THE INSPECTORS
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	Editorial
	Wisconsin Favorites Savor a Simpler Lifestyle \ at Stonefield

   The Inspectors
Safety issues, stray voltage or code compliance, Dunn Energy’s two-man team does it all by the book…

   Electricity will always try to find its way into the ground, and it will always try to go there by whichever route is easiest. That’s pretty much the whole idea behind electricity getting into places where it isn’t wanted. Steering it away from those places and back to where it belongs is the specialty of Dunn Energy Cooperative’s experienced two-man team, Jim Biesterveld and Pete Brantner.

   Within minutes after meeting Biesterveld and Brantner at an inspection site, the things that make them good at their job begin to be obvious. Both have farm backgrounds. Both are highly trained. Neither gives the impression that he has ever been interested in trying to fool anyone. Perhaps most important is the humility of the true professional. They assume nothing, eliminating wrong answers by asking questions and gathering data as though they didn’t know one, blessed thing. Of course, the opposite is true.

Back to Basics

   Brantner is a journeyman lineman and well-versed in the electrical codes. Biesterveld is also a journeyman lineman, a licensed master electrician, an electrical inspector, and a member of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors and of the National Fire Prevention Association, which writes the codes. He teaches the code to other electricians at the Indianhead Technical College at Rice Lake and the Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire.

   Biesterveld has been performing general safety and stray-voltage inspections for 16 years. He and Brantner have worked as a team for 12.

   The questions they ask are fundamental—so much so that they might seem obvious, until you realize you probably wouldn’t have thought of them yourself. That’s when the value of methodical procedure becomes apparent, applying the same information-gathering techniques in an endless variety of situations.

   “We’re sincere about trying to help people and we treat everybody the same,” Biesterveld says. “It makes no difference to us if they have 10 cows or 500, and it’s not just dairy. We’ve been called in to look over operations with turkeys, beef cattle, sheep, even a fish farm. But I can’t think of the last time we looked at a pig.”

   Whatever sort of creature they may be looking at, their practice is to look independently and then closely compare their observations. “He notices what I might miss and I may notice something he misses,” Brantner says. They’ll often sit down together with the farmer, going over the data they’ve collected and examining how it fits—or doesn’t fit—with what the farmer has seen.

   The very first thing to do is “listen to the farmer,” Biesterveld says.

The Numbers Game

   “Basically, we’re numbers takers,” Biesterveld explains as he shows the readings displayed on a laptop computer housed in the small trailer that carries the team’s testing equipment from one site to another.

   “We make sure the farmer understands we’re not there to represent either the co-op or the member. We’re just Jim and Pete; we take the numbers and what we get is what we get,” he says.

   The numbers they get are generated by measuring any current that may be passing between several points in the barn or present in outside water supply facilities, at other locations in and around the farm yard, and at more remote locations for reference.

   On the first warm, dry Friday in June, their trailer is parked in the yard at the Devin Swenby farm, a crop and dairy operation with 60 head of Holsteins, just outside the little Dunn County village of Downing.

   The task at the Swenby farm did not start out as a specific stray-voltage investigation. On that June Friday, the team was in its final day of a three-day follow-up, examining a rewiring job arranged through a grant and low-interest loan program funded and administered by Wisconsin’s electric cooperatives.

   Last year, the team was asked to look into electrical code and safety concerns on the property, and it was found that the Swenbys qualified for the rewiring program. The work was performed over the winter and completed this spring.

   Now back on the scene to make sure everything is working as desired, Brantner and Biesterveld have attached wire leads to metal posts and drinking cups—likely animal contact points—at three different places inside the barn. They’ve dampened each measurement point with salt water to maximize the reading if current is present. They will take three readings at each point to make errors more obvious, and they “look for the worst-case scenario” every time, Biesterveld says.

   They will also take readings from outside water supplies and from a metal reference rod driven into the ground of an open field about 200 feet from the barn.

   Regardless of the specific reason they were called in, the team looks at code, safety, and stray-voltage issues together. All the resulting information is held in confidence and won’t be shared without the farmer’s permission.

   There’s good reason to look for more than just one kind of electrical problem. “All of the safety or code problems can cause stray voltage,” Biesterveld explains. “You can have [wiring] that doesn’t look too bad, but if it’s noncompliant it can cause stray voltage. Our whole approach is to try to do whatever we can to make life a little easier and safer for these farmers.”

