Message of the Day – Cow Pies

After I made my “let’s keep dog poop from the McHenry County animal control facility out of the watershed aquifer” presentation before the Crystal Lake City Council Tuesday night, Crystal Lake Director of Engineering & Building Vic Ramirez caught me in the hall during the break and asked a good question.

What about the poop from cows and horses in the watershed?

Shouldn’t I be concerned about that, too?

I told him I was open to having my poop concerns broadened.

I remembered the cows near the high power lines on Ridgefield Roads, but the only horses I knew about were those Dr. Dan Strelcheck’s wife Barbara had talked about earlier that night. Mrs. Strelcheck told how water was not flowing downstream from their horse farm, which is on the east side of the railroad tracks. People were complimenting her on her pond, which had previously been a meadow.

While on Ridgefield Road in the watershed Wednesday night, I saw the cows. Cows mean cow pies.

And, down the road a bit, I saw a horse racing track on the western side of the railroad tracks.

So, it appears that Ramirez has targeted a legitimate concern.

The only difference I can see is that the county’s dog poop probably would go directly into a storm sewer, which would drain into Cove Pond, while the poop from the cows and horses would be filtered by the watershed.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *