The 2nd District Court of Appeals unanimously found the Department of Natural Resources has “explicit” authority to subject large farms to wastewater permit requirements intended to protect water quality.
The three judges who issued yesterday’s decision to uphold Calumet County Judge Carey Reed’s 2024 ruling rejected Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s arguments. The group sought to challenge the regulations through a lawsuit against DNR filed on behalf of the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative.
WMC had argued DNR can’t require large concentrated animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs, to obtain wastewater permits before they discharge a pollutant to navigable waters. Environmental groups have asserted the permit requirements help promote water quality and protect public health, and invalidating them would prevent the DNR from limiting pollution.
In yesterday’s decision, Judges Lisa Neubauer, Mark Gundrum and Shelley Grogan found the regulations “do not conflict with state statutes and do not exceed the DNR’s statutory authority.”
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Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative in a joint statement called the decision “disappointing” and vowed to “continue to fight for Wisconsin farmers regardless of the size of their farm.”
“We believe that there is no place for bad actors and that polluters should face penalties, but this case had nothing to do with weakening environmental laws,” the groups said. “Our sole mission in challenging the DNR’s authority was to ensure that Wisconsin farmers are held to standards consistent with federal law. We continue to believe that a ‘presumption of guilt’ runs contrary to the very fundamentals of the American justice system.”
Meanwhile, environmental groups hailed the ruling. Midwest Environmental Advocates staff attorney Adam Voskuil said the court “affirmed the state’s authority to do its job—protecting our rivers, our lakes and our drinking water from agricultural pollution.”
MEA intervened in the case on behalf of Wisconsin Farmers Union. WFU President Darin Von Ruden said the decision is “a win for every rural community that depends on clean water.”
Clean Wisconsin also intervened in the lawsuit, which attorney Evan Feinauer called “misguided.”
“This ruling is critical because it preserves the DNR’s ability to address water pollution that can be caused by these facilities, at a time when many surface and groundwaters around the state are contaminated with animal waste,” Feinauer said.
