanson, who visited the site of the spill shortly after it occurred,
took several revealing photos. 
They
show thousands of gallons of manure winding through snow and woods on its
way to the Big Eau Pleine. In some spots, the dark swath ponded into
pools more than a foot deep.
Hanson says it’s "crazy" to spread manure on frozen fields. And he adds: "There is no nutrient value to spreading on snow. Really, this is disposal. Our crop fields are not toilets."
On April 12, six weeks after the spill and with no visible sign that the DNR would be pressing charges, the Sierra Club and Midwest Environmental Advocates announced that they would. The groups filed a "notice of intent" to sue for damages. This procedural act starts the legal clock ticking towards a lawsuit, requiring that it be formerly initiated at the end of 60 days. Federal law allows for fines of up to $27,500 per day for each violation of clean water law.
Weeks later, a cautious DNR was still uncertain about their next move. "This is in the process of potentially being referred to the Department of Justice," Kafka said on May 2.
While the DNR was pondering their enforcement options, the owners of Maple Ridge Dairy were also wondering what to do. Contacted in late May by City Pages, Gary Ruegsegger explained that they were still looking for legal counsel. Asked to discuss how the spill happened, Ruegsegger chuckled and said, "it’s a little complicated." Then, mentioning he had to get back to work, Ruegsegger ended the conversation.
After another phone call, Ruegsegger suggested that Phil Hein was the person to talk to. Hein’s family is in partnership with Ruegsegger. One outside account of the manure spill indicates that Phil and his son Ken had a more direct role in the Feb. 27 debacle. Messages left on the Hein’s answering machine seeking their perspective went unreturned.
The Sierra Club’s lawsuit never made it to trial; instead an out of court damage settlement was reached. The state Department of Justice (DOJ), the Sierra Club and the owners of Maple Ridge Dairy were all party to the agreement.
Hanson is particularly excited by the settlement’s vegetative buffer component. "This is remarkably innovative," he says.
DOJ spokesman Randy Romanski agrees that the settlement’s buffer provision is a "unique environmental project."
The non-profit North Central Conservancy Trust will use the $28,500 to purchase the agricultural buffers along the banks of the Big Eau Pleine. The Marathon County Land Conservation Department, along with the Sierra Club, will help monitor the Trust’s easement activities.
Of the state’s 17,000 livestock operations, less than 150 qualify as factory farms. More specific regulations fall on these operations once they exceed 1000 animal units (one animal unit is considered to be an adult cow). But Hansen says it’s the rapid increase in the state’s largest farms that poses a threat to Wisconsin’s waters.
In western Wisconsin, another factory farm experienced its own massive manure spill this past winter, spoiling a river near Baldwin in St. Croix County. That operation and another factory farm near it have accounted for several spills during the past two years. These violations have yet to result in any fines.
Asked if the state would have prosecuted the Maple Ridge Dairy without the separate filing of a citizens’ lawsuit, Romanski says "that question is best addressed to the DNR."
Hanson says it’s "hard to say" if the state would have acted absent the citizen suit. But he is convinced that the watershed protections for the Big Eau Pleine would never have never have occurred without their involvement.
"Our clients are very happy," adds Hanson. "This is the future of citizen enforcement of environmental law in Wisconsin. This is how it’s going to go."