Judge Sides with Pierce County Residents in Major Victory in Ridge Breeze Challenge

The decision finds DNR permit failed to ensure compliance with groundwater quality standards

Pierce County, WI — Pierce County residents have won a major victory in their three-year fight to protect their water, homes, and farming communities from the consequences of Ridge Breeze Dairy’s massive expansion. 

On August 24, Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput Foy ruled  that a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permit for the expansion of Ridge Breeze Dairy from approximately 1,700 cows to up to 9,000 failed to adequately protect groundwater from pollution.

The judge found that although the permit directed Ridge Breeze to comply with Wisconsin’s groundwater standards, it gave the DNR no meaningful way to determine whether the dairy was actually following those standards—or whether its operations were polluting the water Pierce County families rely on.

“By omitting a mechanism to verify actual compliance, the Department has issued a mandate while simultaneously denying itself the tools or data necessary to know whether that mandate is broken,” states the decision. 

The judge declared the permit unreasonable and sent it back to the DNR, which must now add safeguards — potentially including groundwater monitoring – capable of detecting violations of Wisconsin’s groundwater protection standards. 

RESIDENTS TO CELEBRATE VICTORY, CALL FOR STATEWIDE CHANGE

GROWW members, local residents, and allies will gather outside the DNR Service Center in Eau Claire on Monday, August 31, to celebrate the decision and call for stronger protections for clean water, small farms, and rural communities across Wisconsin.

WHAT: Clean Water Victory Press Action
WHEN: Monday, August 31, at 6:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: DNR Service Center, 1300 W Clairemont Ave, Eau Claire

“This victory started when a handful of neighbors sat down together in the a garage down the road from Ridge Breeze and decided that we wouldn’t let our health, water, or our farming heritage be treated as an afterthought.,” said Ty Fisher, a Pierce County farmer and member of GROWW (GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin). “For more than three years, locals here have organized, testified, and stood together. This decision proves that when we’re organized we can take on corporate ag special interests and win. 

Midwest Environmental Advocates filed the legal challenge on behalf of GROWW and five individual Pierce County residents after the DNR issued a permit allowing Ridge Breeze to quadruple in size and to spread nearly 80 million gallons of liquid manure on surrounding farm fields each year. 

For years,  residents have repeatedly raised concerns about Ridge Breeze’s ability to safely dispose of so much manure, especially in a region known to be susceptible to groundwater contamination. The decision notes that approximately 14 percent of tested wells in the county have nitrate concentrations exceeding Wisconsin’s groundwater enforcement standard of 10 mg/L. Despite these concerns, the DNR did not require Ridge Breeze to install groundwater monitoring wells when it issued the permit.

“Protecting groundwater requires more than simply telling Ridge Breeze to comply with the law,” said Adam Voskuil, senior staff attorney at Midwest Environmental Advocates. “The DNR must have a way to determine whether those requirements are actually being followed and whether groundwater is being protected. This ruling makes clear that paper promises are not enough.”

The ruling does not stop Ridge Breeze’s expansion, but it requires the DNR to go back and strengthen the permit. Residents say they will continue organizing to ensure this victory results in meaningful protections around Ridge Breeze and to advance state policies that protect clean water, support small farms, and hold massive factory farms accountable.

“This isn’t the end of our fight, but it is proof that our organizing works,” said Danny Akenson, an organizer with GROWW. “We’re going to celebrate what Pierce County residents won, and then we’re going to carry that people power to Madison to win the common sense accountability we need over corporate factory farms like these. Communities in Wisconsin shouldn’t have to fight for protections one factory farm and one permit at a time.”

Midwest Environmental Advocates is a nonprofit law center that combines the power of law with the resolve of communities facing environmental injustice to secure and protect the rights of all people to healthy water, land, and air. Learn more at http://www.midwestadvocates.org or www.facebook.com/midwestadvocates.

GROWW (GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin) is a grassroots organization based in Western Wisconsin. Together, we work toward a future where we all make ends meet, live with dignity, and have a voice in shaping the decisions that impact us. To get connected or learn more about GROWW, visit us at GRO-WW.org, on Instagram at @GrowWisconsin, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/GROWWisconsin.