Wisconsin town debates meaning of sustainability at hearing for proposed digester

For more than three hours on Wednesday night, the residents of the town of Lind in Waupaca County debated what the town should do about a proposed anaerobic co-digester on a local dairy farm. 

Hundreds of people packed into the auditorium at Waupaca High School for the community meeting that had been delayed since December when too many people showed up to the initial hearing to fit into Lind’s town hall. Another 90 joined the hearing remotely. 

On many dairy farms, manure is collected in an open pit, or lagoon. In the lagoon, the organic matter breaks down without oxygen — anaerobically. That process of breaking down releases huge amounts of methane into the environment. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, with livestock operations serving as a major source of that pollution.

In 2021, agriculture accounted for 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Much of those emissions came from livestock and manure. The capture of that methane has become an important goal for mitigating the effects of climate change. 

In addition to the methane emissions, most farms spread their manure on the land to use as fertilizer. However, overspreading is a risk and runoff from raw manure, which contains nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, can harm local waterways. 

A co-digester takes the manure produced on a farm and puts it into a tank with other organic waste such as food scraps and byproducts from industrial food processing. The temperature in the tank is increased and the organic matter is broken down, but instead of being released into the atmosphere, the methane is captured and turned into biogas, which can be used on the farm as an energy source or pumped into a local pipeline. 

The Waupaca project’s aim is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the farm, end the spreading of raw manure on the farm’s fields, and through that process, create renewable natural gas. Yet residents have organized against the project, raising concerns that it could harm local water quality, increase truck traffic and allow a large outside company to change the character of the small rural town. 

Before the digester can be built, the town’s zoning code and comprehensive plan need to be updated because digestion qualifies as an industrial, rather than agricultural process. The meeting Wednesday night was a public hearing on those changes. The town plan commission has already recommended the approval of the changes. The town board now gets a chance to recommend a decision before it is ultimately made by the Waupaca County Board. 

The digester project is a collaboration between Brooks Dairy Farm, a 600-cow farm which has operated in Lind for more than 160 years, and Vanguard Renewables, a national digester company. Ron Brooks, the farm’s owner, said at the hearing that he appreciates the passion locals have for the area and that he, too, takes his responsibility for local air and water seriously because his family has lived in the community for generations.

“The fact that this many individuals are in attendance tonight demonstrates a commendable passion for our community and our environment,” he said. “This passion for protection of our local environment is shared by my family as well. We live here, too, my children, my grandchildren. For 168 years we have implemented regenerative agricultural practices that preserve our soil, our air and our water quality. This digester is about our commitment to continuous improvement in our community.” 

Many renewable energy systems and climate change focused projects come with tradeoffs. The adoption of electric cars requires increased mining for resources such as nickel and large solar installations can disrupt local wildlife. 

Proponents of digestion say it’s a win-win. In Wisconsin, the manure is already here and it’s being spread on fields across the state, contributing to phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in bodies of water while methane leaks into the air. Digestion, proponents say, serves to use the manure that’s already here to create renewable natural gas while creating fertilizer that is easier to keep out of surface and groundwater. 

At the hearing, representatives of the farm and Vanguard attempted to convince the public that the technology is a route to more regenerative agriculture that will be healthier for the local environment than current practices, actually improving water quality from where it is now. 

But opponents of the project see harmful tradeoffs. They’re concerned about the effect on a local creek which runs into the Fox River and ultimately Lake Michigan and worried about what sorts of other food waste will be added to the digester. Many residents raised concerns that those other products included PFAS while others said that an “industrial” operation has no place in their small town. 

“It is our comprehensive plan and we as citizens of the town of Lind should decide how, when and if we want to change it,” Laurie Knutzen, a resident who has led the opposition, said. “Big global corporations may think it is outdated, and that we haven’t kept up with the times. But that is not their decision to make, it is our decision, our lives, our resources, our futures and our legacy, not theirs. Keeping up with the times does not necessarily mean adopting the latest, greatest, biggest and more expensive technology. It’s the well studied scientific solutions that are balanced with the health and environmental impacts that are of the highest value.”

Outside experts and Vanguard representatives have previously told the Examiner that PFAS isn’t a concern with digestion and that while the technical qualification as an “industrial” project may sound frightening to residents, that designation actually increases the scrutiny the project gets from state regulators to a higher level than the farm is subject to now. 

Kevin Chase, Vanguard’s chief development officer, said at the hearing that the company has an “unwavering commitment to this community” and noted that nothing harmful will be added to the digester. 

“We will not bring on any materials that are pharmaceutical, septic human waste, heavy metals, toxic materials … if you think about the digester, as kind of a stomach, whatever the human stomach could use. We’re talking about fruits, vegetables, we’re talking about sodas. We’re talking about hog material. We’re talking about other dairy products. And we have never, will never bring on any materials that can be a detriment to both the farm, the community and our project.” 

The presentation from the farm and project, as well as more than an hour of testimony from project supporters, didn’t do much to sway the opposition. While many of the speakers in support of the project were experts on the technology, engineers, agricultural industry representatives, and other farmers from outside the community, much of the testimony against the project came from longtime residents of Lind and the surrounding communities. Other speakers came from communities that have seen water quality harmed by the proliferation of factory farms in the state such as Kewaunee County and the town of Emerald in St. Croix County. 

Opponents raised the prospect of manure spills and methane leaks, questioned how renewable the practice really is, and called the project “greenwashing.” Several speakers said they objected to changing the farm’s zoning designation to “industrial” because it could change the town’s character. 

But Sydney Brooks, one of Ron’s daughters, said that preserving the town’s rural character requires making improvements that allow farms to stay open, noting that the community has seen the number of dairy farms drop from 18 to four. 

“Country living looks like a barn that still has cows in it,” she said.

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