Looking out the windows of her lakefront home
in the Town of Cleveland, Carol Koffarnus is disgusted by what
she sees.
“Twenty-five feet of algae,” she said. “Two or 3 feet
deep.”
Koffarnus expressed her concerns about pollution washing up
along the shores of Lake Michigan in southern Manitowoc County
at a meeting Wednesday night held by Centerville Citizens for
Air, River and Environmental Solutions.
“We spent all this money to build this house and to retire
on the lake and now we are unable to use the lake,” said
Koffarnus, who is in her 60s. “You can’t even walk on the
beach now because of the situation.”
As Centerville CARES sees it, the situation has been
brought about by what it says are the poor sewer management
practices of a neighbor — Maple Leaf Dairy Inc., a large dairy
farm located about 1˝ miles west of the lake on Highway X.
The group, which is made up and funded by about 100 local
residents, has filed a notice of its intent to sue Maple Leaf
Dairy.
“The stink, it finally got to be too much,” said Russ
Tooley, 60, who is president of CARES and lives about 2˝ miles
east of the farm. “When Maple Leaf Dairy proposed doubling,
that just got everyone in the community interested enough to
form a group.”
Tooley said Maple Leaf Dairy has not yet responded to the
notice, which gives the dairy 60 days’ notice before the group
files a lawsuit. But Tooley said the issue can be resolved
without further legal intervention if the farm agrees to
decrease its cattle population and “not pollute.”
“They’ve proven that they can’t manage what they’ve got,”
Tooley said. “I don’t gag when I drive by the other farms, but
I gag when I drive by that one.”
He added that the stench emanating from the farm’s manure
has not been as strong this spring, though he worried it would
worsen as the temperature rises.
Tod Leiteritz, who owns and operates Maple Leaf Dairy, did
not return calls seeking comment Wednesday night.
According to a press release written by CARES and its legal
representative, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Maple Leaf
Dairy houses nearly 3,800 cows and “produces over 24 million
gallons of liquid animal waste annually, enough to fill about
30 Olympic-sized pools.”
This is what CARES cites as the main contributor to the
high levels of E. coli and phosphorus found in samples the
group has been collecting from the Fischer and Point creeks in
southern Manitowoc County, which drain into Lake Michigan.
Recent tests showed 41,000 E. coli bacteria per 100
milliliters of water from Fischer Creek, according to CARES.
It takes 1,000 colonies of E. coli per 100 ml for the
Department of Natural Resources to close a beach.
John Masterson, a water quality biologist for the DNR, said
he did not want to speculate on the cause of pollution in the
area.
“It could be one thing or it could be multiple causes,”
Masterson said. “It certainly could be more than one thing.”
Reach Roberta
Pennington at rpenning@sheboygan.gannett.com or 453-5137.
