Sometimes I wonder if manure run off is more common than we are aware of, and how much of it it takes to harm a waterway
http://www.weau.com/content/news/DNR-investigates-manure-spill-at-area-pond-480424833.html

Around here the farmers are much more regulated and it is much less common than the cities waste dispersals into the rivers

My cousin had a fantastic farm pond, full of big crappie, bass and bluegill that was killed off by run-off from a neighbor's cattle yard. It was a crying shame. I don't suppose he can complain too loud, considering he runs about 1500 more head of cattle than his neighbor..

i bet there isn't much going on more the city folk moved to the country and there than someone complaining about their neighbor spreading manure on their field to close to a rain . the city folk don't like the stink of manure spreading and call everybody from dnr to the tv stations and newspaper .

Most of the Milwaukee Rivers pollution now is from ag runnoff.

A cattle lot here, under two different owners has had bad run off, I think both got in trouble from it
One of biggest cattle guys here has at least twice been fined for fish kills on brown creek

Ban burgers.

If you can imagine.. on the northwest coasts of France there are hundreds of miles of beach that have to be cleaned every day by bulldozers because of algae that is the result of the intensive pig farming in the watershed. Millions of tons of algae are taken off the beaches every month so the tourists can still swim.

Up by the farm we have about 20 fish hatcheries raising trout for restaurants. They all use the river water. The uneaten pellets and the trout crap all ends up in the river. Nutrient pollution also hurts the wild trout population. Just google nutrient pollution. Too much fertilizer can be bad too.

Pete

Manure is great... to a certain point.

I like our dredge ditches that have. 20-60 foot buffer zone, full of grass and weeds to filter water going in, and it's an awesome location for snaring and trapping coyote

I would be curious to see comparisons of how much Milwaukee Metro spills annually vs estimates for farm run-off.

From a 2016 Journal Sentinal article: On Aug. 30, a single combined sewer near N. 35th St. and W. Congress Ave. overflowed for seven minutes, from 1:13 to 1:20 p.m. An estimated 200,000 gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged to Lincoln Creek at the height of heavy rainstorms that day.

I don’t know of any farms that could do 200,000 gallons in 7 minutes.

Just unfortunate farms get much more negative publicity and fines.

Dave

I’ve posted before on this subject, and am a bit sensitive to it so I’ll try and remain calm. In the 40s my great grandfather and grandfather where wanting to get into the feeder cattle business. They reached out to the government and K-state and where told the best location we had was nestled in big horseshoe created by the creek. Good wind protection by all the trees, slope for runoff, fresh water, so that’s where they built the operation. 40 years later and hundreds of thousands of dollars later my grandfather was killed building another lagoon for the same people. As the owner of multiple feed yards holding 22,000 plus head of cattle I can assure you that manure runoff is our top environmental concern, and it doesn’t happen around here. There are always bad apples that give us a bad name. No different then a incompetent trapper doing some unethical or just stupid and giving us trappers a bad name. I’ll put my operation up against any city of 2,000+. I would bet I’d win just on over applications on nitrogen on house lawns, and oil leaks on cars. If you have a problem; go to the farmer, dairy man, feed yard and talk to them, don’t get the government involved!! I bet it will be resolved if your civil. The same people after there livelihood are after your trapping rights

well said Pawnee