Bill creating strict spreading limits sought to protect water supply By Tony Walter • [email protected] Common sense and new legislation will be the best defenses against groundwater problems that have spoiled well water in the past and still threaten Brown County's dwindling cropland, county officials say. Spring's official arrival on Saturday is a reminder that the threat of damage from animal waste runoff is at its peak right now, said Bill Hafs, the county's Land and Water Conservation Department director. "This is the time of year to be really careful" about manure spreading and drinking water, Hafs said. "It's a critical time because of the spring rains and saturated soil." The state Department of Natural Resources issued a similar notice this week. Runoff during the late winter days of February and March in 2006-07 led to the contamination of more than 100 wells in the town of Morrison, prompting the county to pass an ordinance restricting the winter spreading of manure on most lands. Last year, the county received 57 complaints about ordinance violations and issued 30 citations. So far this year, officials have received just a few complaints. But even a violation-free year won't fix what Hafs and his colleagues say is a mounting problem: too much manure, too little cropland and too many holes in the bedrock. That's why they're supporting a bill sponsored by Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, to empower the DNR to set strict spreading limits in Brown and four area counties — Manitowoc, Calumet, Kewaunee and Door — that share the porous limestone feature called karst. "We're not sustainable right now," Hafs said. "We need the karst (bill), and we need new technology." Dairy and beef livestock in Brown County produce more than 551 million gallons of waste every year. Another 41 million gallons of animal byproduct waste also is spread on county fields as fertilizer. Of the 152,000 acres of cropland, approximately 100,000 acres can have manure spread on it because the karst topography includes cracks in the bedrock. It computes to 1.44 acre per cow, below the 1.60 minimum recommended by the University of Wisconsin Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The increase in the number of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which includes farms that have at least 1,000 animals, has kept Brown County's livestock herd totals consistent despite the reduction in the number of farms. There are 15 large operations in Brown County. Hafs acknowledges that the proposed legislation might face opposition. "Who wants to be regulated?" he said. "But this could be the first step toward protection of our water, and farmers will be included," he said. Hansen said he hopes to have a public hearing on the proposed bill this spring. "Some people think we can't afford to do something," he said. "But can we afford not to do something now? It's a real problem." So far this year, no bad wells have been detected in Morrison or any other rural communities. In the meantime, Hafs recommends that well owners test their water regularly, noting that many town of Morrison residents are already using bottled water.
