Vos announces plans to create task force on water quality

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has announced he will create a task force on water quality following requests from two southwestern Wisconsin lawmakers.

Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, and Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, made the request following the release of a report that found 42 percent of the 301 randomly selected wells tested in southwestern Wisconsin exceed federal levels for bacterial and chemical contamination.

Water quality also has been an issue in northeastern Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters ran ads in the November election charging Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans had turned a blind eye to polluters, resulting in lead, manure and human waste in Wisconsin drinking water.

Vos said the reports of contamination in private wells in southwestern Wisconsin were “disturbing.”

“Every Wisconsinite should have access to safe, clean drinking water,” he said.

An official announcement on committee membership will be made in the coming weeks, Vos said.

The Southwest Wisconsin Groundwater and Geology Study includes sampling in Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties. Samples were collected from about 300 private wells in early November by homeowners, and tested wells were selected randomly.

Thirty-eight percent of the samples were positive for dangerous microbes. Having any amount of either of these bacteria in drinking water is considered unsafe by state well codes, a release from the U.S. Geological Survey and other partners shows.

In addition, 16 percent of samples exceeded safety standards for nitrates. High nitrate levels in drinking water have been linked to many health problems including colon cancer and serious birth defects.

State Geologist Ken Bradbury, director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, says it’s no surprise that the levels of contaminants are so high. He explains that the shallow bedrock and thin topsoil layer in southwest Wisconsin make it a vulnerable area.

“Now that we’re beginning to get some solid datasets we can begin to compare the results to physical parameters such as bedrock depth, soil type, and well construction in order to determine the most important factors controlling well vulnerability,” Bradbury said.

The USGS release says causes and specific sources of this contamination aren’t yet known. But some of the bacteria that were found indicate fecal contamination of the water, according to a release from the Department of Natural Resources.

“Unfortunately, this data reinforces an emerging pattern of underappreciated and underreported well water contamination across the state, from Northeast to Central Wisconsin, the La Crosse area, and now Southwest Wisconsin,” said Clean Wisconsin water program director Scott Laeser.

The ongoing, two-year study involved leadership in Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties, who connected with scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey-UW Extension and USGS.

Other support came from the Lafayette Agricultural Stewardship Alliance and the Iowa County Uplands Farm-led Watershed Group.

This spring, researchers will collect more samples and will begin to track factors leading to contamination such as precipitation, geology and internal characteristics of the wells. The project will wrap up by 2020.

See more on the study: http://wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=393036

See a fact sheet from the Department of Natural Resources on well contamination: http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/DG/DG0003.pdf

–By Alex Moe 
WisBusiness.com