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Posted March 10, 2006
Town board passes temporary ban on manure spreading
Ban is in response to polluted wells
By Ed Byrne
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
TOWN
OF MORRISON - The Morrison Town Board on Thursday unanimously approved
an ordinance that bans any spreading of manure or other waste on fields
in the town through April 1.
The
temporary ban is in direct response to 65 wells in the town, especially
in and around the community of Wayside, that have tested positive for
bacterial contamination.
While
the final vote was 3-0, the ordinance was not without opposition, which
surfaced at a public hearing prior to the start of the Town Board
meeting.
"Farmers should be against this," said Roland Klug. "It is harassing farmers, that's all it is."
Klug said the state also is opposed to a town-by-town patchwork of regulations.
Jim Van Groll said that the ban would force farmers to pile up manure.
"It will just go in the ditch and make matters worse," Van Groll said.
Another farmer argued in favor of the ordinance.
"Farmers should be willing to try this for 30 days," said Kevin Collins.
The ordinance calls for fines and possible jail time for violators, but also has exemptions.
Brown
County Land Conservation specialist Paul Lemke, a resident of the town,
said the first option for farmers would be to find a place on their
land where the manure can be stored without getting into streams or the
underground aquifer.
"The
moratorium (on land spreading) is designed to buy us some time until
April 1st, which I don't think is unreasonable," Town Chairman Todd
Christensen said.
Although
he supports the temporary spreading ban, Collins said that abandoned
wells that have not been sealed off are a major problem, along with
home septic systems.
Christensen
said anyone with a pre-1980 septic system should expect a visit from
inspectors from the Brown County Zoning Department, which oversees
private septic systems.
Christensen
also said the Wisconsin Division of Health wants to do a mass sampling
of well water throughout the town, taking up to 300 samples.
Ed Byrne writes for the Wrightstown Post-Gazette.
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