Farm Pays $50,000 To Settle Manure Pollution Complaint

A Kewaunee County dairy farm has agreed to pay 50-thousand dollars to settle a state complaint that it applied manure improperly, causing nearby water pollution. The Stahl Brothers Dairy of Luxemburg reached the settlement last month, but it was not made public until the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project dug up state records about it. The group called it the “tip of the iceberg for industrial dairy violations that deserve” state penalties. The stated that a “third party applicator” did not comply with certain regulations on two occasions in 2014 and ’15 — and bad weather and mechanical failures caused manure applications outside authorized limits. The dairy said the issues have been resolved. Later on Tuesday, the state Justice Department defended its record for handling environmental cases, saying it collected more in fines from January through June than in all of 2016.