North Breeze opponents find hope in proposed water rules 
by Brian Wilson
The Star News
February 4, 2010 —  Opponents to a proposed 4,000 cow dairy locating in the Town of Little Black took their concerns to the statehouse this week with hopes a groundwater management area would give them the protections they seek.
Neil Micke and Steve Suchomel met with representative Spencer Black of Madison who chairs the state’s Groundwater Working Group. The state set up the new group which met for the first time this fall and in December formulated a series of proposals calling for the creation of groundwater management areas.
Under the proposal “a groundwater management area (GMA) is a geographic area of the state where coordinated management of groundwater is needed to avoid or mitigate significant adverse environmental impacts associated with excessive groundwater withdrawals.”
The Department of Natural Resources would be authorized to designated GMAs by administrative rule and if created would generate a groundwater management council for each GMA created and the council would then be charged with developing a groundwater management plan.
Under the proposal, “A groundwater management plan must be sufficient to allow the GMA to meet its water budget within a time established by the DNR and contain measurable goals; reporting requirements, including progress toward meeting its water budget; opportunities for public participation; and water conservation measures. Existing and new surface water withdrawals and high capacity well approvals in a GMA would be required to implement minimum water conservation measures specified by the DNR. Plan implementation could be coordinated through intergovernmental cooperation agreements under ch. 66, Stats.”
This would have an impact in high capacity well permits in the state, presenting them with an additional hurdle.
The legislative proposal also calls for the creation of groundwater attention areas (GAA) which it defines as “a geographic area of the state where groundwater management problems are emerging, and, if current trends continue, are likely to become a GMA.”
The goal would be to for a GAA to be a proactive tool to manage and mitigate stresses to groundwater and surface water systems before they become a major problem. This would also require the establishment of councils to develop groundwater plans, which would then be enforced by the DNR through the permitting of high capacity wells.
Under current law, the DNR is limited in what it can include in a review for a high capacity well and defines a groundwater protection area as being within 1,200 feet of a resource water or trout stream. Under the proposal, the DNR would retain the rules of the protection area as well as gain additional review powers for new and existing high capacity wells.
Under the proposal: “The DNR would be authorized to modify the approvals of existing high capacity wells and surface water withdrawals if the DNR determines that an existing high capacity well or withdrawal is: (1) causing or substantially contributing to significant adverse environmental impacts to a trout stream, outstanding resource water, exceptional resource water, spring or other identified sensitive resource; or (2) has become unsustainable due to changing climatic conditions, cumulative impacts of water withdrawal, or the addition or removal of other high capacity wells.”
State senator Neil Kedzie of Elkhorn who is a member of the Groundwater Working Group sent a letter dated January 12 to the chairs of the working group proposing alternatives to the GMA proposal. Under his recommended changes, any county, by resolution, would be able to petition the Groundwater Coordinating Council to be considered a GMA or GAA and that the GCC would only be able to accept petitions from counties.
In addition, under his proposal, areas designated as GMAs or GAAs would be eligible to receive funding to support research, pilot programs, management strategies and planning activities
Little Black
connection
For Neil Micke and Scott Suchomel who have worked to oppose the proposed 4,000 cow North Breeze Dairy from locating on a 133 acre parcel at the corner of Gibson and Elm Avenue, the fact the state is doing something to increase protection of groundwater resources is a good thing.
Opponents to the proposed dairy say that pumping as much as 200,000 gallons of water each day from the local aquifer to supply the dairy’s needs would adversely impact wells in the surrounding area.
“Wisconsin's ground water is a precious resource which must never be squandered for short term special interests. Environment, once destroyed, cannot always be rebuilt. Resources, once depleted, are potentially gone forever. The Ground Water Management Area changes will fill a critical gap now existing in Wisconsin ground water law,” Suchomel and Micke wrote in a joint letter to Black.
The letter continues: “The Township of Little Black and the Village of Stetsonville are in a unique situation. There is no current adequate legislation which can protect the groundwater resource or at best mandate fair consumption of the resource.
The crystalline rock aquifer as delineated in the Water Supply Paper 2022 is truly a ''water poor area in a water rich state.” Siting a 4000 cow CAFO in the proposed site will deplete the water resource at the expense of current farmers and residents. We believe in Wisconsin agriculture. Based on water budget modeling, the site may support less than a 950 cow CAFO without depleting this most essential resource in this area.
Our request for an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) appears to have fallen on deaf ears at the DNR. We have forwarded a petition to DNR Secretary Matthew Frank containing the signatures of over 1500 Wisconsin voting age citizens. In addition, he has received resolutions requesting an EIS from the Township of Little Black, the Village of Stetsonville, the Medford Area School District and the County of Taylor. We have never heard from the DNR as to why our EIS request is not appropriate.”
Brian Gerrits of North Breeze Dairy “applauded the the Legislature's leadership in working to preserve one of Wisconsin's most precious resources. Indeed, farmers depend on groundwater everyday and we support these types of efforts.”
“As we understand the process, Rep. Black and Sen. Miller plan to introduce a comprehensive legislative package suggesting changes to Wisconsin's groundwater laws. They hope to do so yet this session, although no bill drafts are yet available. One such proposal as you allude to would be to authorize the DNR to establish Groundwater Management Areas (GMAs) via administrative rulemaking following criteria that would be specified not only in the proposed statute but also via a technical advisory group. To our knowledge, the draft legislation is not yet available for review.
“We have already received approvals from the State DNR for the installation of the wells we need. We filed such applications after we performed an extended aquifer pump test demonstrating that there is more than enough water in the area.
“That said, we are committed to compliance with laws and regulations that will impact North Breeze Dairy, and this one is no different. We look forward to being engaged in the process throughout,” Gerrits said.
As legislative proposals, the issue is far from being settled in the legislature and additional meetings will be held before any sort of vote takes place.
According to a representative from Rep. Black’s office, the proposal is being drafted to formally introduce as legislation. After being introduced it would have to go through the normal committee process.

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