Wisconsin dairy farms produce 13.5% of all the milk the US drinks and 25.4% of all the cheese the US eats. At 2 billion pounds in 2013 alone, Wisconsin is the 4th largest cheese producer in the world – just behind the US (excluding WI), Germany, and France. That makes Wisconsin $43.4 billion in economic activity annually. The dairy industry is huge and powerful, making them hard to govern.
Another major issue in pollutant regulation is the Environmental Protection Agency’s weak ability to regulate non-point source pollution, or contaminated run off. The Clean Water Act of 1972 established the EPA, along with national water quality standards, and regulations on point source pollution – anything dumped directly into US waters. At the time of its legislation the agriculture industry was too powerful to attack.
The question now is; are they still? Or is the fact that agriculture is the number one cause of water pollution in America enough to start making changes?
Dairy and beef farms are notorious for causing water degradation in Green Bay. The Green Bay watershed is the cause of one-third of the nutrients in Lake Michigan, though it only accounts for 1.4% of the lake. Manure carries a lot of phosphorous, which has been measured in the bay at up to 4 times higher than the acceptable levels. Phosphorous is the main cause of algal blooms which deoxygenate the water and block out sunlight for deeper aquatic plants. Manure also carries E. Coli and other harmful bacteria. When a drinking water source, either on the surface or underground becomes contaminated it can become a health emergency. Which is exactly what Scott Dye, a field associate with the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, says Green Bay is experiencing.
Studies have shown that one-third of private drinking wells are contaminated with these bacteria and other harmful nutrients. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has been criticized for not enforcing management plans. They defend themselves by assuring that they are “regulating within the full authority [they] have within the current laws and rules. However, [they] are continuing to work to come to potential suggestions for the Legislature,” DNR Spokesman Bill Cosh.
Some might argue that this could be becoming more
difficult since the Scott Walker budget cuts have eliminated half of the
DNR’s senior science staff at 80 positions and cut conservation spending by $88
million.
But since they can’t legally enforce much, the DNR has placed the
burden on the Green Bay sewerage district. They plan on working with farmers
within the next four years to employ erosion control techniques, wetland
restoration, and larger buffer zones around drainages to filter out manure. They
also want farmers to switch from corn to soil-stabilizing crops like alfalfa,
though corn has a larger yield per acre. These practices should help Green Bay
reach their goal of 0.075 milligrams of phosphorous per liter.
But still the
issue of manure contamination remains. Val Klump, director of the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes WATER Institute, says we should
be holding the agriculture industry accountable for their own clean up – just like
we’ve held the paper companies accountable for the PCBs in Fox River. Those
companies have paid over $1 billion in restoration, and farm run off has caused
much more severe problems than PCBs. But rather than paying their share of the bill, the agriculture industry is letting it fall on the tax payer, and are actually conducting a plan to produce more milk than ever.
Although Wisconsin agriculture is the third largest contributor to US water pollution, no large scale plans have been set in place to counter our impact. In fact, with budget cuts and agricultural expansion, it would seem that our state is headed in the opposite direction. It's possible to work with this complicated mix of politics, education, and economics, but first the agriculture industry needs to take a step down. Either by realizing they're digging their own graves by destroying our nations resources and public health, or by force of new legislature.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/changes-in-americas-dairyland-foul-waters-of-green-bay-b99344904z1-274684891.html
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/2015/06/10/environmental-groups-accuse-wisconsin-dnr-failing-stop-rampant-manure-pollution/71004636/
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/environment/budget-panel-adopts-scott-walker-s-cuts-to-dnr-scientists/article_e27e7ee7-eb0e-5d9f-baaf-0f257d51a5fa.html
http://michiganradio.org/post/green-bay-developing-large-dead-zone#stream/0
Having grown up just north of Green Bay, I've seen the water degradation first hand. I can't remember a time when it was deemed safe to swim in the bay or the major rivers flowing into it. It's obvious to all the community that there are serious water quality issues, although I doubt many people are fully aware of how much of the problem is due to farming. I do know that government officials are currently working to make the waters "swimmable", which would be a huge improvement in the water quality.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to comment on the idea of farmers paying their share of the bill for the problems they've caused. Some people think they should be paying like the paper companies are. I wonder, however, how many people will get behind that. Many of the farms are smaller and family owned. Many of those farmers are facing financial problems already. They are contributing to the problem but paying for it may cause a struggle. I'd be interested to see how communities react to that idea.