June 3, 2003 Stopping a 5,000 Head Feedlot of Beef Cattle Together with Garvey & Stoddard, SC, MEA helped a local group successfully thwart another recent attempt by agribusiness to site a 5,000 head beef feedlot in a largely residential area with fragile geology and already existing groundwater contamination. The local group, Citizens for Responsible Agriculture and a Clean Environment, is composed of people who live in Manitowoc County and believe that agriculture can be conducted in a way that does not pollute air and water, reduce property values of neighbors, and change the rural way of life of the area. On May 23, 2003, the Manitowoc County Circuit Court upheld Manitowoc County’s decision to deny a conditional use permit for Dvorak Beef Farms’ 5,000 head feedlot. The feedlot would supply slaughter cattle to Smithfield Foods, one of the nation’s largest meat packers (with one of the worst environmental records). In court, Dvorak Beef Farms, LLC attempted to rely on a state statute that limits local water quality regulation (Wis. Stat. s. 92.15). The court ruled that the statute does not apply to conditional use permits, and that the County properly denied the conditional use permit for the feedlot. http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/news/archive/local_10521020.shtml Preventing Pollution from Badger Army Ammunition Plant On May 5, 2003, MEA and the Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger filed a second set of public comments with the DNR identifying another technical error the DNR made when calculating air pollution from the proposed open burning of buildings at the Badger Ammunition Plant in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Example of Open Burning in Jolliet City, Illinois. Source: www.plexsci.com In response to our first comments, the DNR admitted that we had identified an error in their model. They corrected the error and introduced a new one, which our expert again identified. Once the new error was removed and the proper heat content of wood and plume height were used, our expert showed that open burning at Badger will generate Particulate Matter (PM10) concentrations that are 2.7 times above the 24-hr National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM10. These are the national standards that are set to protect public health. Cleaning Up Wisconsin’s Polluted Waters MEA represented several environmental organizations, including the River Alliance, Clean Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade), Mississippi River Revival, Sierra Club, and WISPIRG in their efforts to ensure that Wisconsin has an adequate plan for identifying and cleaning up Wisconsin’s polluted waters. The federal Clean Water Act requires the clean up plan, called the 303(d) list. MEA submitted written comments that convinced the DNR and the EPA to add 20 more rivers to Wisconsin’s list of almost 600 polluted waters. At EPA’s request, the DNR included an additional 43 polluted waters. MEA and other groups also convinced the EPA to require the DNR to use more detailed methods for identifying polluted waters for clean-up. The EPA suggested that the DNR should make more effort to involve the public in identifying those waters. Slowing the Toxic Tide MEA commented on a clean air permit for Marshfield Door, Inc., Wisconsin’s second largest emitter of carcinogenic air pollutants. MEA objected to the DNR’s withholding of emissions information because it denied the public full access to information about what the facility is putting into the air we breathe. This is information that the public has a legal right to know. MEA also objected to the DNR’s decision to grant a variance from emission limits for VOCs to Marshfield Door, and questioned whether the DNR properly estimated the potential toxic emissions from the facility. Fighting for Compensation on the Fox River In May of 2003, Federal District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin would not be allowed to intervene to increase the final PCB damage compensation settlement between the state, federal and tribal governments, and Georgia-Pacific Corporation. Clean Water Action Council had argued that citizen interests were not being adequately represented by the state and federal government, because the $10.96 million dollar settlement was much lower than the Corporation’s projected $75 million share of the total $333 million damage assessment. That damage assessment was determined by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service two years ago after approximately eight years of study on the Fox River and Green Bay. This is a minor setback for the group. The ruling did not uphold the settlement; it merely held that Clean Water Action Council will not be a party to the litigation. The judge could still determine, after careful review of all the facts, that the settlement does not fairly compensate the public. Clean Water Action Council, through its attorneys at Midwest Environmental Advocates and the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll, is filing an Amicus (Friend of the Court) Brief explaining its concerns about the proposed settlement. Lobbying for our Shared Resources There have been multiple legislative attacks on our air and water resources in the past months. MEA has weighed in to provide a voice for our shared resources on a number of harmful initiatives, including a host of budget items, so called “regulatory reforms” and Green Tier, all of which may weaken protections for human health and the environment. To read MEA’s editorial on regulatory reform, click on http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/guest/49156.php.  MEA is supporting anti-SLAPP legislation that would protect First Amendment rights of people to speak out about pollution. MEA Welcomes Summer Advocates Lance Franke (University of Wisconsin Law School) and Nicole Livolsi (College of Law, University of Denver) joined MEA as Summer Advocates for Summer 2003.