Public health

Wisconsin Farm Group Admits Tainting Drinking Water, Keeps Failing Residents

What if your neighbor poured toxic chemicals into your drinking water but only agreed to pay for part of the cleanup? You probably wouldn’t be happy. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in northeastern Wisconsin. A farm group, called Peninsula Pride Farms, recently admitted to being responsible for E. coli, a toxic bacteria, in drinking water. Yet, it’s only prepared to pay for part of the cleanup or provide bottled water for residents with poisoned wells for a few months.

About 30 percent of the wells tested in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, were found to have unsafe levels of toxins, such as E. coli and nitrates, caused mainly by animal waste run-off from neighboring dairy factory farms. The announcement by the farm group, made up of 35 dairy operations, comes after residents in the Kewaunee County filed lawsuits against Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources to force it to set stricter standards on farm pollution. Residents in the county are upset about the poor quality of local rivers, lakes, and streams. Many water bodies in the area are listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Impaired Waters list, indicating they are too polluted for fishing, swimming and drinking. Major sources of pollutants […]

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