Owners of Rosendale Dairy met with a temporary roadblock Wednesday in their plan to operate the largest dairy in the state.

A variance request to install holding tanks on the property as a human wastewater treatment system was denied Wednesday during an unusually well-attended meeting of the Fond du Lac County Sanitation, Shoreland & Floodplain Zoning Board of Adjustment.

"The board denied a variance because the applicant did not prove any unnecessary hardship," said county Code Enforcement Officer Ernst "Spike" Clarenbach.

A county ordinance regulating on-site wastewater treatment systems prohibits holding tanks, except in vary rare instances, Clarenbach said.

Rosendale Dairy co-owner Jim Ostrom said the business will now move ahead with installing a mound system on the property. The holding tanks would have served three employee restrooms located in the barn of the new dairy operation, located at N8997 County Trunk M in the town of Rosendale.

Mound system

"We've been preparing to install a mound system for a very long time, but we were just looking for a more practical system," Ostrom said. "Apparently, the board wasn't particularly interested in practicality."

A statement to the board from concerned citizens group PEPL (People Empowered to Protect the Land) maintains that Rosendale Dairy should have applied for a sanitary permit before initiating construction of the farm.

"They had notice that they were moving too quickly: they initiated construction before they had the required DNR approvals … and DNR cited them for it. On August 26, the DNR ordered the applicant to immediately cease construction because the proper approvals had not been received," the PEPL letter states.

Ann Lindstrom, who owns property on Olden Road that abuts the 100-acre Rosendale Dairy parcel, said she was disappointed the board even allowed for installation of temporary holding tanks until the mound system is completed. She was among the 35 people who attended the hour-long meeting.

"After the Rosendale town chairman pointed out that a port-a-potty is too cold in December, basically it became business as usual for Rosendale Dairy," she said.

Jamie Saul, a staff attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, a pro-bono legal counsel for PEPL, said the dairy's request was a classic example of "self-imposed hardship," and it should be held to the same county ordinances as other farms, businesses and homes in the area.

"The dairy failed to plan carefully, and for other reasons of its own making, the dairy compacted the ground around the site so that it may not be able to install underground storage tanks," he said.

Eric Godfrey of Ripon submitted a letter to the Board of Adjustment opposing the variance.

He wrote: "We would be very concerned if any person or organization would ask to be exempted from these rules governing water treatment and quality."

Documentation

The proposed 8,300-cow dairy operation met with another hurdle last month when the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources decided to require additional environmental documentation.

The decision came as the Rosendale Dairy partners were expecting to receive notice of a draft permit needed to complete the facility based on the operation's already extensive environmental research and assessment filings with the agency.

Todd Ambes, administrator of the DNR Water Division, said the first environmental assessment report addressed the impact of a 4,000-head operation. However, when reviewing citizen comments, DNR officials were made aware of the dairy's goal to double animal numbers in the second phase of the project.

Clarenbach said the county is not at all fond of holding tank systems and considers them a last resort. In the case of Rosendale Dairy, it was just easier for them to use holding tanks than put in a mound system.

"All the soil around the construction area has been disturbed, so they will have to locate the system either across Highway M or on the southern portion of their property," Clarenbach said.

Ostrom said the county ordinance that dates back to 1985 was not designed to contemplate a contemporary facility of Rosendale Dairy's size and scale.

"We were trying to take the more logical option of water disposal, and it would have made sense for this facility," Ostrom said.

"And if the public is opposed to these tanks, they are opposed on principle, not on reason."