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Web Site Helps Plan For Safe Drinking Water
Wisconsin relies heavily on its groundwater - 97 percent of communities in
the state and nearly 1 million additional residents with private wells use
groundwater
for their daily needs.
A new web site provides easy access to information about Wisconsin’s
groundwater to assist local governments in protecting this vital resource and
to help owners
of private wells tap into safe drinking water supplies.
The site, located at http://wi.water.usgs.gov/gwcomp/ can play a key role
in learning about local groundwater quality and quantity.
“
Clean, adequate water supplies are an important foundation for healthy citizens
and a healthy economy,” said Charles Dunning, Assistant Director of the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wisconsin Water Science Center. “We are
pleased to offer information that is so important to people throughout this
state.”
“
This web site gives local governments valuable county-by-county information and
tools to help them do a better job of protecting this resource in their comprehensive
planning processes,” says Lynn Markham, Land Use Specialist from the
University of Wisconsin-Extension Center for Land Use Education.
The site incorporates select groundwater data and policy information from
16 federal, state and local agencies. Maps and other easy-to-use formats provide
data for each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties on sources of drinking water,
groundwater protection policies, money spent on cleanup, groundwater use, susceptibility
of groundwater to pollutants and groundwater quality.
Real examples of how communities have protected their drinking water supplies
through land use planning are included in the web site. Some communities have
maintained forested or other natural land uses in groundwater-well-recharge
areas to minimize contamination threats.
In other examples, communities have recognized that the quality of their
groundwater depends on how food is grown within their community. As a result,
they have
adopted incentives for farmers to grow organic crops or those that don’t
require heavy fertilizer use.
USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information visit www.usgs.gov.
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