Yet another health alert about cow feces in Kewaunee Co. wells

For the umpteenth time, science shows that cow manure in rural drinking water has been pinpointed as the cause of human illness. 

The No. 1 factor for acute gastrointestinal illness in Kewaunee County’s private drinking water wells is cow manure, according to a federal study released today. The findings raise questions about the effectiveness of existing regulations aimed at protecting residents from tainted drinking water.

And while you are digesting that disgusting reality, remember that the same GOP politicians who are OK with brown water in rural taps are also walking away from active regulation of contaminating, 'forever chemical' industrial water pollution statewide as well as lead poisoning that is damaging the brains of young urban children.

Whether it's promoting bad water in rural wells or big-city water systems, the Wisconsin GOP, as I said last week, is the equal pollution opportunity party.

WI GOP budget cuts flush out possible new party logo 

The bad news is that WI's gerrymandered GOP legislators say they will delete funding to replace lead water pipes; they did the same thing two years ago because too many kids in Milwaukee might have gotten the benefit. 

And to stay consistent with that embrace of lead-laden household water pipes and their long-standing support of animal waste in well water, Republican legislators are refusing to write statewide standards into the budget that would speed the removal of toxic "forever chemicals" from state waters.

Like I said in 2016:

The Wisconsin GOP chooses to be The Pollution Party

* Back to the manure report; maybe that reminds you of this 2017 report: 

Up to 60 percent of sampled wells in a Kewaunee County study contained fecal microbes, many of which are capable of making people and calves sick, two scientists told hundreds of local residents gathered at a public meeting Wednesday night.

The microorganisms included Cryptosporidium, a parasite that comes from both people and animals. Researchers estimated Crypto in drinking water is likely infecting 140 of the county’s 20,000 residents each year.

Or echoes earlier media, like this 2019 blog post:

Following Kewaunee Co. manure runoffs. And the followups

 

Yes, that's "runoffs," plural, which helps explain why Kewaunee County clean water activist Nancy Utesch - - and others - - have said - for years - 'enough of this, already.'

Data show what people in Kewaunee County and the Central Sands region who live near the industrial-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, already know:

Their drinking water is contaminated:

WI Central Sands the next Flint? Kewaunee County already soaks up that honor.

And, yes, new litigation has been filed by dozens of residents in Juneau County - - but did you know that a delayed and diverted 2012 case brought against a Kewaunee County CAFO was successfully re-routed by former Attorney General Brad Schimel through the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to Waukesha County?

* I even ran a guest blog about this by a Kewaunee County resident in 2014. 

Wells, cooler temperatures and a government that is encouraging industry to move in with a "no holds barred" culture is already increasing the number of Dairy CAFOs along with the numbers of cows.

For example, here in Kewaunee County we now have 76,000+ cows with another estimated 30,000+ by 2016! 

It is becoming a common belief system that Citizens United/ALEC/Americans for Prosperity are the present administration's puppet masters. Big vertically integrated industrialized agriculture (with $$ billions under their control) have this administration's complete attention and obedience. 

The environment and human citizens are no more than "collateral damage" getting in the way of massive greed-driven profits that benefit only a few (and who are very likely carefully out-sourcing their ill-begotten profits far away from any governmental oversight) 

The next few years may be very dramatic and traumatic...time will tell what the "big boyz" and our "government" are up to!

* In the GOP-led Walker era, politicians routinely ignored the warnings, like this one in 2015:

One-third of wells in Kewaunee County unsafe for drinking water

And if the rotten relationship between GOP politics and rotten drinking water everyday Wisconsinites, this 2020 posting proves you are right, again: 

WI GOP leaders go to bat for CAFOs. Again

Wisconsin GOP legislators, bellhops to corporate agriculture, will continue to serve brown tap water to rural constituents and the back of the hand to residents statewide....

Because the GOP is politically-attached to CAFO proliferation.

Vos, Fitzgerald go to bat for 'existing and expanding CAFO operations'

As an addendum to posts on this blog about GOP objections to WI livestock siting rules which have stalled and cost Gov. Evers his Ag department secretary nominee, I want to add some relevant correspondence, below.

It's a letter signed by WI GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and WI GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald....

Remember that major ag special interests, regardless of what runs off on to the land and into the water, have enjoyed special relationships with Walker, the DNR, and legislators (see the hand-delivered marching orders Big Ag handed them, here (bold-facing and color-coding in the original hand-delivered October 15, 2015 communication:

An urgent communication to all Wisconsin legislators

We are at a crossroads. It is imperative that the legislature assert its authority and bring certainty and sanity to the regulation of new and existing high capacity wells in Wisconsin.... 

If this sounds like an urgent plea, that is because this is. We cannot wait any longer for the legislation described above.

However, we cannot accept any legislation that would create new, stifling regulations or establish regulatory uncertainty as to how DNR and the state will approach new well applications moving forward