Large-Scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

In 2014, a large-scale hog production facility began the permitting process for siting of a 26,000 animal facility in the Fish Creek watershed, within a mile of tributary streams that feed the Bad River watershed. In 2015 a dairy facility began the permitting process to expand to CAFO status within the eastern boundary of the watershed. These proposed and existing farms will produce nearly 20 million gallons of manure per year, which will be spread on waste sites that are dominated by heavy clay soils that characterize much of the region. SRWA seeks to expand nutrient and bacterial sampling in the streams that would receive surface runoff from these sites to establish baseline water quality values prior to waste spreading, and to detect nutrient or bacterial increases that may occur from waste runoff after operations commence.