Archives
[Back] [Email to a Friend] [Printer Friendly Version]
Virtual newsprint edition available
See this story exactly as it appeared on the printed page – photos and all.
Page appears in Adobe Acrobat format. If you don't have Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, download it now.
Dnr Seeks Prosecution For Fish Kills
The Cases Involve Incidents Along The Pecatonica River And Willow Creek Last Summer.
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL/WISCONSIN :: B1
Saturday, March 5, 2005
Ron Seely Wisconsin State Journal
The Department of Natural Resources has asked the state Department of
Justice to prosecute the farmers and a contract manure spreader
responsible for two major fish kills on southern Wisconsin streams last
summer.The referrals come in the same week that the agency is dealing with yet another major kill, this time on the west branch of the Sugar River where manure spread on a frozen field ran into the stream and killed more than a hundred brown trout.
That spill is being investigated and legal action against the farmer is likely, according to the DNR.
The two incidents last summer happened on the Pecatonica River in Lafayette and Iowa counties and Willow Creek in Richland County.
  |
The agency has asked the Justice to prosecute Reichling Homestead Farms in Darlington for violating water pollution laws and for discharging a hazardous substance in a manure spill that killed thousands of fish in July along the Pecatonica River.
Dennis Fuller and Cook's Countryside Trucking of North Freedom have been referred for prosecution over over-application of manure on the Fuller farm in July, resulting in a fish kill along the Willow River.
Also, the agency referred William Moneypenney, a farmer in southwest Iowa County, for prosecution for an October fish kill caused by manure runoff in the Pecatonica River. In that case, DNR investigators found that a valve on a manure pit was left partially open, allowing manure to run down a hill into a tributary of the Pecatonica. Thousands of game and forage fish were killed along a 5.6-mile stretch of the river.
Despite a law passed two years ago to regulate such pollution, the runoff of manure into streams continues to be a major problem. Funding for implementation of the law has been much lower than expected. Farmers aren't required to take steps to prevent runoff pollution unless the state helps them pay for their costs.
Runoff into streams is of special concern this time of year because fields are frozen and manure spread on the ground cannot be worked into the soil and is more likely to run into adjacent waters.