Groundwater contamination is of increasing concern to area residents. Health Department staff participates as a technical resource for the County Board appointed groundwater advisory committee for development and of a groundwater management plan for Eau Claire County. Activities associated with the development of the plan were the inventory of potential pollution sources; environmental assessment which included maps depicting groundwater depth and flow, directions, soil attenuation and depth to bedrock; a summary of existing groundwater management controls and groundwater protection recommendations. The County Board adopted the plan in 1995. The committee is now focusing on implementation of the plan of which education will play a major role. In 1999, revision of the county sub-division ordinance was continued focusing on reducing the impact of upgradient contamination sources on private wells within proposed subdivisions and the impact of sanitary systems within the subdivision on wells. A groundwater protection section in the County Subdivision Ordinance was adopted by the County Board in December 1999. 

One subdivision plat was reviewed concerning groundwater flow direction and how best to locate wells and septic systems relative to one another to evaluate potential adverse effects from septic systems on drinking water sources. Other potential contamination sources were reviewed for on the subdivided and adjacent property including animal feed lots, manure storage facilities and cesspools, pesticide mixing or loading sites, solid waste disposal sites, salvage yards, underground storage tanks, recorded hazardous substance discharges, septage generators and superfund sites.

A wellhead protection ordinance for municipal water supplies was adopted by Eau Claire County in 2001. For this ordinance to take effect in a municipality, that local governmental entity must adopt it’s own wellhead protection ordinance to control activities within the recharge area within it’s boundaries and request the County Planning and Development Department to create a Groundwater Protection District for the recharge area outside the municipal boundaries. The Eau Claire County Groundwater Committee promoted and authorized expenditures to identify recharge areas for each municipal well and inventory potential contamination sources in the identified areas. Fairchild, Augusta, Altoona, and Fall Creek have now adopted this ordinance.

Eau Claire County Groundwater Management Plan (1994)

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Chapter I
• Chapter II
  
• Chapter III
• Chapter IV
• Chapter V
• Chapter VI
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Bibliography

Learn More

• Drinking Water Test Kits

• Common Groundwater Problems and Concerns in Eau Claire County

• Groundwater Educational Video

• Groundwater Homepage

• Groundwater and Health