A proposed commercial pig farm in Wisconsin could greatly affect Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, where the superintendent is worried that runoff would boost phosphorous loads in Lake Superior and also could harm piping plovers, a species listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act.
The proposed farm would have a capacity of an estimated 26,000 boars, sows, and piglets. Their resulting 6.8 million gallons of manure produced annually would be spread over nearly 900 acres. According to Apostle Islands Superintendent Bob Krumenaker, the acres where the manure would be dumped ultimately are within the Fish Creek watershed. That creek drains into Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior.
"Long Island, part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, forms the northernmost land boundary of Chequamegon Bay," the superintendent wrote in a letter to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "The beaches of Long Island are the only location in the state where the federally endangered piping plover nests; hence, as the superintendent of the National Lakeshore and the federal official responsible for the stewardship of the plovers, I am greatly concerned about the Badgerwood proposal."
The proposed farm, to be developed about 7 miles from Ashland, Wisconsin, has drawn concern from area tribes, local communities, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has notified Wisconsin officials that it will review the application documents.
The $17.7 million Badgerwood project, as it's called, is being pushed by Reicks View Farms of Lawler, Iowa. That company wants to establish the commercial pig facility because the location is far from other pig operations and so less likely to encounter contagious pig diseases.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources this week announced that it would prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the company's project.
In a letter he wrote to the DNR, Superintendent Krumenaker said studies have shown that the currents of Chequamegon Bay "often have a counterclockwise circulation and then flow out of the Bay either up the West Channel, or out the South Channel. In either case, the waters of the bay interact with the waters of the National Lakeshore, and the currents bring whatever biological or chemical constituents within them onto the shores of Long Island and several of the other islands of the National Lakeshore, including Basswood, Oak, Raspberry, and York islands."
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Here is a link to a book that sheds light on modern commercial pig farms. Before deciding which side to support in this issue (and the one in Missouri that has received attention here) it might be well to read this book.
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Pig-Tales/
The vocabulary of calling this multi-thousand pig factory a "farm" needs to be changed.
Nor is this huge corporation, with dozens of LLCs a "family farm". The owners are multi-millionaires only concerned with greed and profits. They need to stay in Iowa, which they've ruined for themselves already.
A brief look at the application for this operation suggests the term "pork factory" would be more appropriate that "farm." If these large-scale operations are to be allowed, surely there must be sites somewhere in the county where water quality concerns from runoff would been of less concern that this one. A similar issue exists in the watershed for the Buffalo National River.
Btw, I like the new captcha system being tested for the Traveler. Much easier than trying to figure out those convuluted letters and numbers on some other systems.