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. Taylor County has 4 municipal water systems.  

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION POLICIES   

• 3 of 4 municipal water systems in Taylor County have a wellhead protection plan: Gilman, Medford and Westboro.
• 0 of 4 municipal water systems in Taylor County have a wellhead protection ordinance.
• Taylor County has adopted an animal waste management ordinance.

MONEY SPENT ON CLEANUP

• Over $11 million has been spent on petroleum cleanup in Taylor County from leaking underground storage tanks, which equates to $607 per county resident.
• No municipal water systems in Taylor County have spent money to reduce nitrate levels.

GROUNDWATER USE    

• From 1979 to 2005, total water use in Taylor County has decreased slightly from about 2.6 million gallons per day to about 2.2 million gallons per day.*
• The decrease in total water use over this period is due to a decrease in aquaculture and domestic uses, offsetting slight increases in other use categories.
• The proportion of county water use supplied by groundwater has been consistently greater than 96% during the period 1979 to 2000 and a decrease to 89% 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 Taylor County can be seen in the FULL REPORT or accessed through the map link above.

GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• 97% of 86 private well samples collected in Taylor County from 1990-2006 met the health-based drinking water limit for nitrate-nitrogen.  
• A 2002 study estimated that 12% of private drinking water wells in the region of Wisconsin that includes Taylor 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 Taylor County.
• 59% of 29 private well samples collected in Taylor County met the health standard for arsenic.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF CONTAMINANTS

• There are 39 open-status sites in Taylor County that have contaminated groundwater and/or soil. These sites include30 Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites and 9 Environmental Repair (ERP) sites.   
• There are no concentrated animal feeding operations in Taylor County.
• There are no licensed landfills in Taylor County.
• There is 1 Superfund site in Taylor County.

return to top