Vol. 80 No. 10 Thursday, October 24, 2019Subscription $30 Per Year Single Copy $1

Overall air quality improvesWisconsin environmental officials say the state’s air quality

is improving. According to the Department of Natural Re-sources’ 2019 Air Quality Trends Report, concentrations of mostpollutants are continuing to decrease. Overall fine particle con-centrations have dropped 35% since 2002. Emissions of ozone-forming pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, have decreased50% and sulfur dioxide emissions have dropped 68% since theearly 2000s. About 94% of Wisconsin’s population lives in areasthat now meet all federal air quality standards. However, sec-tions of six counties along Lake Michigan, including Mani-towoc, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, and Door,aren’t meeting federal ozone standards.

Drivers findmuddy paththis autumnFarmers battle wet fields,fight to keep roads clear

Sounding the alarm on water qualityNoted environmental voice sees sharp deficiencies in protecting state’s waterways

Keeping a Steady ’70s BeatThe percussion section (above) per-forms a portion of the Valders HighSchool marching band’s halftimeshow, which featured the music ofthe 1970s. Mason Wenzel (left) per-forms a dance during the show aspart of the color guard. The bandclosed out its 2019 field marchingseason last Friday and held a concerton Monday. See p. 10 for concertphotos. –Journal Photos

By Todd S. BergmannBlame the weather, not the farmers. Roads across the area are covered in more

mud than usual during the fall harvest due topersistent rain. Farmers and custom operatorsare asking for cooperation and patience anddoing what they can to minimize any dangerand inconvenience.

Because the area has had twice as muchrain as normal, mud on roads has reachedfrustrating levels, said Brandon Vogel, anowner of Right Way Applications in ruralValders, which is assisting farmers in manureapplication on their fields.

“You cannot do anything about it,” he said.“It is the nature of the beast.”

Dan Meyer, a rural Kiel farmer, said thatwith record rains this fall, water has no placeto go.

“There will be mud on the roads this falluntil the rain stops,” he said. “That is justhow it’s going to be. The farmers will do thebest to remove it. We ask drivers to be cau-tious.”

Heavy mud on the roads is a matter ofconcern for town road superintendents, farm-ers, motorists and law enforcement. At leastone injury accident near Valders this fall hasbeen related to mud on the roads, when askid steer operator was struck by a car whilecleaning mud off County Road C.

Like Meyer, Maj. Jason Orth of the Man-itowoc County Sheriff’s Department has seenmore mud on roads this fall.

“With the increase of rain this year, thereis no doubt that farm equipment has beentransferring above normal amounts of mudonto the roadway,” he said.

This year, he said farmers are calling thesheriff’s department to report when they willharvest and what roads they will use and toleave contact phone numbers, Orth said.

“That way, we can notify them to clean itup, before we check it,” he said. “That helps.”

Most farmers recognize that they are ex-pected to keep roads in safe driving conditionand not let mud on the roads get out of hand,Orth said.

Vogel said Right Way Applications triesto remove the mud as fast as possible withskid steers and other equipment and transfersthe manure away from roads.

“We are only taking tractors out on thefield minimal times,” he said. “We try not toput any manure on the road.”

Custom operator Mike Kaufmann said hisemployees work to minimize the mud.

“We put signs up warning people of mudon the road,” he said. “Then, we also haveequipment out there to scrape the road tokeep it clean.”

Kaufmann said his operation is using dumpcarts to place corn into semi trucks, parkedeither on roads or driveways on the farm.

By Todd S. BergmannWisconsin waters are getting worse, after

decades of improvement.George Meyer, executive director of the

Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and formersecretary of the state Department of NaturalResources, talked about that disturbing trendin water quality at the annual meeting of theManitowoc County Lakes Association atMeat’s Opera Haus in St. Nazianz on Fridaynight.

“With the current policies that are in placein this state and the current programs, we willnever, ever reach water quality standards inour lakes and streams in this state,” he said.“It is technically and physically impossible.”

While state and federal programs reducedpollution from industry and sewer treatmentplans, Meyer said runoff from farms andstreets continues to contaminate ground andsurface waters.

“We have put hundreds of millions of dol-

lars into the program,” he said. “We are goingbackwards on many of our waters.”

Bullhead Lake near Collins is sufferingfrom a glut of phosphorous, added Tom Ward,president of the Manitowoc County LakesAssociation.

“The fish are not what they used to be,”he said.

That lake will have to undergo an expen-sive alum treatment, Ward said.

The state needs an effective program toreduce phosphorous and nutrients in waters,Meyer said.

“It is time to stop saying, ‘We’re going toget there’ if we are not going to get there,” hesaid.

Wisconsin will have to require farmers todevelop and follow a nutrient managementplan and provide funding to cover costs,Meyer said.

“I get it,” he said. “Farmers don’t like reg-ulation.”

When he was growing up on a farm justwest of New Holstein, Meyer said, his fatherdemonstrated conservation by example.

“Dad and all the neighbors were reallygood farm operators,” he said. “They reallyrespected the land and were stewards. Theydid not use words like ‘the environment.’ Wedid not know what that was.

“They took care of the land. They werecareful on how they used chemicals.”

While he was attending St. Norbert Col-lege in De Pere in the 1960s, students oftenwent into the Fox River, Meyer said.

“If you went in that river…you either hadan ear infection or a rash,” he said. “It wascontaminated. There were 10 paper mills up-stream.”

The river contained carp but no game fish,Meyer said.

