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. Sheboygan County has 15 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 7 of 15 municipal water systems in Sheboygan County have a wellhead protection plan: Adell, Cascade, Cedar Grove, Elkhart Lake, Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution, Oostburg, and Sheboygan.
• 2 of 15 municipal water systems in Sheboygan County have a wellhead protection ordinance: Cedar Grove and Elkhart Lake.
• Sheboygan County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $36 million has been spent on petroleum cleanup in Sheboygan County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $321 per county resident.
• No municipal water systems in Sheboygan County have spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Sheboygan County has increased from about 20.0 million gallons per day to about 25.4 million gallons per day.*
• The increase in total water use over this period is due to increases in all use categories except industrial which shows a substantial decline until 2000 after whicn it increased through 2005. Public use and losses and commercial uses declined after 2000.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been between about 35% and 43% 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 Sheboygan County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 95% of 77 private well samples collected in Sheboygan 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 Sheboygan 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.   
• There are no atrazine prohibition areas in Sheboygan County.
• 100% of 4 private well samples collected in Sheboygan County met the health standard for arsenic.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 178 open-status sites in Sheboygan County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include 39 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites, 59 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites, 75 spill sites and 5 Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE) sites.   
• There are 2 concentrated animal feeding operations in Sheboygan County.
• There are 2 licensed landfills in Sheboygan County.
• There are 2 Superfund sites in Sheboygan County.

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