Agriculture

La Crosse County pushing for DNR hearing on hog farm permit

Published

5 years ago

January 30, 2019

A large hog lot in northern La Crosse County is in line for a permit renewal from the Wisconsin DNR this year, but the county health department wants a public hearing before it is granted.

Health director Jen Rombalski hopes to give neighbors of the Babcock hog farm a chance to talk about their contaminated well water.

Rombalski says the odds are high that increased nitrate levels discovered in the water might have been caused by manure from the farm.

Rombalski is hoping to hear, this week, whether the DNR will agree to take comments at a hearing on the hog lot permit.

A similar proposal to build a corporate hog farm in southeast Minnesota has made headlines recently, because of fears that manure runoff from the farm could lead to groundwater pollution.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.