MADISON – The state’s largest business lobby is appealing a decision made that upheld the Department of Natural Resources’ ability regulate factory farms.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce said in a release Friday that concentrated animal feed operations, or CAFOs, “have helped usher in an era of modern farming that can reduce negative environmental impacts while helping to keep families farming on the land for generations to come by providing a living for more family members.”

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“Larger-scale farms in Wisconsin are already some of the most regulated entities in our state and nationally, and this permit requirement simply creates additional burdens on our agricultural community,” WMC litigation center executive director Scott Rosenow said in the release.

Calumet County Circuit Court Judge Carey Reed issued an oral ruling in January striking down the challenge brought last spring by the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative, which argued the agency didn’t have the authority to require large farm operations to obtain water discharge permits before pollution occurs. The groups were represented by WMC.

Organizatiions representing farmers said the January decision was unfair to food producers, who are automatically treated as polluters.

“This unlawful permit requirement assumes that 327 farmers in our state affected by the regulation are automatic polluters, and that is categorically false,” Venture Dairy Cooperative Executive Director Kim Bremmer said.

Environmental groups celebrated the January decision, calling the suit “misguided” and “reckless.”

The discharge permits are among some of the only regulatory guides in Wisconsin for CAFOs — farms that have 1,000 or more animal units. The permits require farms to have plans on how to store and get rid of the massive amounts of manure produced by the animals.

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In the complaint filed last May, the dairy groups argued that obtaining a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit is a time-consuming and costly burden for farms. Farms must apply for the permit a year prior to becoming a CAFO, detailing in the application their manure storage and wastewater treatment facilities, types of outdoor animal lots, feed storage areas and runoff control systems.

The process also includes a hearing in which members of the public can comment.

The complaint points to two federal court rulings that found that under the Clean Water Act, CAFOs could not be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to get a permit before pollution happens.

In his ruling, Reed cited state statutes that outlined the importance of protecting public water sources for the public, fish and aquatic life, as well as to protect the scenic and ecological values of water.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WMC appeals decision upholding DNR ability to permit CAFOs