Russ Tooley transfers data to his computer from the manure sniffer while testing water samples from Point Creek in Cleveland. Tooley is president of Centerville CARES, a conservation group that lobbies for more stringent rules and enforcement on farms to prevent manure spills. Jaslyn Gilbert/Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

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Conservation group hopes to develop cheaper model

By Kristopher Wenn
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers May 30, 2006

MANITOWOC — Russ Tooley and his friends can rest a little easier knowing they have something watching for manure spills in Manitowoc County waterways all day, every day.

Tooley, a Cleveland resident, is president of Centerville CARES, a local conservation group that lobbies for more stringent rules and enforcement on county farms to prevent manure spills.

Last fall, Tooley and his fellow conservationists built a water-quality sensing device they call a manure sniffer. They hope it will allow them to keep track of manure spills into Point Creek that might otherwise go unnoticed.

He lives about 1½ miles from Maple Leaf Dairy, one of two dairy farms referred earlier this year to the Wisconsin Department of Justice for alleged manure spills into county creeks.

"It's very comforting knowing that someone — something — is monitoring the water," Tooley said. "When (the machine) is not calling us I can have some confidence that the water is just water, instead of it being liquid manure."

The manure sniffer contains a sensor placed inside a piece of PVC pipe, which hangs from a crane made from PVC piping that is driven into the ground alongside Point Creek. The sensor is connected to a computer and a cell phone, which are powered by a motorcycle battery.

The sensor collects data every 15 minutes, with information on water temperature, conductivity and dissolved oxygen levels at Point Creek stored in a computer.

A team tests the water twice a week for indications of manure.

Manure reduces the water's level of dissolved oxygen, causing fish and other aquatic life to die. A waterway's conductivity level increases when manure or urine enters, due to the waste's high salt content.

If conductivity rises dramatically or if dissolved oxygen lowers to a certain point, it can indicate a manure spill. The sniffer sends a text message to Tooley's cell phone.

Tooley does not claim a sniffer reading proves manure is in the water. It will, however, indicate that something in the water has changed and bears investigating. He says the method is similar to what state Department of Natural Resources wardens use to flag potential water quality issues.

"If it calls us on a cell phone, we can come out and look," he said. "If it smells like manure and there are dead fish around, then we'll call the DNR and they can make a determination."

The manure sniffer costs $5,000 and you won't find it on store shelves. Tooley and his friends hope to develop less expensive systems for conservation groups to use throughout the state.

CARES members said they want to build a simpler version of the manure sniffer that would cost under $1,000. A $100 model that would store only water conductivity data is also being considered.

Once devices like the manure sniffer become affordable, the group plans to lobby for rules requiring some farmers to have water quality detectors on the end of all drain tiles coming out from under farm fields.

Garth Hammond of CARES said farmers might be more careful in applying manure knowing that the sniffer is about. Members said they spent four years developing the device. Over that time they found elevated levels of E. coli bacteria and other agents blamed for local well contamination, fish kills and Lake Michigan beach closings, they say.

The group tests water samples at Point and Fischer Creeks for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Donna Hammond said the manure sniffer gives a more credible alarm about a potential spill than merely relying on visual observations.

"The whole idea is that wells got contaminated and that's a concern," Hammond said. "If you can see it coming rather than waiting for someone to get ill, then you won't say, 'Oh, this is where it came from.' We were trying to be proactive rather than reactive."

The Brico Fund, a Milwaukee-based philanthropic organization, provided a grant for the manure sniffer and the group's E. coli bacteria sampling, Tooley said.