Posted November 22, 2005
Farm settlement agreed to
A
Luxemburg family sickened by manure in their well have agreed to drop
lawsuits against a neighboring 900-cow dairy farm in exchange for a
settlement worth $380,000.
Scott
and Judy Treml agreed to the settlement with Stahl Farms with the
blessing of Midwest Environmental Advocates, the Madison-based
organization that represented them in court. The group filed Tuesday
for a consent decree to confirm the settlement in Kewaunee County
Circuit Court.
Andrew
Hanson, attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, said the
settlement shows the Tremls were right. But he said the case also shows
that the state should adopt a recent proposal to limit the spreading of
manure in wintertime.
“This
kind of thing happens all the time in Wisconsin. The amazing thing
about the Tremls is, they refused to ignore it. They knew this wasn’t
right and they stood up and said so,” Hanson said.
The
Tremls agreed to drop state and federal lawsuits against Stahl. In
exchange, Stahl will pay $80,000 to Scott and Judy Treml, $100,000 to
the state in civil fines for violating a state permit, and make
$200,000 in drainage improvements and manure storage on his farm.
In
June of 2004, the Tremls filed a federal lawsuit against Stahl Farms,
alleging in part that Stahl had spread 84,000 gallons of liquid manure
in late spring of 2004 on a field across the road from their farmhouse.
Liquid manure and snow-melt seeped into their well and ran off into a
tributary of nearby School Creek. Every member of the Treml family,
including then seven-month-old infant, Samantha, became seriously ill
from exposure to contaminated water.
“This
case shows how my family, my children, and every other rural Wisconsin
family is threatened by manure spreading on frozen and snow-covered
ground,” said Scott Treml.
“This
isn’t just about protecting trout streams. This is about keeping kids
out of hospitals, including my daughter. The practice should be banned
– period.”
Treml
said the DNR and agribusiness groups shouldn’t wait “until a child is
killed by e.coli poisoning to ban manure spreading on frozen ground by
livestock factories.”
— Paul Brinkman/Press-Gazette
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