By GEORGE ROGERS
of The Gazette
Portage County's ground water protection program has received national recognition, and now the goal is to spread the message.
So next spring there's a plan to conduct educational programs in the sixth grades of the county's schools.
The county was named a Groundwater Guardian Community in November in Pittsburgh, Pa., at the fall conference of the Groundwater Foundation, a national nonprofit organization. It is the seventh community so designated in Wisconsin for having taken voluntary steps toward comprehensive ground water protection.
The county has a Groundwater Guardian Team, a volunteer group, that's an offshoot of the county's Groundwater Citizens Advisory Committee. All the drinking water in Portage County comes from ground water, whether you're on a municipal well or have your own, and the committee says the resource is at risk from nitrates and pesticides.
Of private wells tested in the county, 20 percent exceed the maximum contaminant level for nitrates, most of which comes from agriculture, septic systems and lawn fertilizers. Atrazine, a pesticide, was found in 40 percent of the tested wells. Another potential problem is water quantity.
Using trained University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students and adult volunteers, the Groundwater Guardian Team will put on programs for pupils and give them materials to take home to their parents. "We're going to as many schools as we can," said Christine Mechenich, a team member.
She said the volunteers will instruct the pupils on where their drinking water comes from, how it can become polluted and how to prevent this.
"We're hoping that this is going to grow and that there'll be other projects," said Mechenich.
Other members of the Groundwater Guardian Team are Chairman Joe Nagel, Spiritland Ag Co-op, Almond, representing agriculture; Dick Berndt, rural Stevens Point, a citizen member; Chris Pehoski, Stockton Town Board; Paula Rose, Stevens Point Area School District; Ray Schmidt, county ground water specialist; and Denise Kilkenny-Tittle, who like Mechenich is with the Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center.
The team received a plaque at the Pittsburgh conference and it hopes to present it, for public display, at the County Board's January meeting.
Mechenich said an advantage of being designated a Groundwater Guardian Community is that it puts the county in contact with other Guardian communities and allows the sharing of information and comparing of notes. "It's an effort to connect us with something bigger," she said.
She noted that two slide shows have been put together by the Portage County Groundwater Citizens Advisory Committee for public showing. One provides information on ground water problems and goals, and the other focuses on solutions.
The Groundwater Foundation, the national organization that sponsors the guardian program, was started 15 years ago by a Nebraska woman, Susan Seacrest. Other Wisconsin communities that have received guardian designation are Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Marshfield, Marathon County, Green Bay and Waukesha.