A Wisconsin Supreme Court decision made earlier this month could have an impact on a nearly decade-old case involving a Kewaunee County farm. The state’s highest court granted the legislature the ability to intervene in a pair of cases involving the Department of Natural Resources and Clean Wisconsin. One of those cases dates back to 2012 when Kinnard Farms sought to increase its herd to 6,000 cows. According to Wisconsin Ag Connection, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Boldt ruled back in 2014 that the expansion could take place, but only if monitoring wells were installed. Brad Schimel, who was the Attorney General in 2015, said state agencies cannot impose permit conditions that are not state law, something a Dane County judge disagreed with when he made his ruling to allow the DNR to reinstate the regulations. Nancy Utesch from Kewaunee CARES has been one of the most active voices against groundwater contamination in the area and does not believe the legislature should step in.
Utesch believes the time has come to act, not to keep volleying it between courtrooms and state agencies.
She suggests the re-establishment of the state intervenor’s office, which was created by Republican Governor Warren Knowles back in the 1960s as a watchdog office to protect the public interest in water regulatory issues. The office was disbanded in 1995.
