A Tiny Wisconsin Town Tried to Stop Pollution From Factory Farms. Then It Got Sued

This story was initially printed by Grist. You can subscribe to the weekly publication right here.

The small neighborhood of Laketown, Wisconsin, house to simply over 1,000 residents and 18 lakes, is as soon as once more on the heart of a battle over how communities can regulate giant, industrial farms of their backyards.

The metropolis, which is half an hour from the Minnesota border, is the goal of a lawsuit backed by the state’s largest company foyer group, which alleges the town council overstepped its function when it handed an area ordinance to restrict the To forestall air pollution from indoor animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

The lawsuit, filed in October in Polk County Circuit Court, pits native farmers towards the neighborhood, the place choices are made by a single metropolis chairman and two supervisors. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, or WMC, a foyer group that defines itself because the state’s “largest and most influential business association,” represents residents who’re suing the town by way of its litigation heart.

Earlier this 12 months, WMC despatched a letter to the town council saying they’d take authorized motion if the ordinance was not lifted. The lawsuit, despatched in April, argues that the town enacted an ordinance containing numerous illegal provisions beneath state regulation. The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Litigation Center, which beforehand filed lawsuits to reverse state protections towards water air pollution, didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.

“They see this ordinance, if unchallenged, as something that could become the norm across the state,” Adam Voskuil, lawyer for the nonprofit regulation agency Midwest Environmental Advocates, advised Grist. This regulation agency has beforehand expressed help for Laketown’s ordinance, however isn’t representing the neighborhood on this ongoing litigation.

As the agribusiness more and more forces farmers to “get big or get out,” CAFOs have proliferated in Wisconsin and throughout the nation, with growing numbers of livestock residing on CAFO operations lately. The dimension of those farms varies inside a state, however is usually thought-about to be farms with 2,000 or extra hogs, 700 or extra dairy cattle, or over 1,000 beef cattle.

The development of those operations has been linked to public well being issues equivalent to numerous sorts of most cancers, in addition to toddler deaths and miscarriages attributable to water contaminated with farm runoff. On the opposite facet of Wisconsin, residents of Kewaunee County have seen manure pouring out of their taps from one of many state’s largest CAFOs, which final 12 months sued the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource when it was denied a request to almost double its dimension.

When communities try to reply with enforcement motion on the native stage, each trade pursuits and a scarcity of native energy lead communities to get inventive with their responses.

Every state has some type of “right to farm” regulation that stops farms from being focused for nuisances associated to the day-to-day operations of the trade, equivalent to scent, noise, and environmental influence. From then on, every state has some type of regulatory course of outlining how giant farms are allowed to function.

In Iowa, which leads the nation in CAFOs, the state authorities units all regulatory necessities, and native cities and counties are unfortunate when it comes to enforcement, in accordance to John Robbins, planning and zoning administrator for Cerro Gordo County, Iowa . He stated the county as soon as had a restrictive CAFO zoning ordinance on the books, however after a state statute took management, the counties now have “very limited powers.”

When a Missouri pig farm spilled 300,000 gallons of trash into close by waterways final 12 months, two counties tried to regulate CAFOs otherwise than the state authorities. These counties have had to file lawsuits to problem state-level legal guidelines and are actually awaiting trials within the state Supreme Court.

Farther west, Gooding County, Idaho has seen the total sport Wisconsin cities may face. In 2007, the Central Idaho District, named after a well-known state sheep farmer, handed an ordinance that regulates CAFOs within the district strains. A month later, trade teams Idaho Dairymen’s Association and Idaho Cattle Association started a authorized battle with the county that ended two years later, with the state Supreme Court ruling in favor of the county. Gooding County regulation officers didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Wisconsin’s livestock facility zoning regulation usually restricts how native municipalities can halt or sluggish new CAFOs or expansions of present amenities. This regulation is on the heart of arguments towards proposed or handed ordinances by Laketown and different surrounding communities.

Other Wisconsin communities have enacted local-level ordinances to regulate these giant farms. In 2016, northern Bayfield County enacted a CAFO ordinance that imposed a one-time payment and required operators to have extra manure storage amenities. After a big hog farm projected in Polk County a couple of years in the past, estimated to produce over 9 million gallons of manure per 12 months, the county tried a moratorium on CAFOs, however the measure by no means handed.

Since then, a minimum of 5 neighboring cities of Laketown have enacted comparable ordinances.

The Laketown ordinance that prompted the lawsuit is an working ordinance, in contrast to Bayfield’s ordinance, which centered on zoning. Laketown CAFO operators are requested to accumulate a one-time payment of $1 per animal unit and supply detailed plans for stopping soil and air air pollution from their amenities. The ordinance, handed in 2021, says it’s primarily based on Laketown’s dedication to “protect the health, safety and general welfare of the public.”

Along the way in which, trade teams Venture Dairy Cooperative and the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, whose web site has the slogan “Fighting for CAFOs Every Day,” have used WMC to ship threatening letters to cities which have issued ordinances or moratoria.

“This is standard practice for the Big Ag guys,” stated Lisa Doerr, a Laketown resident who has raised horses and farmed hay and alfalfa commercially together with her husband for greater than 20 years.

Doerr has been campaigning towards CAFO on the native stage ever since Polk County discovered of a proposed 26,000-hog farm. Doerr, who labored with the Large Livestock Town Partnership, a multi-city committee that research the environmental influence of CAFOs, stated she was involved that except native motion was taken, the panorama of the town and county would change.

“Our town’s name is Laketown because we have lakes everywhere,” she stated. “We nonetheless have a medium-sized farming neighborhood. We did not let Corporate AG do every little thing.”

In his recent reply letter, Laketown’s attorney said WMC’s reasoning is ineffective because it is based solely on the state zoning statute, while city ordinance governs a facility’s operation and conduct. They also noted that no facility has applied for a permit since the ordinance was passed, meaning the city has not yet enforced any actions that the WMC says are unlawful. Laketown CEO Daniel King declined to comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit.

Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney Voskuil said he was heartened to see Laketown held its ground. “This is without doubt one of the first occasions I’ve seen a metropolis refuse to give in to a few of these letters,” he said.

Further south in Wisconsin, another county is rocked by letters threatening legal action. Crawford County, which borders Iowa, enacted a CAFO moratorium in 2019 but did not renew the moratorium after spending a year on the issue. Forest Jahnke, a coordinator for the Crawford Stewardship Project, said the decision not to extend the moratorium was heavily influenced by a spate of similar threats of litigation and backlash, which had had a “chilling impact” on efforts to move forward.

“The concern of litigation could be very sturdy and deep in our native and county governments,” said Jahnke, who was a member of the committee investigating Crawford County’s CAFO moratorium.

Since the moratorium was lifted, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has given the go-ahead for a Crawford County pig farm that will house 8,000 hogs and is expected to produce 9.4 million gallons of manure per year.