WINONA, Minn. – The attorney representing Winona County in the continuing Daley Farm litigation about the size of the Daley dairy herd says the county has leaned over backwards to address Daley concerns. “I think we have endeavored to ensure the process is as fair as it possibly could be,” said Paul Reuvers in a Winona Post interview. Reuvers noted, for example, that the chair of the county Board of Adjustment sat out the Daley’s latest renewed request for a variance to triple its herd. The chair, Reuvers said, didn’t have to recluse himself but did so to ensure there wasn’t any hint of potential bias or prejudgment. The process was as pristine as possible, Reuvers said. The Board of Adjustment, which considers requests for variance from county zoning rules, failed to approve the Daley expansion in December. Now the Daleys are back in court in this the seventh year of appeals and litigation. Reuvers said he fully expects the court will affirm that the county’s process in denying the variance in December was acceptable and proper.
Pros and cons
The Daleys claim their request to increase their Lewiston herd from 1,500 to 4,500 cows will give them economies scale to stay in business and at no environmental risk. Environmentalists are dubious. The expansion would swell the farm’s liquid manure and wastewater output to 46 million gallons a year and require a manure basin the size of three football fields and 16 feet deep. This liquid waste, environmentalists say, would sit on top of porous limestone that is highly prone to sinkholes and disappearing springs. Already Lewiston well water is unfit I drink because of high nitrate levels.
Reuvers. Says the county’s latest review of the Daley variance request was as pristine as possible.