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Posted December 5, 2005
Farmer offers reward for manure vandals
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND
— A Manitowoc County farmer is offering a $15,000 reward to nab vandals
he says spread liquid manure over his property, the latest chapter in a
saga that has pitted neighbors against the state's fifth-largest dairy
farmer.
Tod
Leiteritz, 55, says vandals opened a valve of a holding structure and
sent thousands of gallons of liquid manure cascading over his property
Oct. 12.
Leiteritz's
Maple Leaf Dairy, which has 3,500 cattle on almost 5,000 acres and
employs 50 people, has been the target of criticism in the past.
Neighbors have blamed his farm for emitting sickening odors and damaging the local watershed, which feeds into Lake Michigan.
The
neighbors group, called Centerville Cares, has filed suit in Manitowoc
County contesting the operating permit of the farm, arguing that the
Department of Natural Resources never has fully analyzed the farm's
pollution impact.
His
opponents have blamed the farm for a Sept. 9 fish kill that claimed
about 2,000 forage fish and 100 game fish in Fischer Creek. They also
suspect the farm was responsible for an Oct. 13 runoff of manure from a
drain tile that runs through Maple Leaf Dairy and into the creek.
Leiteritz said his success has been tarnished by harassment from environmentalists and their lawyers.
"I think it's unjust, to say the least," Leiteritz said. "We're just like anyone else — we're trying to make a living."
Todd
Palmer of Madison, the attorney for Leiteritz, has contacted the FBI
office in Green Bay because he said the vandalism smacks of
"ecoterrorism" and that federal laws may have been violated. The farm
also has complained of other acts of vandalism, but does not link it to
opposition from Centerville Cares.
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