Family Farm Defenders, Inc. v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, No. 2012AP1882, 2013 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1051 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 19, 2013)

(dairy applied to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for a Wisconsin Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit in preparation for its construction of a dairy facility housing 4,300 cows and 250 steers; the dairy also sought a permit to construct two high capacity wells in the county that already contained more than 90 high capacity pumping wells; the DNR conducted an environmental assessment (EA) of the two proposed wells and determined that an environmental impact statement was not required for their construction; plaintiffs challenged that decision on the grounds that the EA did not demonstrate that the DNR considered the cumulative effects of high capacity groundwater pumping in the region; in reversing the portion of the circuit court order finding that the DNR properly considered the cumulative effects, the court ruled that Wis. Admin. Code § NR 150.22(2)(a)2 required the EA to include an analysis of the cumulative environmental effects of past, present, and “reasonably anticipated” similar and related activities; the record demonstrated that the DNR focused exclusively on the effects of just the two wells, rather than the cumulative effects of the two wells in conjunction with other past and existing high capacity wells in the region).