Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells

[swag]

Source: New York Times

MORRISON, Wis. — All it took was an early thaw for the drinking water here to become unsafe.

There are 41,000 dairy cows in Brown County, which includes Morrison, and they produce more than 260 million gallons of manure each year, much of which is spread on nearby grain fields. Other farmers receive fees to cover their land with slaughterhouse waste and treated sewage.

. . .

In Morrison, more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within a few months, according to local officials. As parasites and bacteria seeped into drinking water, residents suffered from chronic diarrhea, stomach illnesses and severe ear infections.

“Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet,” said Lisa Barnard, who lives a few towns over, and just 15 miles from the city of Green Bay.

Tests of her water showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure. Last year, her 5-year-old son developed ear infections that eventually required an operation. Her doctor told her they were most likely caused by bathing in polluted water, she said.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18dairy.html?hp

[midnight]

1. Sounds like a foreign country, and not the state I live in.

[earcandle]

2. Man, that is bad. Yuk.... I would move out of there.

[saigon68]

3. The MOTHER FUCKERS who own these Farms

Hire LOTS of Illegal Mexican Aliens to do the MILKING.

They call them "Milking Technicians" Many of these factories have 3000 to 4000 Cows. The "stench" reeks for miles

Under BUSH these corporate criminals were totally ignored by ICE. The workers are paid cash (off the Books) The repuke local establishment (the DA, sheriff, and county exec) which runs the county does nothing about the pollution, the hiring of illegals or corporate criminals with their in your face attitude.

The people around here voted out the 2 biggest Political Criminals a couple of years ago

Gard again just last fall.

[badgervan]

4. I've Been....

... writing letters to lawmakers for years about this. Common sense tells you that only so much cow shit and piss can be absorbed by the soil before it seeps into the groundwater, then our drinking water. Nothing gets done... surprise, I know. Money trumps health in Brown County. It is worse in Spring, as all that frozen waste that has been accumulating on top of the frozen ground and snow melts and goes into the soil all at once.
I've seen stories on tv showing actual brown water coming out of the taps and showers of people, yet nothing gets done. Gotta love that unregulated capitalism, right repubs? Allowing these huge CAFO's with thousands of animals in one constricted area is insane, and it has also killed off many family farms. Pigs and chickens are also being "raised" this way in our modern agricultural system. I predict nothing gets done until we have a major health catastrophe.

[saigon68]

8. One Cow = 15 people for waste

41,000 cows = 615,000 people

Imagine a city of 615,000 people pissing and shitting , with no sewage treatment 24/7/365 on a few square miles.

When these corporate criminals pump and spread the waste from their slurry pools, the stench travels for miles

Its indescribable.

[karynnj]

11. In many cases the laws already exist banning this, but are not enforced

This was one the environmental issues that This Moment on Earth, John and Teresa Kerry's book wrote about. Their book covered the stories of many people who fought to stop things like this - which they found were NEVER legal. They had a book tour where they spoke of these things.

It may well be that these operations here are already outlawed by the clean water act or other environmental laws.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

5. There's nothing like bicycling in the rural areas around here.

It's really a blast when all the manure tankers are operating in the area. It actually makes the paper mill a few miles away seem like a perfumed delight.
Luckily, there are are still a lot of family owned farms here but there's still a lot of waste going directly into the ground and waterways.
The link is for one experimental project in this area that will hopefully work as planned.


http://www.paenvironmentdigest.com/newsletter/default.asp?NewsletterArticleID=1627&SubjectID=131

[boomerbust]

6. I lived in rural

Sheboygan County for 10 years and in the spring it was like driving through a sewer with all the liquid manuer machines on the road. You could not open your windows at least until the corn was planted.

[Submariner]

7. Those poor people are F*CKED

Based on the groundwater cleanup technology available today, it could possibly take 10's if not 100's of millions of dollars to pump and treat and disinfect the aquifer(s) affected.

[Tim01]

9. Corporate farms are the only way to feed city people.

And city people make most of the laws.

[SpiralHawk]

10. Oh no it ain't.

There are CSAs and urban farms and a whole host of alternatives. People just need to engage them, and to stop feeding their money to the corporate-republicon-ag borg. If that money went to clean, sustainable alternatives -- of which there are dozens of existing, prospering models -- the pollution and crap dealing corporate farms would wither (as they should).

Hog farm with 'lagoon' (pool massively cramed with toxic crap)

[Tim01]

12. Preaching to the chior.

But people in the high population density areas (voters) like every thing scrubbed down with disinfectant and covered in plastic. Vegetables grown with nice clean peletized fertilizer, and sprayed to keep all the creepy bugs off the food they are going to eat. And animals kept in concrete enclosures instead of on dirty dirt and messy grass. And steroids, vaccines, and the most scientifically advanced animal strains available.
You can live in the country. But you can't get average city people to understand what is going on.
Edited to add, it all must be cheap. Quantity over quality. A shiny car is more important than quality food.

We just had a go round with a city lady who moved out here and said that the lot next to her should be mowed down because it had mice and disease. That's right, it's a hay field.

[Pharlo]

13. Oh jeez,

nothing worse than city people who have just moved to the country and haven't a friggen clue. They complain about noise, dust, pollen. It's like, if it's a problem for you, go back to the city. Farmers have a finite amount of time to get things harvested. If the hay is cut and there is going to be rain tomorrow, yes, they WILL stay out until 11:00 pm mowing/baling. If the canning factory needs the peas NOW, yes, you MAY be next to the field that is going to be harvested from 2 am to 6 am. And, yes, it does stink when the farmer spreads manure on the fields.

(I'm talking normal fertilizer, not the trucked in human waste. LOL Nothing makes me laugh as much as the 'new rural resident' who thinks the spring fertilizer assault is bad. The human waste in the fall is worse. But, at least now they have to inject it, not spread it on fields like they used to. OMG!! THAT was BAD!!!)

So, I can sympathize with you about that rural neophyte. And, if my rant seems a bit extreme, well, needless to say, you hit a sensitive issue with me..... :hi:

[dembotoz]

14. just say it slows down the Packers pass rush and they will stop it in a week