How much water do we need to grow food and to drink?

High Capacity Wells at Question

By Carlton DeWitt

Back on June 8th about 30 people attended the Town Board meeting of the St. Croix County Township of Emerald. Those people were concerned about the groundwater and high capacity wells. Before the town board was a discussion that Emerald Sky Dairy (formerly Emerald Dairy) is requesting a conditional use permit to increase the number of dairy cows to 6,289. At present the dairy has permit to allow up to 3,400 cows.

This newspaper has heard of some area private wells that are in need of improvements, especially that they needed to be drilled to a deeper depth because of lower groundwater levels.

We asked the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for figures on the number of high capacity wells in St. Croix and Dunn Counties to find out how much water is used for irrigation and for the amount of water that local municipality water systems pump each year.

An article penned by Tamara Dean in 2015 called; “The Water behind your meat and potatoes” quoted farmer Justin Isherwood as saying; “without irrigation you’re taking a risk. Isherwood grows corn, peas, soybeans, pearl millet and potatoes near Plover, Wisconsin.

According to Dean’s article; “Most of what we eat, 80 percent of potatoes, for example is water, and producing a pound of potatoes requires about 25 gallons of water. Obviously, these gallons don’t appear in the final product. Consumers never see the water necessary to wash, process, package and ship their potatoes. Nor do most of us realize that the vast majority of water necessary to bring vegetables to our plates is what falls on fields, whether as rainwater or irrigated water.”

Greg Jacobs of the Cedar River Potatoes near Menomonie stated that; “it’s (irrigation) absolutely necessary to growing potatoes.” Cedar River Potatoes raises some 1,500 acres of potatoes in this area.

Producing a pound of beef requires 1,800 gallons of water, or approximately 74 times the amount necessary to produce that pound of potatoes. It must be pointed out that the production of meat depends greatly on how and where the livestock are raised. A pound of beef raised in a concentrated feeding operation will require much more water than an animal raised on pasture grass.

The area near Plover, Wisconsin is called the “Central Sands” and according to the Dean article; “DNR Water Use Chief Eric Ebersberger points out that farming in the Central Sands is a $1 billion industry. The agency, which is charged with protecting the state’s waters, aims to balance agriculture’s needs with the health of surface waters when considering whether to approved high-capacity wells. The task is complicated by the heavy workload DNR employees face, including the ever-mounting backlog of well applications.”

The DNR states that a well that produces 70 gallons per minute or a series of wells on the same property with 70 gallons per minutes is a high capacity well. The DNR also classifies a well that pumps 100,000 gallons daily as a high-capacity well.

In the last 36 weeks ending on June 30, 2016, the DNR has received 96 high capacity well applications from throughout the state. Of those applications, eight are applications for wells in Dunn County and two are for wells in St. Croix County.

At present 187 high capacity wells are permitted in St. Croix County. Dunn County has 346, Polk County has 69 and Pierce County has 15 permitted high capacity wells. Portage County has the largest number of high capacity wells in the State of Wisconsin with 1106.

Some of those applications are for Dewatering wells like one at New Richmond, and the other application from St. Croix County is from Dan Sullwold. The eight applications from Dunn County include: William Besker, Mike Boesl, Jesse Niggeman, Glaser LLC, Kenneth Nelson, Jon Peterson, Cedar River Potato and Brent Wachsmith.

The total amount of water pumped through those high capacity wells in the State of Wisconsin in 2015 was 221,077,518,325 gallons.  Wells in Dunn County accounted for some 4.58 billion gallons while those in St. Croix County pumped 3.12 billion gallons of water.

Wisconsin Watch Dog has issued a watch of the groundwater supply and stated; “In a state with about 15,000 lakes and more than a quadrillion gallons of groundwater, it is hard to believe that water could ever be in short supply. Experts say, however, that the burgeoning number of so-called high-capacity wells is drawing down some ground and surface water.”

They have listed six points in Wisconsin that have groundwater quantity concerns. They include: Western Wisconsin where scientists are watching for signs of drawdown as private wells have increased with suburban growth outside the Twin Cities. (2) In the Central Sands, a drawdown of just a couple of feet can lower water levels in lakes and streams. (3) Green Bay built a pipeline to tap Lake Michigan In the 1950s. Suburban growth required another pipeline, and more growth may lead to a repeat. (4) In Fond du Lac, scientists are watching for signs of drawdown as the population grows. (5) In the Madison area, municipal use has pulled the deep aquifer down almost 60 feet. Now, the lakes are feeding the aquifer instead of the other way around. (6) Waukesha’s withdrawals have pushed the deep aquifer down 600 feet, making pumping pricey and affecting water quality. The city is negotiating to access Lake Michigan.

Municipal Water

Besides the water pumped for irrigation on farm lands and livestock use, water that is pumped from private wells and municipal water systems that provides water for homes, business, schools, nursing homes, industrial uses and fire protection. It is estimated that municipal water systems pump over 30,000 gallons per person annually in communities with municipal owned water systems.

This newspaper did a survey of several area municipal water utilities and asked how much water their utility pumped in 2015.

Glenwood City pumped just over 38 million gallons of water; Boyceville 45.5 million gallons; Colfax 36.2; Elk Mound 15.7; Knapp 8.2; Clear Lake 390.5; Menomonie 722 million gallons of water. The Village of Wilson reported they average about 4.5 million gallons annually, but last year they recorded some 12 million gallons. Village Department head, Steve Nielsen, indicated that they had a number of water leaks on service lines to residents.

So, if you want food on the table, water is needed on the field.