MONROE - After a meeting with the owners of a proposed 5,800-cow facility named Pinnacle Dairy and their legal counsel, Green County Conservationist Todd Jenson reconstituted the dairy permit application he had denied a month earlier.
The application to build the large-scale livestock facility had been denied after an incident between county officials and Pinnacle's workers at monitoring wells on the proposed site of the dairy.
On June 21, Jenson met with Pinnacle Dairy LLC owner Todd Tuls, his son, T.J. Tuls, and the owners of Carrousel Farms. Carrousel owners plan to sell 127 acres to Tuls for the proposed large-scale livestock facility along County FF and Decatur-Sylvester Road in Sylvester Township. Jenson said Tuls' engineer Ron Williams, officials from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources were also present, as well as lawyers for both the Tuls family and Carrousel Farms.
Jenson said Tuesday the point of the meeting was to discuss a request made by the Tuls family to reconsider the Pinnacle Dairy permit application.
"I basically said, "If you work with Green County, it can be reinstated,'" Jenson said.
The application had been denied after Tuls workers refused to allow an inspection by county officials in May. Jenson announced the decision to deny the application by sending a letter to Tuls, which Jenson read out loud during the Green County Department of Land and Water Conservation on June 2. In the letter, Jenson wrote that the application materials received by the Green County Department of Land and Water Conservation on Sept. 21 had been denied. This was due to Pinnacle Dairy hydrologist Bob Nauta's refusal to allow county officials to inspect water levels in the monitoring wells at the proposed site. County code allows the department to inspect land after a permit application has been submitted or a permit has been issued.
Todd Tuls, the owner of Rock Prairie Dairy between Janesville and Delavan which began operations in 2011, used that 5,000-cow dairy as a model for the Pinnacle Dairy Farm application. The farm would qualify as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, which is a farm classified in Wisconsin as the operation of more than 1,000 cattle in an enclosed space. The largest current CAFO in Green County was permitted for roughly 1,800 cows.
T.J. Tuls, who manages Rock Prairie Dairy outside of Janesville, said the denial of Pinnacle's application was due to a misunderstanding and that steps had been put in place during the meeting between the state agencies, Jenson, the Tulses, the Baders and their lawyers, to avoid the situation in the future.
"Communication errors went on and we were able to resolve them," T.J. Tuls said. "We have come up with contacts for everyone so it won't happen again."
Tuls added that plans are to "keep moving forward on the project."
However, the timeline for Pinnacle Dairy to begin building is still muddled. Jenson said the department received Pinnacle's 130-page groundwater level and flow monitoring report mid-morning Tuesday, and that he still had not seen any manure spreading contracts pass his desk. Contracts would allow local farmers to purchase fertilizer from Pinnacle Dairy. Each of those documents would also have to be approved by the county before building plans could move forward.
Todd Tuls has said his farms throughout the country have always followed best practices and remained safe. Some residents of Sylvester and nearby townships have criticized the inclusion of a dairy farm of this magnitude.
A group of people, including the would-be neighbor of Pinnacle Dairy, Jen Riemer, began Green County Defending our Farmland to call attention to the negative effects manure contamination could have on the health of people living in the area. The organization hired a lawyer, who created a proposed moratorium ordinance which the Sylvester Town Board passed in September. With a team of local scientists in place, including Riemer, findings indicated that the ground within Sylvester and throughout the region of Green County was especially susceptible to nitrate contamination. A livestock license ordinance was adopted by the town board but has not been put in place because of a pending review by DATCP.
Sylvester Board Chair Anna Anderson said though the moratorium expired on June 23, the application process will still take time for Pinnacle Dairy. All application materials would need to be approved at the county level before being evaluated by the township laws, including the livestock siting ordinance still under review.
"It gets to that point, the ordinance is good as it stands," Anderson said. "They still have to go through the process. My understanding, through our attorney, is that (DATCP) just wants to have wording included. The attorney said it's not going to be simply denied or confirmed, but pieces like the science data needed to be included."
