Citizens for
Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand’s
Bay South - Merrimac, WI
53561
Phone (608)
643-3124 - Fax (608) 643-0005
Email: info@cswab.org
- Website: www.cswab.org
April 12, 2007
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
For more information contact:
Laura Olah, CSWAB (608)643-3124
Bringing
Dairy Research Center into
Compliance
PRAIRIE DU SAC – After more
than 17 months of pressure from CSWAB, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has
set a May 1 deadline for getting the Dairy Forage Research Center Farm into
compliance with state and federal laws that protect water quality.
Since 2002, all Wisconsin
farmers have been required to prepare annual Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs)
to protect our lakes, streams, and groundwater from polluted agricultural
runoff. According to the Sauk County Land Conservation Department,
federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture are not exempted
from these requirements.
The Dairy Forage Research Center
(DFRC), however, has not been producing annual NMPs for its rural Sauk County
facility which currently has approximately 670 dairy cattle. A plan was
also required as part of its permit for the manure-holding facility constructed
last year on recently-acquired land at Badger Army Ammunition Plant. Sauk County
officials said, however, that the required NMP has still not been submitted.
An environmental protection
specialist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Peoria, Illinois said
that the facility’s NMPs have “not necessarily been written
down” and that the agency has “perhaps not fulfilled Wisconsin’s
requirements before”.
Regional ARS Director Steven R.
Shafer said that the agency is working quickly to get the facility in
compliance and personally set the May 1 target. Members of CSWAB’s
board met with DFRC staff on April 3 to discuss progress in completing required
plan components such as mapping, soil testing, and nutrient analysis.
CSWAB has retained a professional hydrologist/soil scientist to review
recently-acquired records for 2002 to 2006.
The Dairy Forage Research Center
Farm, including barns and a manure management facility, is located adjacent to Lake Wisconsin in
rural Prairie du Sac. The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. The farm
operates jointly with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of
Agricultural and Life Sciences, Agricultural Research Stations. In
September of 2004, the USDA received custody of 1,943 acres of the former
Badger Army Ammunition Plant.
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
(CSWAB) was organized in 1990 by neighbors of the closing military base and has
been a driving force in the successful cleanup and conversion of the plant to
conservation and sustainable agriculture.
END
--
Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe
Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand's Bay
South
Merrimac, WI 53561
(608)643-3124
Email: info@cswab.org
Website:
www.cswab.org