water permit application

The original water withdrawal permit request was received by the DNR on April 11 2017 from Mike Walz of W6 Farms Inc.  It was later transferred to Jared Walz of Supreme Beef, LLC. The request was based on 10,000 head of cattle consuming water at a rate of 6.0 gal/head/day; this led to the request to withdraw 10,000 x 365 x 6.0 = 21.9 MGY.  Public Notice appeared on May 10, 2017 in the weekly Monona Outlook, circulation ~ 700 readers.  No public comments were received.  The final permit was issued on June 1, 2017 for a period of 5 years. The 2017 permit included a list of conditions, and a Summary Report justifying the decision to issue the permit.

In the renewal request received March 17 2022 the applicant provides no new information and requests permit renewal without modification. The DNR Notice of Intent to Renew was issued on April 5, 2022.    They state: “The DNR has reviewed [the 2017 Summary Report] and has no updates to it at this time.”  We should note that in January the DNR was notified that Supreme Beef:

Proposes to house 11,600 head, more than the 10,000 listed in the 2017 application.

The closest neighboring well had been omitted from the 2017 application and was not specifically considered in the Summary Report.

Is likely to require an average of at least 10 gallons per day per head (20 gallons per day in the summer), much more than the 6.0 gallons estimated in the application.