Reports of contaminated ground and surface waters escalate

Ground and surface water contamination problems continue to escalate in Kewaunee County, Groundwater Task Force members learned at their meeting Wednesday.

In a report by Kewaunee County Public Health Director Cindy Kinnard, the task force was told that of 108 wells tested within a half-mile radius of 11 wells that were found to be contaminated with salmonella and rotavirus last month, an additional six wells were found to be contaminated with coliform bacteria and one well was contaminated with E. coli.

Finding the well contaminated with E. coli then required that the Public Health Department send out 68 more letters to residents with private wells within a half-mile of that well, Kinnard said.

In addition, Davina Bonness, county conservationist, told the task force that the 108 well owners who requested tests, including two Casco schools, did not have their wells tested for presence of salmonella and rotavirus.   They were only tested for coliform bacteria and E. coli, which were less expensive tests, she said.

Bonness said that the decision about what tests to use for the wells was made by the state Department of Natural Resources.

"We did not specifically say what what kinds of tests," James R. Dick, a spokesperson for the DNR, said after the meeting.  "When you do standard well tests, E. coli can be an indicator that there could be something else in the well."

He said that the DNR was not aware that two of the property owners that received letters recommending testing were schools.

"All of this news has to be affecting the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)," said Dick Swanson, task force member.  "They must be thinking what can we do to help these people."

Citizens groups petitioned the EPA to come to Kewaunee County in 2015 because of groundwater pollution.  Since then, the EPA has asked the DNR to take the lead in finding solutions.

Lee Luft said that some residents who received letters had elected to test their wells privately rather than deal with government agencies.

Bonness said another round of voluntary testing of 137 wells throughout the county was sent to Stevens Point this week and preliminary results should be ready by Friday.

The results of DNR work group meetings that provided recommendations to address groundwater contamination caused by manure spreading and other pollution sources, will be presented to the County Board at its June 21 meeting, said Lee Luft, task force chairman.

In addition, the EPA and DNR are holding a public meeting at 6 p.m. June 23 at the Kewaunee County Expo Center in Luxemburg to obtain public input into the recommendations.   The DNR work group recommendations cover short-term solutions to obtain clean water for citizens living with unsafe wells, best management practices for agriculture, and compliance and enforcement issues.

Task force member Andy Wallander said it was important that these recommendations and best management practices not be voluntary.

"We have been using voluntary regulations since 1972 and they have not served us well," he said.  "We are misleading the public by saying that all of this will be enforced."

Audit

The Groundwater Task Force also discussed a recently released Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau report that found the DNR was not enforcing its own policies for regulating concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which are blamed for much of the ground and surface water pollution in Kewaunee County.

The report said that only 36 of the approximately 1,900 reports required to be submitted by CAFO permittees had been electronically recorded as being received.

The report also said that before the DNR reissues a CAFO permit, it is required by statute to determine that the CAFO is in substantial compliance with existing regulations.  However, between 2006 and 2014, the DNR did not ensure compliance for 17 CAFO permittees.

The extent to which DNR took at least one enforcement action for CAFO permits varied among its five regions and ranged form 17.6 percent to 56.8 percent for CAFO permittees, the report said.

Three pages of the Legislative Report Summary were dedicated to issues in Kewaunee County.

"The audit is cause for alarm," Luft said.

County Supervisor Mary Ellen Dobbins said that in spite of many DNR statements that the county would receive a warden or enforcement specialist, the county still does not have either.

"We have been waiting for this person for years and years," she said.

The groundwater task force also gave unanimous approval for Luft to write a resolution to ask to have  a new DNR study completed of the East Twin River and unnamed tributary near the Agropur plant.

"There has been a 250 percent increase in chloride discharges from the plant," said Luft, noting that the DNR had approved this increase when it recently reissued its permit to allow Agropur to discharge into the tributary.

Phoenix

Luft also told the task force that news on Project Phoenix, which was being funded by a Wisconsin Public Service Commission grant, was "not good."

The project study, which was being completed by Roach and Associates, to determine if manure from three CAFOs in the county could be brought to a central location for treatment and use of methane gas, had been ruled "unacceptable" by the commission at a recent meeting, Luft said..

The county had now hired a new firm, Dynamics Inc. to complete the study by the July deadline, but Roach has billed the county $25,000 for its work, Luft said.

"This was not supposed to cost the county anything," said Luft, noting that it was former County Chairman Ron Heuer and Supervisor John Pagel who had recommended Roach and Associates.  He said that the bill was referred to the Finance Committee.

West Kewaunee resident Sue Wieser told the task force that since the DNR had told county residents it was going to find solutions to the county's ground and surface water pollution problems last August, it had approved Agropur's permit to discharge more chloride into the river, approved an additional CAFO permit, approved the county's first manure spraying permit, acknowledged that all three rivers in the county were on the EPAs impaired list, and announced that wells are now contaminated with salmonella and rotavirus.

"It's the same old, same old," she said.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Reports of contaminated ground and surface waters escalate