Groundwater
Protection
Committee
Groundwater Protection Committee meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month.
MEMBERS
Tor Anderson (chair)
Mark Brueggeman
Jim Walker
Bob Conachen
Sally Prideaux
Scope of Groundwater Protection Committee per Resolution #2018-08-15-1: The committee should take steps necessary to stop the degradation of Nelsonville’s water supply in quality or quantity, to clean the water supply, to protect the recharge area and other natural resources that have an impact on the village’s water supply, to explore grants and other outside financial and other resources to aid the committee in its effort to clean and protect the water supply.
The committee shall promote the health and general welfare of the residents of the village by preventing contamination and/or depletion of groundwater affecting village residents. The committee shall promote education to village residents concerning nitrates, testing, environmental impacts, health impacts, immediate and long-term solutions including reverse osmosis systems, septic and farming sources of nitrates and potentially other contaminants, and other issues relevant to clean and plentiful groundwater in the village. It shall explore financial assistance options for those seeking to remediate their high nitrate levels in individual homes.
The committee will act with civility and work to build trust between and among the members, the village board, and the community.
08/07/2019 "Looks like we reported 3.66 ug/L using our DACT screening process and the DATCP lab reported 1.03 ug/L , with 1.7 ug/L total atrazine residues. Our analytical process is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for $33, and the DATCP lab uses a very extensive process similar to our pharmaceutical process (solid phase extraction/liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry). I’m sure DATCP would charge several hundred dollars for this process if they were to offer this commercially. Our DACT analysis is billed as a low-cost screening tool and not a process that provides absolute concentration. The process is subject to interferences from particulates in the sample (typically not a problem with private wells) and more importantly from other compounds in the sample. Some of the other atrazine degradates, like deisopropyl and de-ethyl atrazine may react at a differing rate than DACT. That may confound quantification of the DACT. Other triazine herbicides may also react with this ELISA process, however the DATCP lab did not detect other triazine herbicides in this sample. Probably the larger factor in this discrepancy is the fact that these samples were collected approximately 6 months apart. Spring snow melt and rains may have provided dilution or a change in the water table elevation. The change in water table elevation will change the concentration of any contaminant. Since this area is already in an atrazine prohibition area, and there is going to be variability in concentration, I would recommend some type of carbon filter at the household’s point of use." ~ Bill DeVita, Lab Manager of the Water and Environmental Analysis Laboratory, Center for Watershed Science and Education, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point