Posters and merchandise created by volunteers advocate for “no digester” in the Town of Lind.
By Tracy Staedter
“As we get to that meeting, the cars just start coming in,” says Vicki. “Every seat in the house is filled. There are people standing along the aisles. There are people going out the hallway, down the steps, and people all the way out into the parking lot.”
It's a chilly December evening in eastern Wisconsin and Vicki is filled with anticipation. She and other residents have been waiting months for a public hearing in the Town of Lind. Supervisors are poised to vote whether to rezone a portion of the township and amend the Town's Comprehensive Plan. Approval would allow Vanguard Renewables, owned by the multi-trillion-dollar investment firm BlackRock, to build a manure and industrial food waste co-digester on a factory farm to produce factory farm gas.
Hers is not the first rural Wisconsin community to resist this kind of industrial development. Financial and bi-partisan political support drives massive expansions of factory farm gas throughout the state. In response, locals are forming grassroots movements, like Citizens Protecting Rural Waupaca County, to stand up to factory farm gas projects. Lawmakers know little about these efforts, though.
Vicki, who grew up on a local dairy farm, scans the town hall crowd for familiar faces. She is pleasantly surprised by how many people turn out. Some wear baseball caps with “No Digester” printed in bold letters. Others hold homemade signs advocating for water quality. She hopes enough people show up to convince the Town Board to vote no. She nods at her friend Laurie.
Laurie, who has lived in Lind since second grade and raised her family there, says that at first the idea of a co-digester “sounds like a reasonable intervention." Manure and food waste go into the co-digester. A by-product called digestate, methane gas, and industrial wastewater come out.
“It is an impressive marketing campaign,” she says. “But there are some red flags.”
Laurie is not alone. The more community members learn about on-farm co-digesters the more they realize how these facilities turn rural landscapes into industrial dumping grounds.
At promptly six o’clock, Lind's town attorney addresses the crowd. The meeting will be called to order but will be followed by a motion to adjourn because the high turnout of residents exceeds the building’s capacity. A few people groan.
Laurie's not deflated. “It gives us more time to continue educating ourselves and prepare again for the public hearing.”
What They Find
Following a very contentious Lind Planning Commission meeting in September 2023, Citizens Protecting Rural Waupaca County have been investigating Vanguard’s business claims related to an on-farm co-digester proposal. Group members file Freedom of Information Act requests, dive into academic papers, read everything they can get their hands on, talk with neighbors of other digester sites, visit a Vanguard co-digester site in Vermont, and seek advice from scientists and other experts.
“I probably spend eight to 10 hours a day doing research, looking at articles, reading studies,” says Vicki.
Vanguard stands to generate revenue from a few different sources: 1) selling renewable natural gas (RNG) and biogas to utility companies; 2) selling carbon offset credits on a voluntary offsets market; 3) charging tipping fees, which private companies pay to process thousands of tons of waste from other areas; 4) setting up multi-year contracts with private companies to power their facilities with RNG; 5) and establishing partnerships with energy companies to jointly develop digesters. Siting a facility on farmland, instead of in an industrial park, lowers the regulatory bar, oversight, and testing of the digestate. The owner of the factory farm also receives money from the co-digester owners through a 20-year lease agreement that has the possibility of extensions.
As income for the co-digester and the factory farm streams in, there is none for the town.
“None for the road repair. None for the town’s tax base," says Laurie. "We are concerned about people's property values and the day-to-day noise and pollution.”
Citizens are also concerned about what Vanguard proposes to both put into the Lind co-digester and what comes out.
Going into the co-digester? Waste. Specifically, 110 tons of manure per day from the factory farm as well as 225 tons per day of other waste from a 100-mile radius. That off-site waste could include industrial food manufacturing and food processing waste, slaughterhouse, brewery and milk processing waste, and used fats, oils, and grease. All of these wastes include cleaning agents. The digester would run 24 hours a day. About 20 noisy semi-trucks would make daily round trips into and out of the facility, pounding roads.
Coming out of the co-digester? Three main products. The first is digestate, a semi-solid material that contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus. Studies show that some digestate contains pathogens, toxins, heavy metals, antibiotic resistant bacteria, microplastics, and “forever chemicals,” like PFAS. Digestate is spread onto farmland as fertilizer, where it can overload soils already dense with nutrients, leach into groundwater, pollute drinking water, and run off into streams and lakes, creating toxic algae blooms.
The second is methane gas, which can be cleaned, compressed, and sold via a natural gas pipeline. It’s problematic, though. Methane and other toxic gases are flared off during start-up and whenever the gas cannot be injected into a pipeline. Methane leaks also occur throughout the digestion process and during storage of digestate. That’s bad news for climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas about 84 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, or CO2, over a period of 20 years.
The third output produced by the digester is industrial wastewater. According to a Wisconsin DNR permit application, Vanguard would discharge wastewater at a rate of 41,000 gallons a day into a ditch that flows into the Walla Walla Creek. This Class 2 trout stream ultimately drains into beautiful Lake Michigan.
Adding to these concerns are the number of violations Vanguard Renewables has regarding hydrogen sulfide emissions. None of this gives Citizens Protecting Rural Waupaca County confidence that an industrial co-digester remains the right thing for their community.
“That information makes you feel like, Yeah, this is a big, global corporation, and they’re just coming in to take over your township," says Vicki. "They don’t really care about you.”
Members summarize their concerns in a postcard that they mail to residents of Lind, encouraging them to attend the upcoming Town Board hearing.
Winning Combination
The long-awaited town hearing finally occurs in February 2024. Waupaca High School’s auditorium is packed with about 300 people. First, Vanguard gives their presentation, then Citizens Protecting Rural Waupaca County gives an opposing presentation. Next, individuals have three minutes each to provide comments either in support of or against the digester. It takes four-and-a-half hours!
Afterward, two of three Town Board members vote, with the third—a co-owner of the factory farm—abstaining. The vote is unanimous for no zoning changes. No co-digester.
The crowd breaks out in applause after the vote. Some people hug each other.
Laurie says she feels proud of the work Town of Lind residents, and she do to stand up to a giant corporation. “We are unexpected to the farm. We are unexpected to Vanguard," she says. "But most importantly, we are unexpected of ourselves!”
In April 2024, Vanguard withdraws their application for the co-digester. But the fight is not over. At a Waupaca County Towns' Association meeting that fall, a new organization called Waupaca County Dairy Alliance—composed of six factory farms in the county—presents a proposal to amend countywide zoning. If passed, it would allow co-digesters on agriculturally zoned land with no local oversight and no conditions.
“All local control, oversight, and conditions are taken away from local townships under the proposal,” says Vicki.
Citizens Protecting Rural Waupaca County members are resolved to stand up for the community. If good things come from this battle, says Laurie, it’s the bonds built, and the friendships made.
Along the way, people appear at opportune times to offer their expertise. That can be a talent for media and communications, expert knowledge of co-digesters, legal knowledge, or simply just getting the word out. Citizens actively involve themselves in attending town board and town planning commission meetings. Folks continue to work together toward a healthy town and county.
“We have some amazing people in our community that I never knew lived right down the road,” says Laurie. “They step up honorably, and we come together in amazing ways.”