By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
A high-capacity well approved in June by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has raised a question of what is appropriate in the Town of Burlington.
The well, approved for Mike Daniels at Crane Grain Farms for irrigation purposes, has been drawing the interest of town resident Irene Bialas and the issue was brought to the Town Board in early November.
The well is located near Bohners Lake. However, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources employee Adam Freihofer said Tuesday the well request is typical of an irrigation well request, and will be pumping from a deep aquifer.
In addition, the well did not meet any of the criteria to disqualify it:
- Within a groundwater protection area (within 1,200 feet of a class 1, 2 or 3 trout stream or a designated outstanding or exceptional resource water)
- May impact springs with flow greater or equal to one cubic foot per second
- Will result in water loss greater than 95 percent
- Will result in 10 or more feet of water level drawdown in a public utility well based on 30 days of continuous pumping from the proposed high-capacity well.
- Will degrade safe drinking water and the groundwater resource, or impact public safety (affect water quality).
“For the Crane Grain high-capacity well, none of the criteria mentioned above were met and the well was approved as proposed,” Freihofer said.
Bialas has been pursuing information on high-capacity wells and their impact on the area. She said last week that while the irrigation request may not cause any problems, she would like to see Crane Grain pull back on the amount it would pull from the aquifer – up to 1,000 gallons per minute during the months of May through September.
Susan Sheldon, the campaign manager for Andy Mitchell in his bid to defeat Robin Vos for the 63rd Assembly district seat, said she became aware of the potential problems as Mitchell campaigned this year.
Bialas was working for the campaign and did the research on the high-capacity wells, and she and Sheldon made a video addressing the situation.
“High-capacity wells that pump over a 1,000 gallons per minute, even though they are under a layer of shale…it’s not like a pool liner,” Sheldon said. “It still can go through there.”
Bialas said that groundwater in the Burlington is losing 7 inches per year, based on studies done by the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.
Bialas said in a written statement, “Scientists state that this region has the greatest drawdown of the groundwater aquifer in the state.”
Bialas approached the Town Board during the public comment section of the Nov. 10 meeting, and the Town Board was hearing about it for the first time.
Town Administrator Diane Baumeister said the town hasn’t had a role in approving the well.
“He’s following all the rules,” Baumeister said. “We don’t have to give him approval. The DNR has to give him approval.”
Crane Grain owner Mike Daniels did not return a request for comment prior to deadline for this story.
Meanwhile, Sheldon said she and Bialas have been working to draw attention to potential problems.
“We have just become hyper-vigilant about high-capacity wells,” Sheldon said, adding that the DNR no longer needs to inspect whether high-capacity wells will affect other wells.
She also said that Crane Grain Farms doesn’t need that amount of water for a 200-acre farm that will also have buildings on it. Bialas added that no other high-capacity well in the area – with the exception of City of Burlington municipal wells – pumps at that rate.
“They’re all much lower,” Bialas said.
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