Groundwater pumping in the central Wisconsin area has long been estimated to adversely affect streamflows and the levels of groundwater and streams.

Human and animal waste poses a threat to the quality of groundwater, surface water and sources of drinking water. This is especially of concern for private and public water supplies in agricultural areas of Wisconsin where land spreading of livestock waste occurs on thin soils overlaying fractured bedrock.

Among the many waterborne pathogens of humans, enteric viruses have the greatest potential to move deeply through the subsurface environment, penetrate aquitards, and reach confined aquifers.

This report summarizes data and information gathering for 2011 through 2013 that supports groundwater management activities in the Wisconsin central sands.

The fractured Silurian dolomite aquifer is an important, but vulnerable, source of drinking water in northeast Wisconsin (Sherrill, 1978; Bradbury and Muldoon, 1992).