10-10-13 group testifies at public hearing on mega dairy farm permit renewal

A group of concerned property owners is challenging proposed renewal of a  water protection permit for the  largest dairy operation in the state.  In written comments submitted to the DNR, the group PEPL or People Empowered Protect the Land of Rosendale urges the DNR to  "give careful review of critical issues the group says degrade the quality of life and health before granting

Rosendale Dairy a renewal of their permit."  PEPL member, Elaine Swanson spoke at a public hearing last month.  Swanson lives about a mile from the mega dairy farm.  "We have increased rates of asthma and bronchitis in our community,"  Swanson told AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Lines program.  "We just feel that when you are trying to enjoy, for instance, your own yard, your own space, and the horrendous stench that exists you're being robbed.  Its almost like a trespass onto your own health."  Swanson says the group is also challenging a permit that she says dismisses the "longstanding injustice of stagnating manure pits that are uncovered and release dangerous toxic air emissions."  Three years ago the DNR approved Rosendale Dairy’s request to modify its permit to double the number of dairy cows to 8,000 and to increase the number of acres the dairy can spread manure over.  At the time the DNR said the modified permit contained the most restrictive conditions ever imposed on a farm in the nearly three decades long history of the DNR’s permit program for large farms.