June, 2004

Protecting Lake Michigan

Midwest Environmental Advocates represented the Sierra Club in an enforcement lawsuit to stop Cintas Corporation, the county's largest industrial laundry, from sending excessive amounts of oil and grease into Lake Michigan.  Cintas is one of five industrial laundries that discharges water directly into the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District system, but is the only industrial laundry that failed to invest in the pretreatment machinery necessary to remove excessive amounts of oil and grease from its wastewater.

SUCCESS!  In response to our lawsuit, Cintas agreed to install the equipment needed to significantly reduce pollution and pay $95,000 in penalties and fees, of which $47,200 will go to two non-profit environmental groups that are working to protect urban water resources in Milwaukee.

To read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on the settlement, click here.

We are working to ensure that livestock factories are held accountable for manure spreading that pollutes nearby lakes and streams and endangers the health of neighboring residents.  In early March of this year, the Treml family's well was contaminated by liquid animal waste spread on a frozen field across the road from their Kewaunee County home.  The entire Treml family, including their 7 month-old daughter, became seriously ill after bacteria associated with animal waste turned up in their drinking water.  A creek that runs by their home was also contaminated.  When faced with this problem, the Tremls turned to Midwest Environmental Advocates for help.  On April 28, 2004, we filed a notice of intent to sue Stahl Farms to remedy the damage that has been done.

To read a Green Bay News-Chronicle article on the lawsuit, click here.

Midwest Environmental Advocates is representing Concerned Farmers and Neighbors of the Town of Hixton, a local citizens' group in Jackson County that has filed a 60 day notice of their intent to sue to stop discharges of animal waste from a livestock factory into a nearby cold-water trout stream and Exceptional Resource Water.  The livestock factory has inadequate storage facilities for its animal waste and spreads the waste almost daily during the winter months.  In late February and early March of this year, DNR records indicated that the livestock factory discharged animal waste from its feedlots and waste spreading fields into a tributary of a nearby trout stream.

Midwest Environmental Advocates is working with Attorney David Bender, a solo environmental practitioner and former Midwest Environmental Advocates law clerk, and Attorney Noah Golden-Krasner, a solo practitioner formerly with the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Joining Community Shares

Midwest Environmental Advocates is a new member of Community Shares of Wisconsin, an umbrella organization that raises funds to support 60 local nonprofit groups that address social, economic and environmental issues through grassroots activities, advocacy, research and public education.  Community Shares of Wisconsin raises funds for its agencies in the fall though an employee payroll deduction campaign.  For more information about Community Shares of Wisconsin, visit their website at www.communityshares.com.

Making it Easier to Give

Join our advocacy community by donating today.  Your donation will be a powerful statement of your commitment to public interest environmental law.  Your act of giving will help make environmental justice a reality in the Midwest.  You can donate by mail here or you can donate online with e.Power. 

Show your support!  The first five people to donate $100 or more this month will receive a Midwest Environmental Advocates t-shirt, as modeled here by our Legal Assistant Felicia Lin and Summer Advocate Jason Flanders.