Project Number:
DNR-067
Other Project Number:
WR88R002
Funding Year:
1988
Contract Period:
Funding Source:
DNR
Investigator(s) and affiliations:
Peter Arntsen, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point;
William VanRyswyk, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Abstract:
Abstract: The impact of subdivisions on groundwater quality has become a topic of interest throughout the United States, as interest in groundwater protection has increased. Development of unsewered subdivisions adjoining municipal areas have increased as urban populations expand and people seek suburban areas.
This study was initiated in 1987 in an attempt to quantify the impacts of subdivisions on groundwater quality in the Central Sands area of Wisconsin. The project involved the installation of over 200 monitoring wells in and around two subdivisions. These wells were sampled and analyzed for a variety of chemicals over a four year period. Nitrate-N loading to groundwater was the primary focus of the project, with volatile organic chemicals, phosphorous, and several other indicator chemicals run on selected samples.