11/06/2018- It looks like the construction of a Marinette County dairy farmer’s manure pit in Oconto County will move forward, despite opposition by neighboring property owners. A lawsuit attempting to block the completion of a 12.6-million-gallon manure pit in the Town of Little River has failed and the judge in the case is now ordering the plaintiffs and their attorneys to pay facility owner Brian Lepianka’s legal fees. The neighbors that brought the suit claimed the pit could pollute the air with methane and other gasses and said the odor would impact surrounding property values. Judge Jay Conley now says those claims are baseless and has dismissed the case. The storage facility was originally planned to go into use last month. The site it is built on was previously used for a large beef operation. Lepianka, who owns B&D Dairy near Pound, purchased the property in 2016 to prepare for his dairy herd expansion and claimed he could lose more than $2.5-million if he couldn’t use the facility.