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. Brown County has 18 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 7 of 18 municipal water systems in Brown County have a wellhead protection plan: Ashwaubenon, Bellevue, Hobart, Lawrence, Ledgeview, Suamico and Wrightstown.
• 6 of 18 municipal water systems in Brown County have a wellhead protection ordinance: Bellevue, Hobart, Lawrence, Ledgeview, Suamico and Wrightstown.
• Brown County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $57 million have been spent on petroleum cleanup in Brown County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $238 per county resident.
• No municipal water systems in Brown County has spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Brown County has increased from about 91.0 million gallons per day to 106.0 million gallons per day. *
• The increase in total water use over this period is due to a usage increase in all categories, except for public use and losses and domestic, which have decreased slightly.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been consistently between about 13% and 19% from 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 Brown County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 92% of 365 private well samples collected in Brown County from 1990-2006 met the health-based drinking water limit for nitrate-nitrogen.  
• A 2002 study estimated that 33% of private drinking water wells in the region of Wisconsin that includes Brown 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.   
• 5,999 acres of land in Brown County are in atrazine prohibition areas.
• 74% of 126 private well samples collected in Brown County met the health standard for arsenic.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 130 open-status sites in Brown County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include 34 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites, 85 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites, 7 spill sites and 4 Voluntary Party Liability Exemptions (VPLE) sites.  
• There are 12 concentrated animal feeding operations in Brown County.
• There are 2 licensed landfills in Brown County.
• There is 1 Superfund site in Brown County.

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