WDNR/Cheese Co Destroyed my Creek...

[imaxfli]

A decade ago a local Cheese Company was allowed to dump it's effluent into a small ditch that leads to a branch of Krok Cr/West Twin river in NE Wisconsin...this permit allowed water to be discharged at a temp of 200 degrees F..the ditch enters the Creek on the other side of HWY 29 from where the headwaters are considered a Class I trout stream....several fish kills have occurred since then and it's permit was changed(DNR won't tell me how), after it was found Company also exceeded BOD 500 different TIMES!!! My land is several miles downstream from where the ditch enters the creek and objects in it have become covered with a brown algae and under that algae , rocks are covered with a "crusty" substance.....HEX hatches have stopped, I saw 1 dun several years ago and haven't seen the small swarms of "rusties" that I used to...also the added volume has caused increased flooding in spring and more bank erosion. Would any experts out there know of something that would be found in Cheese Co. effluent that would cause the crusty material on rocks and the brown algae to proliferate???

[zhoyt]

DNR meaning Department of Natural Resources? If so, you should be able to FOI about any info you want.

[hutjensmpg]

I agree w/ ZHoyt. Get some Freedom of Info going on that and find out what they're allowed to flow and then go get a sample and send it to a lab. There could be a whole range of stuff in there - anything from leftover milk solids, process cheese ingredients like tsp, acid, lubricants, to cleaning chemicals.

[J Castwell]

200 degrees "IS" thermal pollution. Get involved soon.

[imaxfli]

Was the temperature of discharge allowed in the original permit...after several fish kills they supposedly changed things, but they won't tell me because it has been in re-permitting stage for years...now how could the DNR allow such a limit when they knew it entered a Trout Stream...well, I'll answer that for you, because it was the only way to word the permit and allow the Cheese Co to comply with it...the fact that they exceeded the BOD 500(!!!) different times obviously shows they didn't know what was in the discharge...just shows how corrupt and useless the WDNR really is!!!!

[J Castwell]

My attitude often is, "It's never too late to do something." It may not be yet. Let some sunlight in.