   Inside the trailer, four men crowd around to view the laptop’s display screen. It shows a jagged mountain range of readings, but nothing amiss. By early afternoon, the apparatus will be packed away and ready for the next assignment.

   In addition to moving the test equipment efficiently from place to place, the trailer serves another, even more critical function. The computer equipment it holds “won’t work in a barn environment,” Biesterveld says, recalling one early effort when they tried leaving it in a barn overnight, covered with a plastic bag. “The cats got inside and you could see their little kitten tracks. They stepped on enough of the keys so that in the morning, we had no data.”

No Easy Answers

   It’s clear these two men have the full backing of their co-op management, a solid set of procedures, and the knowledge to go with them. It’s equally clear that happy endings, while often achieved, are not guaranteed.

   “The worst part,” Brantner says, is when a farmer is in jeopardy of being dropped by his dairy. “When you go there you know the farmer is already stressed. We look at the newspapers and see the auctions listed, and you know people are leaving the business, and it’s hard.” He adds, “It’s toughest when a consultant has come in and told the farmer it’s stray voltage and he’s made up his mind it’s stray voltage but you can’t find it and you can’t change his mind.”

   “I’ve been called every name in the book,” Biesterveld says with a rueful appreciation of what many farmers are up against in their changing industry. “If you’re stressed and your family’s stressed, you’re going to vent at somebody, and that’s okay. The thing is to show honesty and get to the point where you can say, ‘let’s sit down and get to work on the problem.’

   “Usually it’s not just a utility problem and not just a farm problem. Everybody has to fix things up from time to time,” he says.

   And then, dressed in his electrician’s working garb and with a few remnants of barn material still clinging to his shoes, Jim Biesterveld displays a literary bent that calls to mind his other life as a teacher. Quoting Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, he says, “It doesn’t do any good to just put a man’s shoes on. You have to walk in them.”—Dave Hoopman

Good To Go
Dairyland’s Flambeau Dam Gains Long-term License

   Quietly and reliably generating electricity since 1951, Dairyland Power Cooperative’s hydroelectric generating station on the Flambeau River now has the green light for another three decades of service.

   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently awarded Dairyland a license to continue operating the facility near Ladysmith until January 31, 2037, when the permit will next be subject to renewal.

   Dave Carroll, manager of the Flambeau Hydro Station, explained that the somewhat odd term of the new license—32-1/2 years—was set to coincide with license expirations for a series of other hydroelectric dams on the Flambeau River. In the future, the regulatory agency plans to deal with all facilities on the river in the same round of licensing. There are presently eight dams on the Flambeau that generate electricity: four paper-company dams and an Excel Energy dam upstream from Dairyland’s facility and two Excel dams downstream.

Long Lead Time

   The term of the original license for Dairyland’s hydroelectric dam was 50 years, which commenced in January 1951 just prior to the 22-megawatt plant being brought on line.

   Licensure capped a two-year application process and construction that had consumed another 2-1/2 years. It was a massive project: The dam stretches nearly a mile in length and forms a 1,700-acre lake called Lake Flambeau. Given today’s consumption habits, the station’s three turbines power generation enough to satisfy the electrical needs of some 6,600 homes.

   Carroll said FERC has a license-renewal process that dam owners need to begin six years prior to the license expiration, and Dairyland put things in motion several years earlier than that. “We’ve actually been at it 11 or 12 years, since the early 1990s,” he observed, explaining that the reason for the lengthy lead time is the volume of data and documentation needed by both FERC and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Each agency has it’s own focus on issues pertaining to dam operation, he continued.

   “FERC issues the license and is charged with equally balancing the interests of the environment, recreation, and generation, and it has specific rules we must comply with for all of these,” Carroll said. “However, the federal agency’s primary issue as it relates to ongoing dam operations is safety.” He said Dairyland needs to have emergency action plans in place—both for upstream and downstream areas—in the event of a dam failure. There are also new and tighter measures dictated by Homeland Security requirements.

