Duke Behnke

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREENVILLE - Town resident John Julius said town officials "pulled a nasty" earlier this year by ordering a dredging project that destroyed a karst feature on farmland west of State 76.

The unauthorized excavation of a navigable stream that disappeared into the karst feature — an opening in the ground caused by the dissolution of bedrock — has the potential to affect the well water of nearby residents, including Julius.

Outagamie County and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources agree that the damage to the karst feature is severe and perhaps irreparable.

"It appears that they obliterated it," Tim Roach, Outagamie County zoning administrator, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Scott Koehnke, a DNR water management specialist, said the responsible parties were ordered to stabilize the site with erosion controls and to prepare a restoration plan for the steam, the adjacent wetlands and the karst feature.

"I don't know that we can necessarily recreate a geologic feature like that," Koehnke said. "That's what we're struggling with."

No one knows how much the restoration will cost. The town spent $32,950 just on the temporary erosion controls ordered by the county and the DNR.

"It's going to be hugely expensive to try to fix that," Roach said. "Will it come in under $100,000? I'm not sure."

The disappearing stream and karst feature are located northwest of Lions Park on land owned by Lin Family LLC of Green Bay and rented by Michael Woods, a town supervisor who was re-elected Tuesday.

The excavation was a shock to Roach and Koehnke because Greenville's own GreenPrint plan designates the karst as a unique geologic feature of high importance. In addition, the town passed a resolution in 2015 agreeing to protect the karst and disappearing stream from any detrimental effects from future development.

"I've never had anything like this before, especially when you have an agreement in hand," Roach said. "I've never had somebody go ahead and do something this drastic before."

Roach recommended delaying approval of a preliminary plat for an upstream housing development called Savannah Heights until the town can restore the stream, wetlands and karst feature.

What happened?

Roach discovered the damage when he drove by the Lin Family property on Jan. 27.

"I'm thinking, 'What in the world happened?'" he said.

Outagamie County, the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers all have jurisdiction over navigable waterways. None of the agencies had issued permits for the work.

Roach said an excavator was used to dredge the stream, and then a bulldozer was used to spread out the spoils, damaging wetlands that served as a natural buffer to the waterway. He said the excavator cut through the karst feature, where Roach and others recall seeing the water disappear in a whirlpool.

Roach and Koehnke said the stream was dug 10 to 12 feet deep in the area of the karst. It previously was 1½ to 2 feet deep.

"We would never have permitted something that drastic," Roach said.

Karst features can be a direct conduit to groundwater, so the disturbance of the karst could make the area more susceptible to groundwater contamination. On March 2, the DNR sent a letter to 22 well owners informing them that their water quality might be affected.

"It is recommended that you sample your drinking water for bacteria and nitrate, especially if you notice any change in the water quality, color or odor," the letter said.

On April 3, the DNR recommended additional testing of private wells within 3,000 feet of the Lin Family's west property line after regulators learned that the herbicide atrazine was applied to the farmland by Woods and the Greenville Cooperative, even though the farmland is in an atrazine prohibition area.

The dredging also connected the waterway to a different navigable stream farther to the west. The connection has the potential to cause flooding downstream.

Town's response

Town Administrator Dave Tebo didn't return telephone calls from USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, but he emailed a statement from the town that said the "dredging was part of a project by Mike Woods, who has been farming the Lin property for years. The purpose of the project was to address drainage and erosion issues."

The statement said the project was done under a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) permit "that appeared to grant approval for the dredging project."

"Town Sanitary District No. 1 became involved to fix up some areas along the stream that had been disturbed by a recent sewer interceptor construction project across the Lin property in an easement adjacent to the stream," the statement said.

The dredging was done by Robert J. Immel Excavating Inc. and cost $13,985. Sanitary District No. 1 paid the bill. The sanitary district also paid for the $32,950 for temporary erosion controls.

It's unclear why the full cost was paid by the sanitary district if, as Tebo stated in a subsequent email, the project "was initiated, designed and constructed by Mike Woods."

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USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin made multiple calls to Woods seeking comment, but he didn't respond. Dan Klansky, Greenville's water and sewer superintendent, referred a reporter's questions to Tebo.

"The sanitary district is working to determine what percentage of the invoice should be apportioned to the district considering its limited involvement," Tebo said in an email.

The DNR held an enforcement conference with Tebo, Klansky, Woods and representatives of Immel Excavating and the Lin Family on March 14 in Green Bay. Afterward, the sanitary district hired Highway Landscapers Inc. to complete the temporary erosion controls.

"Legal and financial responsibilities have not been finally negotiated at this point," the town's statement said.

'In bold type'

Tebo said a June 27 letter to Woods from the Outagamie County NRCS field office "appears to indicate permission" to proceed with the project.

