By Shaila Johnson & Robert Tabern
TOWN OF EUREKA – The town of Eureka is currently taking a “wait and see” approach when it comes to their planned involvement in a closely-watched and highly-contested CAFO lawsuit.
Eureka town supervisors met for their regular monthly meeting on the evening of Thursday, April 13, and discussed the fact that the recent spring elections will result in some new members soon being installed on the neighboring town of Laketown board. The upcoming changeover in supervisors at Laketown may result in significant changes to their town’s CAFO ordinance, and thus, the possible dropping of the suit.
Last year, the WMC Litigation Center – an affiliate of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce – representing seven claimants (currently down to four, due to a death and one couple withdrawing) who are farmers, business owners, property owners and taxpayers, filed the suit, alleging Laketown’s ordinance on CAFOs is unlawful and that Wisconsin’s state statutes should take precedence. The town of Laketown is currently represented by two lawyers from the Twin Cities, Andy and David Marshall.
At a special meeting held back on Thursday, February 16, town of Eureka supervisors voted 4-1 to participate in a “preemptive intervention,” a term used on their special meeting agenda. In recent years, there were six local towns that worked together to develop ordinances regulating CAFOs. Five currently have ordinances on the books, including Trade Lake, Laketown, Eureka, Luck and Bone Lake.
Some of those on the Eureka board who continue to support the intervention measure feel action is necessary to protect Eureka’s own ordinance, which currently allows 700-animal units before a farm is considered a CAFO, and thus, must adhere to additional regulations. The sole opponent to the measure on the board, Rick Wester, continues to question why Eureka would want to get involved in another town’s legal issues.
If Laketown decides to dismiss or withdraw its CAFO ordinance, chances are that will cause the lawsuit to be dismissed. By default, that would also automatically terminate Eureka's “intervention.” However, WMC Litigation Center and/or any other plaintiff, would still have the option to file a new lawsuit against Eureka or any of the other four towns with CAFO ordinances.
Members of the town of Eureka board decided to take no action at the April 13 meeting, instead deciding to monitor what the new Laketown Town Board will decide to do following the installation of new supervisors later this month.
Despite that, there was some intense debate over the CAFO issue at last week’s meeting.
Supervisor Wester, who voted against Eureka becoming involved in the Laketown suit explained his position, “Let's just wait and see what happens in Laketown, because I actually have experience with it. You guys are going off of accidents that have happened. If you went off of accidents, there have been way more people killed by alcohol than by spilled manure. Do you know people who have been killed by spilled manure? In reality, people could potentially pollute more with 65 beef cows than a larger farm does with 1,700 milk cows.” Others in favor of allowing CAFOs made the point that regulated and closely-monitored CAFOs might actually pollute less than un-regulated farms that don’t quite meet the threshold for inspections.
Those in favor of CAFO ordinances at the township level also turned out to share their position, fearing environmental impacts and what it might mean to small family farms here in Northwest Wisconsin. Andy Marshall, the attorney who represents Laketown in the suit, was in attendance at the Eureka meeting and rebutted, “I am telling you that I have seen the papers that have been filed by some of these CAFOs. First of all, they're underestimating, because other similar size CAFOs are closer to 14 million gallons of manure that are generated every year. But let’s say it’s 9 million gallons. They have identified fields that manure ran into, which means they put down 3 to 5 inches and they are designated fields with water tables at 12 inches.”
As it stands now in the courts, the plaintiffs in the CAFO lawsuit have until Friday, April 28, to file any opposition to the town of Eureka’s “intervention,” if they so choose. A hearing is also scheduled for Friday, May 12, on the motion. The Inter-County Leader will continue to follow developments in both the original Laketown lawsuit and Eureka's intervention and will bring you updates as developments occur.