The township board will discuss the ordinance once more during its July 25 meeting. Anderson said they hope to receive feedback from DATCP. The board had not heard any updates or requests from DATCP between their May and June meetings.
The application to build the large-scale livestock facility had been denied after an incident between county officials and Pinnacle's workers at monitoring wells on the proposed site of the dairy.
On June 21, Jenson met with Pinnacle Dairy LLC owner Todd Tuls, his son, T.J. Tuls, and the owners of Carrousel Farms. Carrousel owners plan to sell 127 acres to Tuls for the proposed large-scale livestock facility along County FF and Decatur-Sylvester Road in Sylvester Township. Jenson said Tuls' engineer Ron Williams, officials from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources were also present, as well as lawyers for both the Tuls family and Carrousel Farms.
Jenson said Tuesday the point of the meeting was to discuss a request made by the Tuls family to reconsider the Pinnacle Dairy permit application.
"I basically said, "If you work with Green County, it can be reinstated,'" Jenson said.
The application had been denied after Tuls workers refused to allow an inspection by county officials in May. Jenson announced the decision to deny the application by sending a letter to Tuls, which Jenson read out loud during the Green County Department of Land and Water Conservation on June 2. In the letter, Jenson wrote that the application materials received by the Green County Department of Land and Water Conservation on Sept. 21 had been denied. This was due to Pinnacle Dairy hydrologist Bob Nauta's refusal to allow county officials to inspect water levels in the monitoring wells at the proposed site. County code allows the department to inspect land after a permit application has been submitted or a permit has been issued.
Todd Tuls, the owner of Rock Prairie Dairy between Janesville and Delavan which began operations in 2011, used that 5,000-cow dairy as a model for the Pinnacle Dairy Farm application. The farm would qualify as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, which is a farm classified in Wisconsin as the operation of more than 1,000 cattle in an enclosed space. The largest current CAFO in Green County was permitted for roughly 1,800 cows.
T.J. Tuls, who manages Rock Prairie Dairy outside of Janesville, said the denial of Pinnacle's application was due to a misunderstanding and that steps had been put in place during the meeting between the state agencies, Jenson, the Tulses, the Baders and their lawyers, to avoid the situation in the future.
"Communication errors went on and we were able to resolve them," T.J. Tuls said. "We have come up with contacts for everyone so it won't happen again."
Tuls added that plans are to "keep moving forward on the project."
However, the timeline for Pinnacle Dairy to begin building is still muddled. Jenson said the department received Pinnacle's 130-page groundwater level and flow monitoring report mid-morning Tuesday, and that he still had not seen any manure spreading contracts pass his desk. Contracts would allow local farmers to purchase fertilizer from Pinnacle Dairy. Each of those documents would also have to be approved by the county before building plans could move forward.
Todd Tuls has said his farms throughout the country have always followed best practices and remained safe. Some residents of Sylvester and nearby townships have criticized the inclusion of a dairy farm of this magnitude.
A group of people, including the would-be neighbor of Pinnacle Dairy, Jen Riemer, began Green County Defending our Farmland to call attention to the negative effects manure contamination could have on the health of people living in the area. The organization hired a lawyer, who created a proposed moratorium ordinance which the Sylvester Town Board passed in September. With a team of local scientists in place, including Riemer, findings indicated that the ground within Sylvester and throughout the region of Green County was especially susceptible to nitrate contamination. A livestock license ordinance was adopted by the town board but has not been put in place because of a pending review by DATCP.
Sylvester Board Chair Anna Anderson said though the moratorium expired on June 23, the application process will still take time for Pinnacle Dairy. All application materials would need to be approved at the county level before being evaluated by the township laws, including the livestock siting ordinance still under review.
"It gets to that point, the ordinance is good as it stands," Anderson said. "They still have to go through the process. My understanding, through our attorney, is that (DATCP) just wants to have wording included. The attorney said it's not going to be simply denied or confirmed, but pieces like the science data needed to be included."
The township board will discuss the ordinance once more during its July 25 meeting. Anderson said they hope to receive feedback from DATCP. The board had not heard any updates or requests from DATCP between their May and June meetings.