TO: Natural Resources Board
FROM: Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers

May 22, 2006

RE: Proposed changes to NR 243—New Manure Discharge Rules for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers (FMR) is a non-profit organization started in 1995, which represents approximately 350 members/families in the Milwaukee River Basin. Our mission is to advocate for water quality and wildlife habitat protection as well as sound land use in the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic River watersheds. FMR is also a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, and the licensed Riverkeeper for Milwaukee. As a Riverkeeper, we help identify sources of pollution in our watersheds, and work jointly with the DNR and others to find solutions to problems affecting our waterways.

The Milwaukee River Basin includes portions of seven counties. Apart from Milwaukee County and a portion of Waukesha County, which are almost entirely urbanized, a large portion of the Milwaukee River Basin in Washington, Ozaukee, Fond du Lac, Dodge, and Sheboygan Counties remains rural and agricultural. As of 2000, 78.8 percent of the Milwaukee River Watershed remained in rural and other open space land uses and 21.2 percent was in urban uses. Although only 4.26 percent of the total area of the watershed was in “unused” and other open space uses and about 16.7 percent was surface water and wetlands (according to SEWRPC, DRAFT Water Quality Management Plan). Thus approximately 42.2 percent of the Milwaukee River Watershed is made up of working rural lands. Runoff from agricultural/rural areas is a significant source of pollution to the Milwaukee River Watershed as well as to Lake Michigan, which provides drinking water to over 1 million people. There are several CAFOs in the Milwaukee River Basin, mostly in Fond du Lac, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, and Washington Counties. These proposed rules regarding manure discharge for CAFOs have the potential to minimize or stop contamination of rural wells, waterways, and fisheries.

FMR is concerned about the potential effects of the proposed changes to NR 243 to our surface waters in the Milwaukee River Basin and Lake Michigan. To protect water quality, NR 243 must include: a six-month minimum manure storage requirement to make sure that manure doesn’t need to be spread on frozen and snow-covered ground; a ban on surface application of liquid manure during the coldest months (e.g. February and March) and when the ground is frozen or snow covered; and more stringent restrictions on when and where manure application can occur if a CAFO does not have six months of storage. In addition, there should be year-round spreading restrictions near surface waters, which include setbacks and vegetated buffers to help slow, filter, and capture pollutants in agricultural runoff. FMR also recommends that the DNR/Natural Resources Board consider changing the 2010 deadline for CAFOs to have 6 months of manure storage to 2008, and likewise restrict surface applications of manure during cold months and frozen conditions by 2008. Waiting until 2010 could continue to put our drinking water, our health, and our waterways at risk. This is important not only in our rural areas but also in our most urban areas. In Milwaukee, a Cryptosporidium outbreak in 1993 killed approximately 100 people and sickened thousands. Although we may never know whether this Cryptosporidium that contaminated our water supply came from agricultural runoff or from sanitary sewer overflows, we need to assure that we minimize all potential sources of exposure of pathogens and viruses entering our water supply from untreated sewage and manure.

Finally, we encourage the DNR and Natural Resources Board to prevent rollbacks in existing environmental protection by maintaining: permit applications for CAFOs; the existing DNR mixed-animal unit calculation (counting all types of animals at a farm or cumulative numbers of animals); public input through individual permits and not general permits; and strong DNR enforcement of manure spills.

Thank you for consideration of these comments.


Sincerely,

Cheryl Nenn

Milwaukee Riverkeeper