MONROE - All six members of the Green County Land and Water Conservation Committee agreed Thursday to recommend a moratorium ordinance to the full county board after discussing whether the issue should be decided by individual townships.
Supervisor Russ Torkelson, who has said the cost of recently approved concentrated animal feeding operation applicant Pinnacle Dairy Farm was a burden to the county with little option to make the money back, noted that towns would be able to withdraw from the law if they chose.
"I hate to take control from our local townships, but towns can't afford (the CAFO process)," Torkelson said. "Towns can hardly afford road signs. If we don't put some sort of moratorium on it through the county, we have no way to recuperate our costs."
A moratorium, or temporary halt, would be instituted on all new CAFOs, which includes swine, poultry, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goats, within the county for 270 days. The delay on new applicants of 1,000 animal units or more is meant to allow a committee of county-appointed officials and residents time to study what the impact of large-scale facilities would have on county health, specifically groundwater and air quality.
A dairy CAFO is defined by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as an enclosed cattle facility with roughly 714 milking and dry cows. Pinnacle Dairy, which was approved and is moving forward with construction along County FF and Decatur-Sylvester Road in the Town of Sylvester, plans to lay 127 acres of cement and house roughly 5,800 dairy cattle.
Five townships, including Sylvester, have since adopted laws for moratoriums in order to evaluate the effect of similar future farms. A county-wide moratorium ordinance was first introduced in March 2016, but was voted against by the conservation committee.
County Board Chairman Art Carter, who is not a member of the committee but sat in to discuss the issue, said the county should delegate the issue back to a township level -not only to give more local government control, but also to avoid potential legal problems for the county.
"I'd rather we introduce this to our townships," Carter said, stating that Corporation Counsel Brian Buchholz had told him townships have "power" rather than counties if farms decided to file a lawsuit against the ordinances.
"It's never been tested that a county can do moratoriums, so if we get sued it's going to cost a lot of money," Buchholz said. "I don't care what you do, it's up to you, I just want to let you know."
Committee member Kristi Leonard said her reservation was the idea that the county worked to develop a law only to have the time and money spent mean nothing if a legal challenge were to begin.
Jen Riemer, soon-to-be neighbor of Pinnacle Dairy and former member of a similar science committee created by a moratorium in Sylvester, provided input from her experiences after being asked her opinion by Torkelson.
"I think there needs to be some leadership with the county," Riemer said. "I think there's this big movement toward moratoriums statewide. It's all about water and air."
Riemer added that no county, to her knowledge, had been sued for implementing a moratorium ordinance. The 270 days of evaluation by a committee would ideally create recommendations to be brought to the county board and included in county code outlining animal feedlot permitting, which committee officials have said is an effort to protect public health.
If the moratorium ordinance is approved at the county level during the August board meeting, all appointed members from the public will apply based on a set of criteria established by the conservation committee. County officials will include conservation chair Oscar Olson, health committee chair Harvey Kubly, county supervisor Jerry Guth, Agriculture and Extension Education Committee chair Ken Hodgson and the Green County Towns Association chair or designee.
Supervisor Russ Torkelson, who has said the cost of recently approved concentrated animal feeding operation applicant Pinnacle Dairy Farm was a burden to the county with little option to make the money back, noted that towns would be able to withdraw from the law if they chose.
"I hate to take control from our local townships, but towns can't afford (the CAFO process)," Torkelson said. "Towns can hardly afford road signs. If we don't put some sort of moratorium on it through the county, we have no way to recuperate our costs."
A moratorium, or temporary halt, would be instituted on all new CAFOs, which includes swine, poultry, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goats, within the county for 270 days. The delay on new applicants of 1,000 animal units or more is meant to allow a committee of county-appointed officials and residents time to study what the impact of large-scale facilities would have on county health, specifically groundwater and air quality.
A dairy CAFO is defined by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as an enclosed cattle facility with roughly 714 milking and dry cows. Pinnacle Dairy, which was approved and is moving forward with construction along County FF and Decatur-Sylvester Road in the Town of Sylvester, plans to lay 127 acres of cement and house roughly 5,800 dairy cattle.
Five townships, including Sylvester, have since adopted laws for moratoriums in order to evaluate the effect of similar future farms. A county-wide moratorium ordinance was first introduced in March 2016, but was voted against by the conservation committee.
County Board Chairman Art Carter, who is not a member of the committee but sat in to discuss the issue, said the county should delegate the issue back to a township level -not only to give more local government control, but also to avoid potential legal problems for the county.
"I'd rather we introduce this to our townships," Carter said, stating that Corporation Counsel Brian Buchholz had told him townships have "power" rather than counties if farms decided to file a lawsuit against the ordinances.
"It's never been tested that a county can do moratoriums, so if we get sued it's going to cost a lot of money," Buchholz said. "I don't care what you do, it's up to you, I just want to let you know."
Committee member Kristi Leonard said her reservation was the idea that the county worked to develop a law only to have the time and money spent mean nothing if a legal challenge were to begin.
Jen Riemer, soon-to-be neighbor of Pinnacle Dairy and former member of a similar science committee created by a moratorium in Sylvester, provided input from her experiences after being asked her opinion by Torkelson.
"I think there needs to be some leadership with the county," Riemer said. "I think there's this big movement toward moratoriums statewide. It's all about water and air."
Riemer added that no county, to her knowledge, had been sued for implementing a moratorium ordinance. The 270 days of evaluation by a committee would ideally create recommendations to be brought to the county board and included in county code outlining animal feedlot permitting, which committee officials have said is an effort to protect public health.
If the moratorium ordinance is approved at the county level during the August board meeting, all appointed members from the public will apply based on a set of criteria established by the conservation committee. County officials will include conservation chair Oscar Olson, health committee chair Harvey Kubly, county supervisor Jerry Guth, Agriculture and Extension Education Committee chair Ken Hodgson and the Green County Towns Association chair or designee.