Sanitary District No. 1, he said, "only became involved because they believed this dredging was a permitted agricultural project with approval and oversight by the Natural Resources Conservation Service."

Roach said the NRCS letter concerns U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and doesn't supersede regulatory permits for navigable waterways.

"You still have to contact county zoning, state DNR and Corps of Engineers," Roach said. "There is a statement right on the front of that document in bold type."

The June 27 letter says, "Manipulation of any wetland, stream channel, shoreland or flood plain area may require WI Department of Natural Resources and/or town or county zoning permits. It is your responsibility to obtain any necessary permits."

The letter also states, "Any draining, dredging, filling, leveling, tiling, clearing, grubbing, or other manipulation for the intent or purpose (or to have the effect) of making crop production possible as a result of your activities on wetlands is not allowable per the Farm Bill."

According to a March 20 letter written by Karl Roovers, a DNR environmental enforcement specialist, Woods told the DNR that his failure to inquire about permitting was an oversight. Klansky told the DNR he didn't know the stream was navigable.

After the March 14 enforcement conference, Woods, Klansky and Todd Immel, president of Immel Excavating, all sent letters to the DNR promising to follow regulations in the future.

"I would like to say how sorry I am that this ditch issue got to this point," Woods wrote on March 21. "In the future, before I would take on a project like this, I will make sure all permits are in place."

"I have never made a mistake of this magnitude in my career as a water superintendent, and I will definitely take this as a learning experience," Klansky wrote on March 23. "I feel very confident in saying that a mistake like this will never happen again."

Todd Immel declined to elaborate when reached by a reporter. "I have to talk to my attorney," he said.

Possible penalties

The DNR and Outagamie County continue to question why the town disregarded the 2015 agreement to protect the environmentally sensitive karst, why it bypassed the permit process that it had followed in the past, and why it dredged to the size and scope that it did.

"We haven't gotten an answer that makes any sense at this point," Koehnke said. "Why is the town spending $14,000 on a single property owner if it doesn't benefit the town? Now the town is telling us it's a Mike Woods project, but the town already has spent $14,000 of the town's money."

Roach is equally concerned with the town's response. "I can't piece it together how they're telling the story," he said.

The DNR has a stepped enforcement process to deal with violations. Presently it is seeking voluntary restoration, but it also has the authority to levy fines or refer charges to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

"Where we go with enforcement hasn't been decided at this point," Koehnke said.

Julius said town officials have shown a disregard for the environment in their rush to "bulldoze ahead with housing developments."

"They don't look at the earth and the future of things the way that a lot of us do," Julius said. "You don't go and destroy such a feature. That should be an asset to the community."

Duke Behnke: 920-993-7176, or dbehnke@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @DukeBehnke

What is karst?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources defines karst as a type of landscape where water dissolves the underlying bedrock. Soluble bedrock can include dolomite or limestone. Karst features include sink holes, fractures, underground streams and springs.

A karst feature is located on the Lin Family property east of State 76 and north of State 96 in Greenville. Scott Koehnke, a water management specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the karst feature likely dates to the last glacial period.

Greenville resident John Julius said a man named Melvin Laudon explored the karst feature in 1951, before it was filled in with fieldstones and other material. Laudon rented the farmland at the time. As the story was relayed to Julius, four men tied Laudon to a rope attached to a tractor axle and lowered him underground. He had a flashlight.

"He saw something of a domed roof, and he couldn't see the bottom," Julius said. "That makes things sound pretty grandiose, but that's what I was told."

Tragedy in the karst

The Greenville karst was the site of a death early in the town's history.

According to "History of Outagamie County, Wisconsin" by Thomas H. Ryan, the land containing the karst was settled by James Webley and his family in the late 1840s. In May 1853, Webley's 4½-year-old son, James Clark Webley, strayed in the woods on the property and was lost.

"Though (a) $300 reward was offered for him and several hundred persons hunted, he was not found," Ryan wrote, "but three months later a child's body was found in a sink hole ... and identified as that of the lost boy."

The Appleton Crescent reported the boy's disappearance caused "intense excitement which pervaded the public mind."

"After the most toilsome and patient search, without avail, the people came to the conclusion that he had either been carried off by the Indians, or devoured by wild beasts," the paper reported in 1853.

The spot where the boy eventually was found "had been fruitlessly searched again and again," the paper said, "but, at the time of the search, it was covered with mud and water, and it was a difficult matter to ford it without miring. It is probable that the little fellow wandered into it soon after he was lost, and was drowned."

The Webley family sold the land a year after the boy's death. His gravestone is in Greenville Pioneer Cemetery on Manley Road.