clean water regulations scaled back

MADISON — Responding to strong complaints from Wisconsin’s dairy industry, the state Department of Natural Resources quietly narrowed the scope of rules it is writing to reduce health hazards from hundreds of millions of gallons of manure spread on farm fields each year.

An industry representative said the DNR’s initial plan for rule-making would have been much too costly, in part because it would have generally reduced the amount of manure that could be applied per acre, requiring dairy operators to obtain more land.

But conservationists said the narrowed rule-making plan delayed indefinitely the consideration of public health and water resources protections that were identified through lengthy scientific study and extensive public discussion.