A settlement has been reached between Wisconsin environmental officials and the Dairy Business Association after members of Wisconsin's dairy industry filed a lawsuit “alleging the agency was over-regulating large livestock farms.” The lawsuit itself was filed back in July and claimed the “state Department of Natural Resources had stopped allowing concentrated animal feeding operations to pass runoff through vegetation patches to filter pollution without going through the administrative rule-making process.”In addition to those claims, the lawsuit also alleged that the environmental officials “had assumed oversight of calf hutches — where baby calves are housed on dairy farms — without going through the rule-making steps and have been illegally requiring the operations to get pollution discharge permits regardless of whether they actually pollute Wisconsin waters.” Understandably this had many members of the Wisconsin dairy industry upset, especially since the state Department of Natural Resources was violating “state statutes which declare state pollution rules can't be tougher than federal law, which requires a permit only for actual pollution,” according to the lawsuit.

Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources Logo; Image Courtesy of FOX6Now.com

So what will the settlement achieve, if anything? Well, while James Dick, a spokesman for the DNR said the settlement won't “change any current environmental protections,” the state agency has “agreed that vegetation patches are valid pollution control systems and will stop regulating calf hutches” as long as the state's dairy association drops “its claim that the department is illegally requiring pollution permits.” According to Dick, “pollution that makes it through the vegetation patches into navigable waters will still be regulated under state and federal law and comply with state water quality and groundwater standards.” He added, “The DNR feels the settlement is an efficient and balanced resolution of (a) complicated case.”In addition to the above agreements, the settlement will also reaffirm that the DNR has the “authority to regulate concentrated feeding operations.”But what is the dairy association, and how did it respond to the recent settlement? For starters, the association represents “dairy farmers, milk processors, vendors and supporting businesses in the dairy industry." When the settlement was announced, it issued a statement “declaring the organization won on its central claims that the state agency illegally changed the rules for managing pollution from rainwater.” Mike North, the president of the association added, “The DNR or other state agencies can't make up the rules as they go along. Farmers' investments will be protected by this victory.”This isn't the first time the state's Department of Natural Resources has come under fire for its pollution standards, though. Just last year, state auditors “found that the department wasn't following its own policies for policing pollution from large livestock farms and wastewater treatment plants.” Additionally, the audit also revealed “a permit backlog for large farms,” a result of state employees not having “enough time to closely monitor the farms' operations.”What do you think? Was the settlement fair, or should more be expected from Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources?

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Dairy group scores victory in settlement of lawsuit with state regulatorsDairy Business Association Wins Victory in Settlement of Lawsuit with State Regulators