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What's next
Tuesday: Morrison Town Board, 6 p.m., Town Hall, 3792 Park Road,
Morrison. A ban on winter spreading of manure will be discussed.
Wednesday: Brown County Land Conservation Committee, 6 p.m.,
Agriculture & Extension Center, 1150 Bellevue Drive, Green Bay.
County and state aid for well owners is on the agenda.
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Posted February 19, 2006
DNR looks into spill of manure
Polluted Wayside wells spur talk of ban on spreading
By Paul Brinkmann
pbrinkma@greenbaypressgazette.com
MORRISON
— State authorities confirmed Friday they are investigating a spill of
up to 2,000 gallons of diluted manure Jan. 13 at the Wayside Dairy, 11
days before residents began reporting contaminated wells in the area.
"It
happened on a Friday. The farm did not report it immediately, but they
did follow up with a written report," said Dave Bougie, agriculture
runoff specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Wayside
residents have been living under a boil order since Tuesday because
coliform and E. coli bacteria have contaminated many wells. Brown
County's Land Conservation office sent a letter Friday to Gov. Jim
Doyle asking that a state of emergency be declared in the town. The
goal would be ordering an immediate end to spreading of manure in the
area and getting state funds to help pay residents' expenses for
bottled water and work on drilling new wells.
The
Morrison Town Board held an emergency meeting Thursday to deal with the
growing problem. The board voted to hold a special town meeting and
special Town Board meeting on Tuesday at the Morrison Town Hall, 3792
Park Road, to consider enacting a ban on the spreading of any material
on frozen ground anywhere in Morrison until April 15.
Brown
County health officials said Friday the number of wells contaminated
with bacteria had risen to 20 out of 42 known tests. Bougie said the
manure spill has not been identified as the source of well
contamination, but he continues to investigate a cause.
The
Wayside Dairy has more than 1,000 cows just west of Wayside, an
unincorporated crossroads community about 15 miles south of Green Bay.
Dairy owners Dan and Paul Natzke could not be reached for comment
Friday evening.
Bougie
said he could not comment on whether the dairy would face any penalties
for the spill or for not immediately reporting it.
Bougie
and county officials said the dairy also applied liquid manure to
fields directly behind houses in Wayside as recently as last week.
Wayside
has no treated water system. Bill Hafs, Brown County conservationist,
said some older residential wells are shallow and not cased far below
the surface. He said there are several old wells in the area that were
abandoned and not closed properly.
Hafs said Wayside Dairy is not the only operation that spreads waste material on the town's fields.
"We think wells are going bad because of land-spreading activities," Hafs said.
— Ed Byrne/Wrightstown Post-Gazette
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