Big WI dairies, like sand and iron mines, buy into Walker, Inc.

You've read about a secret $700,000 donation routed to Scott Walker's campaign by the iron mining company allowed to help write or benefit solely from sweetheart northern Wisconsin mining and forest land closing bills.

You've read about Walker's suspension of a public role and some DNR reviews of sand mines in scores of western Wisconsin towns.

Now read about the tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Walker's campaign from large dairies seeking to vastly expand operations, suck up more groundwater and produce more manure under a new law Walker signed weakening how the DNR should evaluate groundwater extraction by large users, like dairies:

Milk Source — which milks and manages 27,000 cows on four Wisconsin dairy farms — [seeks] to build and begin operating Richfield Dairy roughly 80 miles north of Madison.

The $35 million confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, would house 4,300 cows and 250 steers...over 115 acres...and another 16,300 acres for spreading manure...

To accommodate the water needs of the industrial farm, Milk Source first applied to the state DNR for a permit to build two high-capacity wells... 

Six months later, the DNR approved the permit that allowed for two high-capacity wells...with a combined capacity to withdraw 72.5 million gallons of water per year.

Roughly one month later, four Milk Source employees donated $85,000 to Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign fund on one day, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.