Another what would you do question

[zuma]

Enjoying the “what would you do” questions.

Here is one:

Today I went to maintain one of my caches, along a bike trail. The trail is adjacent to a farm field. The entire area where I placed the cache is now a small creek of liquid manure off of the farm field above, so obviously I moved the cache down the trail a ways.

But I investigated where all that manure was coming from, and found that there is a large agri-business with hundreds of livestock penned up a half mile away with a lagoon of liquid manure, and it appears that it is somehow trickling liquid manure down the hill, under the bike trail and into the creek.

Robin says I should contact the DNR. Would you?

z

[kc9gbo]

If you don’t know the name of the land owner and have no way of contacting them I’d call the DNR.

[JimandLinda]

I would NOT talk to the land owner! If they have a manure pit or lagoon that is leaking and flowing into a stream, the DNR or law enforcement should be contacted immediately!
Changing the acidity in a freshwater stream can cause alot of damage downstream, especially if other farmers have grazing land that the stream runs through. Manure and urine can carry leptospirosis, which causes early miscarriages in cattle.

Doing nothing will cause further problems in the future!

[BigJim]

Yes, absolutely contact the DNR. This can cause major changes in the ecosystem of the stream. Besides, it might be good PR for geocaching 😉

All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.

[CodeJunkie]

I agree on this one. I would not contact the farmer at all. I’d go right to the DNR or Ag Dept.

[ruff54]

Devil’s advocate here:

Even though you might not get an immediate, positive response from the landowner, I would still make an attempt to contact them if I had intentions of calling a government official.

I pose this question to anyone here: If you had a cache that was making an ecological impact that you weren’t aware of, would you want a muggle or even another cacher to go immediately to a reviewer or Groundspeak to get the cache moved or archived?

I know I wouldn’t. I don’t like people immediately jumping over my head. If there’s a problem with something I’m doing I’d usually like to know about it before someone goes and tells on me.

If the land owner doesn’t acknowledge the problem or seems indifferent when you talk to him, call the DNR or FSA. Heck, maybe he does know about it and just doesn’t care or hopes no one notices. At least if you contact him you gave the guy the chance to fix it himself.

[Team Black-Cat]

@zuma wrote:

Robin says I should contact the DNR. Would you?
z

Yes.
A corporation is going to do as little as possible to make the problem go away.
And.. Robin said you should.

[Team_Sandman]

With being a part of the Izaak Walton League of America. We protect air water and soil. I would most definatly contact your local DNR that is pollution that is running into a local stream somewhere and killing off micro orginizims that other life need to live if enough of the manure enters the water table it will affect more than animals. there is no devils advicate to this. This is also your land. I dont even know why anyone would not say anything on a matter like this

[JimandLinda]

I farmed in partnership with my father for 20 years along the Rock River. We quit pasturing our cattle because of upstream problems that took years to fix.

If I had a radioactive cache that was making cachers sick and die, would you send me a polite e-mail, to give me a chance to “fix” it? Or would you contact the authorities before I fled the country?!

Comparing manure run-off to a cache problem is like comparing apples to giraffes.

Zuma happened to be a cacher that saw the problem. It could have been a nun or a grade school kid. I applaud him for asking for input before confronting a farmer that might be 3-4 weeks behind in his farm work, due to this long winter and wet spring. NONE of us is qualified to approach the landowner on a federal violation of stream contamination!

But if zuma would like to send the ‘devils advocate’ the address of the farmer, feel free to drive from Kenosha to wherever and tell the farmer to fix his crappy problem.

Let me know when your going. I’ll bring my lawn chair and a bag of popcorn, to watch the fireworks!

[huffinpuffin2]

I vote: immediately report, and cache on.

[Team Northwoods]

You should contact the Hazardous Substance Spill
1-800-943-0003. It is better to be safe then sorry.

***Opinions expressed are mine alone and will change based upon new information. ***

[labrat_wr]

I agree with notifying authorities. this isn’t Joe Farmer with a small hobby farm who’s cows are dumping in the stream. the magnitude of the potential harm outweighs the need for kindness.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[ruff54]

@JimandLinda wrote:

I farmed in partnership with my father for 20 years along the Rock River. We quit pasturing our cattle because of upstream problems that took years to fix.

If I had a radioactive cache that was making cachers sick and die, would you send me a polite e-mail, to give me a chance to “fix” it? Or would you contact the authorities before I fled the country?!

Comparing manure run-off to a cache problem is like comparing apples to giraffes.

Zuma happened to be a cacher that saw the problem. It could have been a nun or a grade school kid. I applaud him for asking for input before confronting a farmer that might be 3-4 weeks behind in his farm work, due to this long winter and wet spring. NONE of us is qualified to approach the landowner on a federal violation of stream contamination!

But if zuma would like to send the ‘devils advocate’ the address of the farmer, feel free to drive from Kenosha to wherever and tell the farmer to fix his crappy problem.

Let me know when your going. I’ll bring my lawn chair and a bag of popcorn, to watch the fireworks!

No need to be mean about it. I agree that it is a problem. I agree that the proper people in the proper places should be contacted. I grew up on a dairy farm, and I worked for the local Farm Service Agency during the summers in college dealing (see: reporting) with these issues…I’m not completely misinformed and I’m also not against you.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

No question about it, I’d contact the DNR. Most likely won’t get anywhere with the agri-biz.

[zuma]

@labrat_wr wrote:

I agree with notifying authorities. this isn’t Joe Farmer with a small hobby farm who’s cows are dumping in the stream. the magnitude of the potential harm outweighs the need for kindness.

Yeah, I draw a distinction between family farms and a little run off and big agri-biz also. I have 2 caches in the general area, and have a friend who is a neighbor, so did a little more research today.

The “farm” milks 2000 cows, all in confinement, which means no pasturing. Their manure is pumped into 2 large lagoons (which I can see from one of my caches on a nearby hill.) Twice a year, they use miles and miles of pipes to pump out the lagoons into the nearby cornfields. Where I saw the manure was about 1/2 mile away, but 20 feet from the edge of the cornfield which they pump manure into. Apparently, they pump it right into the ground. The manure is under high pressure to pump it into the ground. My friend thought the most likely cause of the manure that I saw was that sometimes pipes break and spray manure all over until they can shut it down.

thanks for all the feedback.

z

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