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. Calumet County has 8 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 4 of 8 municipal water systems in Calumet County have a wellhead protection plan: Chilton, Forest Junction, Sherwood and Stockbridge.
• 3 of 8 municipal water systems in Calumet County have a wellhead protection ordinance, Chilton, Sherwood and Stockbridge.
• Calumet County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $11 million has been spent on petroleum cleanup in Calumet County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $257 per county resident.
• No municipal water systems in Calumet County have spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Calumet County has increased from about 5.0 million gallons per day to 7.7 million gallons per day in 2000 but decreased to 7.3 million gallons per day in 2005.*
• The increase in total water use over this period is due primarily to an increase in commercial, irrigation and public use and losses.  An increase in domestic use also contributed to the overall increase.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been consistently greater than 97% from 1979 to 2000 with a decrease to 73% in 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 Calumet County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 78% of 178 private well samples collected in Calumet 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 Calumet 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.   
• 1,000 acres in Calumet County are in atrazine prohibition areas. 
• 100% of 38 private well samples collected in Calumet County met the health standard for arsenic.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 37 open-status sites in Calumet County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include 9 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites, 26 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites and 2 Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE) sites.   
• There are 4 concentrated animal feeding operations in Calumet County.
• There are 2 licensed landfills in Calumet County.
• There is 1 Superfund site in Calumet County.

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