At the same time, he said paper mills dis-charged so much sulfur and mercury in theSee Water p. 20See Mud p. 12

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Water Don’t get spooked bybad deals at Halloween

Shopping for Halloweenshould be fun, not terrifying.With so many costume anddecoration ideas, it’s difficultto choose what to buy, andwhere to buy it from.

According to the NationalRetail Federation, Halloweenspending for 2019 is expectedto reach $8.8 billion, withconsumers planning to spendan average of $86.27 each.

The survey also noted that,among Halloween celebrants,69% plan to pass out candy,49% will decorate their homeor yard, 47% will wear cos-tumes, 29% will take theirchildren trick-or-treating, and17% will dress their pets incostumes.

The Better Business Bureaurecommends the followingtips to avoid getting spookedthis Halloween:

• Some people don’t likethe idea of spending a lot ofmoney on a costume that willonly be worn once, which iswhy they look into renting.

Check the condition of thecostume first, as it may notbe in great shape.

• Always check the returnpolicy on retail items, andkeep receipts. And remember,buying items with the intentof simply returning them afterHalloween is considered fraud.

• When shopping at sea-sonal stores that may closethe day after Halloween orrefuse returns after, make surethe item is exactly what youwant before purchasing.

• Before purchasing ticketsfor a special event or hauntedhouse, check bbb.org to makesure there are no complaintsabout the company hostingthe event.

Over the years, numerous surveyshave shown apple pie to be thefavorite dessert in the United States.It has also been a favorite inEngland for hundreds of years.

Water WarningGeorge Meyer, executive director of Wisconsin Wildlife Federa-tion and former secretary of the state Department of NaturalResources, speaks to the Manitowoc County Lakes Associationon Friday in St. Nazianz. He highlighted growing problems withlake water quality. –Journal Photo

Continued from p. 1Wisconsin River that no onecould eat fish from it.

In the past 50 years, Meyersaid the quality of the FoxRiver has improved.

“Now, it is a world-classwalleye fishery,” he said.

After St. Norbert, Meyerattended law school at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Mad -i son and worked part time asa law clerk for the DNR.

During this time, Congresspassed the Clean Water Act,which required states to im-plement a permit process tomake waters fishable and swim -mable by 1983, Meyer said.

“They needed lawyers todo the work,” he said.

After graduation from lawschool, Meyer got a job as aDNR lawyer.

Before the Clean WaterAct, many municipalitiesmerely had primary treatmentto catch the big stuff beforesewage went in the water,Meyer said.

The act added secondarytreatment to keep bacteria outof the water in the 1970s andtertiary treatment to keepphosphorous out of the waterin the 1980s, he said.

The state spent $3 billion tohelp municipalities clean waste -water they discharged intostreams and lakes, Meyer said.

With the federal act, hesaid paper mills could nolonger threaten to leave Wis-consin because they wouldhave to meet the same pollu-tion standards in other states.

After industry and munic-ipalities reduced contamina-tion, Meyer said it still flowsoff farmlands and streets, be-yond state control.

“We knew it would not beas easy,” he said. “There isno way of actually forcing itto happen.”

A $200 fine for killing fishdid little good, Meyer said.

Farm runoff not only killsfish in streams, but also con-taminates well water, he said.

People across the state

complain at meetings aboutbad water in their wells,Meyer noted.

“It is tough to drill a newwell and have the second wellcontaminated after a short time,”he said. “They cannot sell theirhomes. It is pretty hard to sella house with a bad well.”

New wells and current pro-grams will not end the prob-lem, Meyer said, adding thatthe state needs a stricter require -ment to reduce phosphorusand nitrate runoff from farms.

State law requires farmersdo certain things, such asstore manure away fromstreams, and promised 70%state funding, while the Leg-islature appropriated only asmall portion, Meyer said.

“We still end up with phos-phorous and nitrogen comingoff the land,” he said. “In mostbodies of water, we are goingbackward in terms of runoff.”

The only requirement forfarmers to do anything to re-duce runoff, normally throughnutrient management plans,applies to a minority of farm-ers in federal programs,Meyer said.

“Farmers can develop anutrient management plan on

how much nutrients they canput on the land, how they areapplied, when they are ap-plied, so they do not run offinto lakes and streams,” he said.

Only 37% of Wisconsinfarm ers have a nutrient man-agement plan and of those notall are following them, Meyer

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said.“We’ve got to get serious

about this,” he stressed.To eliminate the economic

burden on farmers, Meyerproposed 100% governmentfunding of nutrient manage-ment costs.

The cost of reducing farmrunoff is much less than thisnation spent cleaning up sewerdischarge years ago, he said.

“You ask a logical question,”Meyer said. “Where is thatmoney going to come from?”

People and politicians inWisconsin do not want toraise taxes.

“It is just a matter of polit-ical will and setting priori-ties,” he said. “We’re doingthis for our grandkids.”

Meyer’s solution is to ded-icate the $98 million of an-nual state sales tax revenueon firearms, ammunition, fish -ing supplies, boats and binoc-ulars to solving the problem.

“I have friends who hikeand bike in the outdoors,” hesaid. “They are very willing topay money for conservation.”

Continued from p. 3during snowplowing onSchomisch Road and dis-cussed a request by JordanSaunders to convert a buildingon his family’s property intoa wedding barn, referring himto county officials and thetown building inspector.

• Heard a report from RoadSuperintendent Craig Zippererabout his work in the pastmonth, including truck repairs,road and culvert work, in-stallation of address signs,brush cutting and mud re-moval on roads.

Eaton