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Bayfield County Residents Sign Petition Against Hog Farm

DNR Will Look Into Possible Effects From High-Density Feed Operation

By
United Soybean Board (CC-BY)

Reicks View Farms didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hundreds of people are signing a petition to postpone siting large-scale farms in Bayfield County.

Iowa-based Reicks View Farms is exploring the possibility of constructing a large-scale hog farm in the county, but Bayfield’s Mary Dougherty said her petition asks the county board to pass a two-year moratorium on concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

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Dougherty said the petition asks the county to do its “due diligence in assessing what having 26,000 hogs from Iowa is going to do to the Fish Creek Watershed, the Chequamegon Bay.”

She said she fears millions of gallons of manure will threaten water quality and public health.

Duane Popple, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wastewater specialist, said Reicks hasn’t submitted final plans but that its consultant is filling out an environmental questionnaire.

“We use the questionnaire to review the potential need for the environmental impact statement,” Popple explained.

Dougherty said the full county board may take up the petition on Feb. 18.