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. Lafayette County has 9 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 4 of 9 municipal water systems in Lafayette County have a wellhead protection plan: Argyle, Benton, Darlington and Shullsburg.
• 1 of 9 municipal water systems in Lafayette County has a wellhead protection ordinance: Benton.
• Lafayette County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $7 million has been spent on petroleum cleanup in Lafayette County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $434 per county resident.
• No municipal water systems in Lafayette County have spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Lafayette County has decreased from about 4.1 million gallons per day to 3.1 million gallons per day.*
• The decrease in total water use is due to primarily to decreases in domestic use as well as public use and losses.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been consistently above about 95% during the period 1979 to 2000 and 91% 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 Lafayette County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 85% of 600 private well samples collected in Lafayette County from 1990-2006 met the health-based drinking water limit for nitrate-nitrogen.  
• A 2002 study estimated that 43% of private drinking water wells in the region of Wisconsin that includes Lafayette 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.   
• 20,342 acres of land in Lafayette County are in atrazine prohibition areas.
• 94% of 17 private well samples collected in Lafayette County met the health standard for arsenic.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 32 open-status sites in Lafayette County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include 18 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites, 13 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites and 1 spill site.  
• There are 3 concentrated animal feeding operations in Lafayette County.
• There are no licensed landfills in Lafayette County.
• There are no Superfund sites in Lafayette County.

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