We all need and want clean water—for drinking, for our families, for our households, for our businesses, and for our recreational activities.

To better protect the quality of our groundwater and surface waters in St. Croix County, please support adopting a new “Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities” County Ordinance to replace the existing “Ch. 11 - Animal Waste Storage Facilities”. 

At their Tuesday January 7, 2025, 5PM meeting, the St. Croix County Board of Supervisors will consider adopting the "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance as amended and recommended by the Community Development Committee at the Public Hearing on December 19, 2024.

The January 7 Agenda Packet with the "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance language is online at https://sccwi.portal.civicclerk.com/event/25/files/attachment/808

What are St. Croix County groundwater quality issues that this  “Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities” ordinance would help address? 

• Groundwater is the primary residential drinking water source for people in St. Croix County, drawn from either municipal or private wells. Now, about half the people in St. Croix County, or about 45,000 people, rely on about 17,000 private wells for drinking water. But our St. Croix County groundwater is becoming more and more contaminated by chemicals that leach down from the land surface above.
• In 2024, the St. Croix County Citizen Groundwater Monitoring Program (CGMP) found that nitrate-nitrogen is a prevalent and increasing health-related contaminant in our St. Croix County groundwater. Now, approximately 2,000 private wells in St. Croix County, or 12% of private wells tested, exceed the safe drinking water standard for nitrates of 10 mg/L, and the percentage of wells exceeding that standard is increasing. A substantial 77% of private wells tested had levels greater than 2 mg/L, showing a significant impact of land-use activities on groundwater quality.
• The 2024 CGMP report found that more intensive agricultural land uses positively correlated with higher nitrate contamination levels in wells located nearer to intensive agricultural land uses. For more info, see the full 2024 CGMP report at https://www.sccwi.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8914/CGMP-Year-Five-Report-2024
• The primary source of nitrate groundwater contamination is agricultural activities. Manure and/or bio-solids spread onto farm fields are a source of nitrates that may leach down to contaminate our groundwater when greater quantities of nutrients than crops can use are applied to the fields.
• An important provision of the “Manure Storage Facilities” ordinance would require a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) for a new or expanded manure storage facility to demonstrate either no increase in or reduction of total nitrogen and phosphorous applied to farm fields within the NMP (11.3 D. 2. a. 6)).

What are St. Croix County surface water quality issues that this 
“Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities” ordinance would help address? 

• Our St. Croix County surface waters--including the Apple, Eau Galle, Kinnickinnic, St. Croix, and Willow Rivers, along with our many lakes--are enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.
• St. Croix County’s surface waters draw many visitors whose spending is a big part of St. Croix County’s economy.  According to the Wisconsin Dept. of Tourism, in 2023 direct visitor spending in St. Croix County was up to $134.1 million, and the total economic impact was $219 million.
• St. Croix County residents and visitors want cleaner rather than dirtier surface waters. People don’t swim when algae blooms close the beach, or fish when fish populations fall because sediments cloud and nutrients impair the rivers and lakes, or boat when the water stinks.
• But our St. Croix County surface waters  are becoming more and more contaminated from chemicals and sediments that run off the lands within their watersheds. Now, the North and South Forks of the Willow River are 303 (d) listed by WI DNR for high phosphorus levels and decreased fish and aquatic life. The St. Croix River and Lake St. Croix have excess phosphorous levels, and since 2012 have been subject to a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) management plan calling for a 38% reduction in the human-caused phosphorus carried to the rivers and streams of the basin. For more info, go to https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/TMDLs/StCroix.html
• A source of excess phosphorous in our surface waters is runoff from fields where manure has been applied inappropriately or too much manure has been applied.
• An important provision of the “Manure Storage Facilities” ordinance would require the Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) for a new or expanded manure storage facility to demonstrate either no increase in or reduction of sediment and phosphorous delivery to impaired or exceptional resource waters and to demonstrate no increase in or reduction of total nitrogen and phosphorous applied to fields within the NMP (11.3 D. 2. a. 6)).

We can, and must, take actions now to better protect the quality of our groundwater and surface waters in St. Croix County!

One step you can take now is to sign this petition in support of adopting the “Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities” County Ordinance to replace the existing “Ch. 11 - Animal Waste Storage Facilities”. Please sign! Please ask other folks to sign, too!

Next, please make a public comment to the St. Croix County Board of Supervisors in support of adopting the "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance for their meeting on Tuesday January 7, 2025, 5PM, at the St. Croix County Government Center, 1101 Carmichael Road, Hudson WI (Business Agenda item 1. at https://sccwi.portal.civicclerk.com/event/25/files/agenda/1458

You may make a comment to Supervisors before the January 7, 5PM meeting by phone or email, or comment in-person at the January 7, 5PM meeting. Supervisor contact info and Districts are online at https://www.sccwi.gov/483/Districts-Supervisors

In summary, as now proposed the “Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities” ordinance would:

• Apply within unincorporated County areas.
• Apply to new or expanded manure storage facilities.
• Adopt existing regulations and current regulatory practices regarding CAFO-generated manure storage and handling.  
• Codify at the County level federal and state regulations now applicable to manure storage and handling by CAFOs, and apply the same requirements to manure storage and handling by any other entity storing manure regardless of whether the entity also owns or raises livestock, including to manure digester operations.
• Specify materials that may be included as manure, process wastewater, and/or non-manure in a manure storage facility, and prohibit including dead animals, medical wastes, petroleum products, pesticides, paints, solvents, or hazardous wastes.
• Apply to Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) required due to establishment of a manure storage facility. Require acreage adequate for land spreading. Require that fields not be included in most other NMPs. Require NMPs to demonstrate either no increase in or reduction of sediment and phosphorous delivery to impaired or exceptional resource waters. Require NMPs to demonstrate no increase in or reduction of total nitrogen and phosphorous applied to lands in the NMP. It would not apply to NMPs for cropland not associated with a manure storage facility.

The "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance is necessary and reasonable to serve our common good:

• It does not prohibit new or expanded manure storage facilities, CAFOs, or manure digesters.
• It requires the operation of new or expanded “manure storage facilities” to not make our water quality worse. We all need and want clean groundwater for drinking. We all need and want cleaner rather than dirtier surface waters in our rivers and lakes.
• It applies to a very small subset of St. Croix County farming operations. Now, there are about twenty (20) active “animal waste storage facilities” permit holders in St. Croix County; typically, there are only one or two of these permits requested and issued or re-issued annually, and there were none in 2024.
• It does not apply to NMPs for cropland not associated with a manure storage facility.

Please comment in favor of adopting the "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance at the January 7, 2025, 5PM, meeting of the St. Croix County Board in the St. Croix County Government Center, 1101 Carmichael Road, Hudson WI (Business Agenda item 1. at https://sccwi.portal.civicclerk.com/event/25/files/agenda/1458

In the meantime, please sign this petition in support of adopting St. Croix County's "Ch. 11 - Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance!

Please ask other folks to sign this petition, too!

We all need and want clean water! We can prevail by working together for better protections of our groundwater and surface waters.