FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Citizens File Appeal of Rosendale Dairy Permit

Concerns over DNR’s Failure to Protect Water Quality

April 29, 2009

Contact: Jamie Saul, Midwest Environmental Advocates, (608) 251-5047
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Elaine Swanson, PEPL of Rosendale, (920) 589-6477

MADISON – Members of the grassroots organization People Empowered
Protect the Land

(PEPL) of Rosendale, through their attorneys Midwest Environmental
Advocates and Garvey
McNeil, S.C., filed a Petition yesterday with the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources
(DNR) seeking review of the Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (WPDES)
Permit issued recently to Rosendale Dairy, a new industrial livestock
facility in Fond du Lac
County that plans to become Wisconsin’s largest dairy.

The Petition requests that the DNR review the permit and make changes
necessary to ensure full
compliance with the Clean Water Act and state law for the protection
of the region’s surface and
groundwater. The Petition alleges that DNR failed to comply with legal
requirements to prevent
the degradation of surface waters and to ensure that waters to which
Rosendale Dairy is likely to
discharge pollution will meet applicable standards for acceptable
levels of pollution, known as “water quality standards.” The petition
also asserts that DNR improperly approved Rosendale Dairy’s nutrient
management plan because that plan does not go far enough to identify
underground tile lines that can transport pollution to surface and
groundwater or to prevent the contamination of the area’s shallow
groundwater reserves.

“At the end of a hasty process that ultimately leaves citizens living
a Russian roulette, wondering not if but when pollution will begin,
DNR issued their flawed permit,” said Elaine Swanson, a member of PEPL
who lives on a 50-acre wildlife sanctuary one mile from the CAFO.

“Prevention – not clean-up – is the sane and reasonable approach we
request.”

“The presence of old underground tile lines poses an enormous threat
of carrying manure to our
marshes, wetlands, and private wells,” states PEPL member Timothy
Thiel, a landowner near the
dairy and native to the Rosendale area where he has hunted, fished,
and hiked for decades.

Rosendale Dairy is currently authorized by the DNR to confine
approximately 4,000 head of
cattle at the facility, but plans to expand to more than 8,000 in the
coming year. Eventually the
facility will produce over 90 million gallons of manure and wastewater
annually, more than the
City of Green Bay. Yet Rosendale Dairy has no state-of-the-art
wastewater treatment process;
instead it plans to spread the waste on nearby fields, threatening
waters that are already polluted with nutrients and sediment..

“We urge the DNR to respond to the Petition swiftly and take immediate
action to strengthen
Rosendale Dairy’s permit before the area’s waters become even more
polluted,” said Jamie Saul,
Staff Attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates.

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FAST FACTS

Rosendale Dairy is a new dairy and soon to be Wisconsin’s largest
industrial livestock
facility. Because of its size, it is regulated by the DNR as a
concentrated animal feeding
operation (CAFO) and therefore must hold a discharge permit (WPDES
Permit) issued under
the Federal Clean Water Act and related state law. The dairy is
located on County M
northwest of Rosendale, in Fond du Lac County.

At full capacity, Rosendale Dairy will house 8,300 head of cattle and
generate over 90
million gallons of manure and other waste per year, most of which will
be stored in lagoons
before being spread on local fields where impacts to surface and
groundwater will not be
monitored.

Only the cities of Milwaukee and Madison produce more biological
waste. Large CAFOs like Rosendale Dairy also release harmful air
pollution, disturb wildlife habitat, incubate disease-carrying
pathogens and put small family farms out of business.

Rosendale Dairy’s operations will potentially impact surface and
groundwaters in the Fond
du Lac River, Upper Fox River, Big Green Lake, and Upper Rock River
watersheds. Many of the tributaries in these watersheds are already
polluted with phosphorus and sediment and
are unable to assimilate further pollution discharges likely to result
from Rosendale Dairy’s
operations as allowed by its WPDES Permit.

The Petition for Review filed with the DNR is authorized by state law,
Wis. Stat. § 283.63.
That statute instructs the DNR, upon receipt of a properly filed
Petition, to hold a public
hearing for the review of the issues raised in the Petition. At the
hearing, the Petitioners and
other interested parties may present evidence and arguments concerning
the issues raised,
and the DNR must issue a final decision within 90 days of the
hearing.

People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale is an
organization of concerned
citizens seeking to protect their environment and quality of life from
the impacts of
Rosendale Dairy. PEPL promotes sustainable agricultural practices such
as pasture-based
systems, the principles of which are being taught at the Wisconsin
School for Dairy and
Livestock Farmers at UW-Madison. PEPL urges a legislative moratorium
on large-scale
industrial dairies that have the capacity to cause lasting
environmental harm.

PEPL is represented by Midwest Environmental Advocates, Wisconsin’s
only nonprofit
environmental law center (www.midwestadvocates.org; contact Staff
Attorney Jamie Saul at (608) 251-5047 or
[email protected]) and the public interest law firm Garvey
McNeil (
www.gmmattorneys.com; contact Attorney Peter McKeever at (608)
223-1275 or
[email protected]).