   Before FERC will issue a license, dam operators must obtain a DNR water-quality certification. “This kicks in an additional list of things you need to comply with,” Carroll said, citing studies of fish passage and fish mortality, water-chemistry analysis, and examining effects of the generating processes on the river environment as several assessments Dairyland and other dam operators need to perform for relicensure.

   It was this last area—effects on the river environment—that produced the greatest modification to Dairyland’s new license mandates.

Run of River

   Under the old license, the co-op could operate the hydroelectric plant as a “peaking” facility, allowing the pond level above the dam to rise slightly until power was needed during peak-load times (when electrical usage on the system is heaviest). At those times, the water flow past the turbines was increased, drawing down the reservoir as the plant churned out more power to satisfy the peak demand. Then the buildup/drawdown cycle at the dam would repeat to match the regular rise and fall of electrical demand.

   Carroll said the water-level fluctuations in recent years had not been dramatic, but there was clear economic benefit to being able to boost electricity production at times of peak need.

   Under the new license, however, the plant will operate according to the river’s natural flow, called “run of the river.” As such, it won’t operate as a peaking facility, except in response to system emergencies. Carroll said the overall amounts of electricity generated would be the same as before, just produced on a more even time schedule.

   “The same amount of water will go through the dam,” he observed, pointing out the “run of the river” operation is designed to help stabilize downstream flows. “I think you’ll find most dam licenses have similar requirements these days,” he said.

Site Specific

   The exact terms and conditions of each license differ according to the size of the reservoir and other factors unique to each dam site, Carroll explained. For example, as part of Dairyland’s new permit, the power supplier will be improving recreational resources on Lake Flambeau, upgrading a boat landing, and providing a handicap-accessible fishing area.

   With 35 years’ service to Dairyland and his approaching retirement, Carroll admitted he probably wouldn’t be on hand for the next license renewal in 2037. But for future generations of co-op members, his work and the labors of his predecessors at Dairyland more than half a century ago will continue to reap benefits. “We are very pleased that a resource as valuable as Flambeau will continue to provide clean, reliable energy to our members for years to come,” Carroll noted. “With hydro, you can run a long time.”—Perry Baird

Editorial
by Perry Baird

Savor a Simpler Lifestyle at Stonefield

   When you find yourself yearning for less complicated times or your youngsters are curious about life in “the old days,” it’s time for everyone to slow down the pace and savor the sights of a rural village of the 1890s. Wisconsin’s State Historical Society makes the experience possible at Stonefield Village, just north of Cassville on County Highway VV.

   Though Stonefield was not an actual village of that era, it has been created on a site of historical significance high above the Mississippi. There, Wisconsin’s first governor, Nelson Dewey, lived and farmed his 2,000-acre plantation, which he called Stonefield. Today, visitors get a three-in-one bargain, as they can tour Governor Dewey’s home and Wisconsin’s State Agricultural Museum—the latter anchored to the foundation of Dewey’s sheep barn—while touring Stonefield Village.

   In the village proper, you can meander around the village green to experience the shops and services typical of those frequented by farming families around the turn of the century: the drug store, confectionery, creamery, telephone exchange, general store, meat market, barbershop, blacksmith shop, millinery shop, law office, and many others. Also present are the institutions that served to bond families into a cohesive community through social interaction—the church, school, bandstand, and even the saloon. In the old 1900s farmhouse near the village, you may be lucky enough to sniff the aroma of baked goods wafting from the wood-fired stove.

   As you tour Stonefield Village, you can visit with the craftspeople and shopkeepers as they go about their daily business. Then visit the State Agricultural Museum, with exhibits and dioramas tracing the development of our state’s agriculture from pioneer days through the 1930s. Complete your day back in time by crossing the road to the Nelson Dewey home, where you can imagine the life of a wealthy and influential farmer of his time. Sadly, his elaborate first home, a Gothic mansion, was destroyed by a fire in 1873, but Dewey replaced it with a more modest Greek Revival structure that is still open for touring.

  On September 11, Stonefield Village hosts a Celebration of Rural Life. On that day, the village and farms come to life with special events, costumed interpreters, and demonstrations.

   Stonefield Village is open daily through Labor Day and weekends only from September 11 through October 17, 10–4 p.m. Call 608/725-5210 or visit www.wisconsinhistory.org/stonefield for further information.—Linda Hilton