Wisconsin farm group to offer aid on bad wells

A farm group in northeastern Wisconsin announced plans on Wednesday to supply water to residents with tainted wells in Kewaunee County, where the practice of manure spreading — especially by large-scale farms with thousands of cattle — has been a contentious political topic.  In an unprecedented step, Peninsula Pride Farms will provide water and a subsidy for a system to treat it in selected cases — regardless of whether the source of contamination is from animal waste or another form of pollution. The offer, which involves some public funds, is a tacit acknowledgment of agriculture's role in polluted wells in the region. But experts have said that farms are not the sole source of contamination in a county where nearly 30% of the wells tested over a 12-year period showed unsafe levels of bacteria and or nitrates. Peninsula Pride Farms' offer applies only to wells that can show evidence of contamination by E. coli, a bacteria that in virulent forms can cause cramps, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. Records show about two dozen such wells have tested positive for E. coli over the past decade.