Spencer Wetland in Danger of Manure Dumping
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Social
An Estimated 1 Million Gallons of Manure Flowed Unchecked from a Storage Tankon a Western Marathon County Farm for Months
An estimated 1 million gallons of manure flowed unchecked from a storage tank on a western Marathon County farm for months, running into a nearby wetland and eventually into the Little Eau Pleine River.
The discharge at the 120-cow Willcome dairy farm on Century Road near Spencer was going on for about a year, according to Paul Daigle, land and water program director for the Marathon County Conservation, Planning and Zoning Department.
"Based on air photo evidence, it looked like they stopped pumping sometime in early 2013 and it went on until this May," Daigle said.
The owner of the farm, Patrick Willcome, pleaded no contest Aug. 1 to violating water-pollution regulations and was found guilty and fined $464.10. He did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Daigle said state officials learned of the violation May 2 when an anonymous letter was sent to the Department of Natural Resources indicating the manure storage facility on the town of Brighton farm — a tank designed for about a week's worth of storage — had "not been pumped for months and is running over."
State and county officials visited the farm May 6 to verify the problem and initiate an emergency clean-up, Daigle said.
"(The owner) paid for (the clean-up)," Daigle said. "We provided some technical assistance to get some emergency berms up and immediately stop liquid from continuing to run off into the waterways and haul it out in the fields instead, where it should be, so it can be a valuable crop nutrient."
Willcome could not be reached for comment, but Terry Kafka, DNR water resource management specialist,cited "mismanagement" as the reason for the pollution.
"They had two manure spreaders, but both broke," Kafka said. "I do give them credit; they were very receptive and timely to all the requests that we made."
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