Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen Announces Judgment Requiring Brown County Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation to Pay $50,000 in Forfeitures, Fees and Costs

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. VanHollen has announced that his office has obtained a judgment against Tinedale Farms Partnership, LLP, of Wrightstown, requiring it to pay $50,000 in forfeitures, mandatory court costs, surcharges, and attorneys' fees for violations of its Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit.

According to the complaint, on May 28, 2010, Tinedale Farms allowed silage leachate to run off of a production area into a navigable tributary of Apple Creek. The leachate runoff was not an allowable discharge under Tinedale Farms' WPDES permit. Tinedale Farms failed to provide the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) verbal notification of the incident within 24 hours or written notification within five days. Failure to notify the DNR of a discharge is a violation of Tinedale Farms' WPDES permit.

In addition, Tinedale Farms failed to: perform weekly visual inspections of the feed storage bunkers and a ditch leading to the navigable tributary, submit plans and specifications for permanent feed storage runoff controls in a timely manner, complete construction of the permanent controls in a timely manner, and install maximum operating level markers in its previously constructed manure storage pits in a timely manner, all of which are violations of Tinedale Farms' WPDES permit.

Assistant Attorneys General Bradley J. Motl and Cynthia R. Hirsch represented the State.

Copies of the Civil Complaint, Judgment, and the Stipulation and Order for Judgment are available at the following links: