SOURCES OF DRINKING WATER

• Wisconsin has nearly 11,500 public water systems which meet the daily water needs of about 4 million people. Public water systems that are owned by a community are called municipal water systems. Trempealeau County has 13 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 8 of 13 municipal water systems in Trempealeau County have a wellhead protection plan: Arcadia, Blair, Ettrick, Galesville, Independence, Pigeon Falls, Strum and Whitehall.
• 4 of 13 municipal water systems in Trempealeau County have a wellhead protection: Arcadia, Ettrick, Galesville and Independence.
• Trempealeau County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $8 million has been spent on petroleum cleanup in Trempealeau County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $318 per county resident.
• 1 municipal water system in Trempealeau County has spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Trempealeau County has increased from about 5.5 million gallons per day to about 11.2 million gallons per day.*
• The increase in total water use over this period is due to increases in all use categories except irrigation which increased significantly after 2000.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been consistently greater than 93% during the period 1979 to 2005.*
• Water use in Wisconsin is generally estimated for the following categories:
  • Domestic
  • Livestock
  • Aquaculture
  • Irrigation
  • Industrial
  • Commercial
  • Public use and losses
  • Thermoelectric or mining*

* Thermoelectric and mining data are not considered in water-use tables or figures on this web site. Thermoelectric-power water use is the amount of water used in the process of generating thermoelectric power. The predominant use of water is as non-contact cooling water to condense the steam created to turn the turbines and generate electricity.

SUSCEPTIBILITY OF GROUNDWATER TO CONTAMINANTS   

• Wisconsin has abundant quantities of high-quality groundwater, but once groundwater is contaminated, it's very expensive and often not technically possible to clean.
• An evaluation of the susceptibility of groundwater to contamination in Trempealeau County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 89% of 347 private well samples collected in Trempealeau County from 1990-2006 met the health-based drinking water limit for nitrate-nitrogen.  
• A 2002 study estimated that 52% of private drinking water wells in the region of Wisconsin that includes Trempealeau County contained a detectable level of an herbicide or herbicide metabolite. Pesticides occur in groundwater more commonly in agricultural regions, but can occur anywhere pesticides are stored or applied.   
• 2,590 acres of land in Trempealeau County are in atrazine prohibition areas.
• No arsenic data were found for private wells in Trempealeau County.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 35 open-status sites in Trempealeau County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include 17 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites, 13 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites and 5 spill sites.  
• There are 2 concentrated animal feeding operations in Trempealeau County.
• There are no licensed landfills in Trempealeau County.
• There are no Superfund sites in Trempealeau County.

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