GIS as a Tool to Prioritize Environmental Releases, Integrate Their Management and Alleviate Their Public Threat

Introduction: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) Northeast Region undertook this project with the thought that relevant volumes of geologic and hydrogeologic data was being gathered by the Bureau of Remediation and Redevelopment and left in paper format in file cabinets. Much of this information is relevant to current case work by others but is highly inaccessible. Due to office space limitations closed cases are often located in different locations than active cases, thus, relevant information to ongoing work is inaccessible. For example, case sites that are located near one another which have pertinent information and subsequently closed can not easily be referenced to assist in current matters. This project gathered relevant geologic and hydrogeologic data from case files and entered them in one single relational database. This database is joined in a Geographic Information System (GIS) with previously located site information. This combination provides an easily accessible wealth of information that can be used for queries and analysis. As an additional component in this project WDNR Northeast Region developed a program utilizing Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) developer programming language Avenue for ArcView. This program allows persons unfamiliar to GIS the ability to query all data the Region has gathered. For instance, the Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater has been creating a database of well logs in FileMkaerPro software. These well logs are linked in an ArcView project to be readily viewed by selecting an area on screen. The documentation/instructions for this program are found after the conclusion of this report. The project information is currently used by hydrogeologists in the Region to assist them in determining the characteristics of ongoing cases, also summary reports can be prepared of local conditions prior to investigating contamination sites in the field.