Town CAFO Operations Ordinance FAQs

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Wisconsin towns are the target of global corporate interests who want to take away local control over their livestock factories.

Current laws give local communities almost no control over the waste, air pollution and carcasses these huge factories produce. Without an operations ordinance, their impact on roads, wells, health and the economy are unknown.

Health impacts are common in communities such as Kewaunee County, WI where people can't drink the water.

All of the hard work you and your family have invested in your property is at risk. For example, property values in Green County, WI dropped by 27% when the hogs moved in. Other communities have seen drops of up to 88%!

Operations ordinances do not ban CAFOs. If a large livestock factory wants to move in or expand they have to submit plans laying out how they will manage manure, air pollution, water usage, carcass disposal, biosecurity, fire protection and road damage. 

They will have to pay for enforcement of their plans. In addition, they must post a bond to cover any clean up if they go out of business. 

There is nothing hypothetical about attempts to build new and expanded CAFOs in Wisconsin towns.  Federal and state governmental policies encourage investors to build bigger and buy more and more land to spread millions of gallons of liquid waste - made up of raw feces, urine and process water - across the landscape. 

Powerful lobby groups, like the Farm Bureau, work all through farm country to make sure that there is little to no regulation.    

State laws do almost nothing. DNR's large livestock regulations cover manure but enforcement is based on self-reporting. A factory in St. Croix County spilled 275,000 gallons before a whistleblower turned them in. 

There is no limit to how big these operations can get. In beautiful Door County, Wi the DNR is allowing a dairy to have more than 10,000 animal units and spread 95 million gallons of liquid waste over more than 9,200 acres. That is 40% of a town!

A Kewaunee County dairy spreads manure on more than 16,000 acres in two counties but doesn't want to monitor water  quality.

State laws do not require these factories to submit plans for controlling air pollution even though they run fans 24/7 so the animals don't die from the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia fumes. 

Lobbyists for the CAFOs basically wrote the state's Large Livestock Siting law stripping nearly all local control. David Crass, a lawyer who frequently represents owners of livestock factories, brags: “After all, we wrote the law and are in the best position to tell you what it means.” 

"Whereas permitting was previously performed at the local level, Wisconsin has now adopted a streamlined statewide permitting approach..." 

Each town can decide how big a livestock factory to cover with the ordinance. Most ordinances cover factories with more than 700 animal units. For example, to be covered existing farms would have to have more than 87,500 chickens, 38,500 turkeys, 490 dairy cows or 1,750 hogs.  

Six neighboring Wisconsin towns - Bone Lake, Eureka, Laketown, Luck, Sterling and Trade Lake - formed a partnership to develop a model operations ordinance. A panel of legal, environmental and engineering experts guided development of the model ordinance that any Wisconsin town can craft to fit their circumstances. 

In-depth research on the CAFO industry and a town are the ordinance's foundation. Findings of facts are pulled from the research laying out the need for the ordinance. 

Typically, the ordinance is structured with the findings of facts first, followed by multiple sections establishing a town's authority, application process, fees, conditions, etc. One appendix contains the in-depth research about the CAFO industry. A second appendix includes a series of maps laying out the town's conditions such as susceptibility to water pollution and ability to absorb manure. A third appendix includes an application form.

Click here for an Operations Ordinance example.

The ordinance draws authority from powers granted under the Wisconsin Constitution and Wisconsin Statutes. 

Many town supervisors view protecting the health and property values of town citizens as not just a power but a responsibility. 

Town livestock ordinances are enforced with the same authority as ordinances on speed limits, parking, zoning or permits, etc.

Sections 15 & 16 lay out the penalty and appeals process. Section 8.2 requires the permittee to “to fully compensate the Town for all legal services, expert consulting services and other expenses, for verifying and enforcing compliance with the terms of the permit, with or without conditions…”

The operations ordinance was developed with legal input from two attorneys. Each of the towns that passed the ordinance also had it reviewed and approved by their town counsel.  

Big livestock factory owners do not want any local control over these plants. Their lawsuit is just the latest of many attacks that they are making around the state to intimidate local officials. The law firms of Bassford Remele and Fredrikson consider the case to be so important that they are defending Eureka at no cost.