Hello and happy Friday!
Wisconsin is renowned internationally for its dairy products and culture — there are even parts of the state where cows outnumber people. But with an amply supply of livestock comes an ample supply of manure. Yes, today we are talking about CAFOs and how they are (and aren’t) regulated.
The number of CAFOs in the state — 90% of which are dairy cow operations — has risen every year since 2005. Like all farms, CAFOs are not permitted to release manure directly into streams or lakes and instead must find other ways to dispose of it. Some use biodigesters to create new energy, but most end up using the manure as fertilizer.
CAFOs are supposed to meet different requirements for state permitting purposes, however. WisContext associate editor Will Cushman recently took a deep dive into CAFO regulation and found that the state struggles to keep up with the growing number of these operations. This week, I talked to Will about his reporting and the system of CAFO regulation in Wisconsin. Check it out below.
Hayley: First and foremost, what is a CAFO?
Will: CAFO stands for concentrated animal feeding operation, which is just a technical term for a livestock farm with a lot of animals. In Wisconsin, CAFOs are farms with 1,000 or more “animal units,” which is equal to roughly 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows or 125,000 broiler chickens. About 90% of Wisconsin’s CAFOs are dairy farms.
Is there any particular part of the state that have a high concentration of CAFOs?
Yes, CAFOs tend to be concentrated in the same regions where general livestock operations are concentrated, though not always. There are a lot of dairy CAFOs in northeast Wisconsin, in Brown and Kewaunee counties, as well as the state’s southwestern counties. On the other hand, there are a number of poultry CAFOs in the northwest, centered around a turkey processing plant in Barron.
Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Public Television
Who is tasked with CAFO regulation and how is this regulation enforced?
Because CAFOs produce a ton of manure every day, they pose a risk to the state’s surface and groundwaters that needs to be managed. Therefore, CAFO regulation is centered on the federal Clean Water Act of 1972, and the feds have delegated enforcement to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The DNR reviews permit applications for CAFOs that focus on making sure the farm’s facilities and operations adhere to guidelines for reducing the risk of manure polluting water. DNR staff also conduct site visits and respond to complaints or issues with noncompliance. There are 14 DNR field staff who each are responsible for overseeing permitting and enforcement actions in a specific region within the state.
The DNR’s work with CAFO regulation, as covered in your story, hasn't always been up to required standards. How are they addressing that problem and has the Legislature acted on this issue at all?
Yep, a 2016 audit found that the DNR was really far behind in a few areas of CAFO regulation. First, due to a permitting backlog, more than a third of CAFOs were operating (legally) under expired permits in 2016. CAFO permits need to be renewed every five years, though the DNR allows CAFOs to operate under expired permits due to the backlog.
The 2016 audit also found that the DNR was not keeping up with reviewing compliance records, which CAFOs fill out themselves and send to the DNR for review. In 2019, more staff and a more efficient permitting process has helped the DNR somewhat: Fewer than 25% of CAFOs are now operating under expired permits. The DNR’s goal is to get that number below 15%.
This year, the Legislature has included in its recently passed budget a provision to allocate more staff and funding to the DNR’s CAFO oversight program, though it doesn’t go as far as a proposal by Gov. Tony Evers would have.
Is there concern that without stricter regulation more manure could end up in Wisconsin's groundwater?
I think the main concern is that the DNR cannot keep up with current regulations, not necessarily that stricter regulations are needed. Essentially, it needs more staff to do so.
Was there anything that surprised you in reporting this piece?
Yes! I mentioned earlier that CAFOs are in charge of recording their own compliance with their permits. This is done via self-inspections that occur on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, depending on the part of the operation that’s being inspected. CAFOs usually record the results of these inspections on CAFO calendars that up until this year were printed on paper. At the end of the year, each CAFO sends the filled out calendar to DNR staff who are supposed to check it for compliance, which maybe helps explain why DNR staff were having such a hard time keeping up … since they were supposed to review daily handwritten records on hundreds of calendars! The calendar has been digitized in 2019, which will hopefully help speed up the processing of records.
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Be sure to read Will’s full report here. For more on the business of milk, cheese and everything else dairy in Wisconsin, check out our series The Dairy State Economy. It’s full of stories like Will’s and others that provide in-depth looks at the industry’s impacts on Wisconsin.
Of note, there won’t be a Friday newsletter next week (sad, I know). I hope you all get the chance to have a safe and relaxing Fourth of July weekend!
Cheers,
Hayley Sperling
Engagement editor, WisContext
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As always, if you have questions about this email or an idea you’d like to see put into action, I want to hear from you. Send me a message at hayley.sperling@wiscontext.org, or find me @hksperl on Twitter.
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