Wis. town barred from beefing up farm water rules
Politics
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a rural town lacks
the authority to impose tougher water-quality standards on a livestock
farm than the state requires.
Magnolia, a community about 30 miles south of Madison, granted Larson
Acres Inc. a permit in 2007 when it wanted to expand, but included a
number of conditions because residents blamed it for polluting their
water supply. The farm initially had 1,000 cows and now has about
2,900.
Among the conditions, the farm had to allow the town to conduct
monthly water quality tests on its land, and it had to follow certain
crop-rotation strategies to reduce nitrate buildup.
The farm sued, arguing that pollution-control measures are laid out by
the state and can't be modified by individual towns.
The state Supreme Court agreed, ruling that the town exceeded its
authority by imposing additional measures.
The case has been watched by rural Midwest communities struggling to
deal with the expansion of so-called factory farms. States throughout
the farm belt have seen big farms get bigger as the agriculture
industry continues to consolidate.
Similar cases have been filed in six other Midwestern states, but
Wisconsin's is believed to be the first to reach a state supreme
court.
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