The proposed Golden Sands Dairy Farm would have 3,500 milking cows along with agricultural fields on 7,000 acres.Yesterday, Judge Thomas Eagon ruled that Town of Saratoga officials have to issue building permits for the development, despite a moratorium they placed on new construction. The ruling favored Golden Sands owner Jim Wysocki, who told Wisconsin Public Radio last year that the moratorium was enacted for one reason only: to stop his farm. “It’s very clear that it was designed to stop our project from going forward.”
Wysocki did not return our phone calls in time for today’s story. Local homeowner Nancy Koch says the farm’s opponents are not giving up despite yesterday’s ruling on the building permits: “No, no, no. It encourages even more people to fight, and fight harder.”
Koch says the project still has to be approved by the Department of Natural Resources, and opponents are trying to convince the agency that their well water is at risk.
“E coli, nitrates, phosphorous, bovine growth hormone, different pesticides that are in the water. So if we have water out of our sinks, we are very, very concerned if it will even be drinkable, or usable to wash our faces or brush our teeth.”
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