``Groundwater Vulnerability in Kickapoo River WatershedWI”—proposal to Nuzum Foundation Kickapoo ValleyReforestation Fund

January 2009

Introduction

The objectives of this research are to help local policymakers and managersunderstand the hydrogeology of the study area in the Kickapoo River watershed,and create a map that describes areas of groundwater vulnerability to aid decision-making about land use and management. Historically, problems of well watercontamination have been numerous. Presently the average nitrate levels measuredin the towns of Viroqua and Jefferson are approximately 8 ppm.

After the August2007 storms, the City of Viroqua abandoned a municipal well because of bacterialcontamination. We also know our bedrock geology is characterized by near-surfacecarbonate rock, fractured and commonly manifested at the surface as sink holesand disappearing streams that serve as direct conduits into groundwater aquifers. The data from the Northeastern Wisconsin Karst study (Erb & Stieglitz, 2007)provide a warning and motivation for investigating the Kickapoo watershed area inmore detail to help decision-makers take a proactive stance on protecting thegroundwater resources. At the State level, DATCP is considering Karst Managementareas in the northeastern part of Wisconsin, in part, because of their ability to makeinformed management decisions using the data generated from years of study. Thesouthwestern region is not as thoroughly studied and will be a secondaryconsideration in Karst Management by the State.

The Study Setting and Collaboration

This study is proposed as a pilot for the Kickapoo River Watershed, limited in area totowns near the City of Viroqua. This location is rich in domestic and municipal wells,and carefully documented observation wells at the Vernon County Sanitary Landfillnorth of Viroqua. The recent La Crosse County groundwater study

reviewed someof this Vernon County data as it defined aquifer elevations and dynamics. TheKickapoo River regional groundwater resource studied in 1997 (Gaffield, Bradbury,& Potter, 1998) provides some background local information. This area is also hometo high nitrate levels in domestic wells and may be part of a comprehensive study of contaminant levels on a town basis.

The City of Viroqua has also instituted awellhead protection plan and has concerns about the safety and sustainability of itssole-source water supply.

Reconnaissance survey by the Vernon County LWCD, available via,http://www.scribd.com/doc/8779940/VernonCoLWCDWellTestingNO3results20062008

Study not published as of 12/2008, personal communication with Ken Bradbury at WGNHS

Grant application to University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point by the Vernon County LWCD

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Although the study area is limited, the collaboration between state and local levelswill make this an effective study. The Wisconsin Geological and Natural HistorySurvey (WGNHS) has reviewed this proposal, agreed to conduct a field day of training on identification of surface karst features, and will provide analysis of Vernon County data from the La Crosse County study. Charles Cameron of theDepartment of Natural Resources La Crosse office has expressed willingness toprovide background information. David C. Wilson, Driftless Area InitiativeCoordinator in Lancaster, Wisconsin has supported the effort by providingbackground research and has offered use of GPS units for field work, if needed.Researchers at the University of Nebraska, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Texas A&M University have offered to provide their electrical resistivity equipmentand expertise in the field to analyze groundwater dynamics in early summer of 2009. The Vernon County Land Information Committee has agreed to provide basemaps for fieldwork, Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, and datasupport. Should this grant be funded, the County Land Information Office will beable to devote time to create analytical overlay maps that illustrate areas of potential vulnerability. This study will also complement a grant being processed inthe Vernon County LWCD to do widespread well testing in a township. ValleyStewardship Network has a citizen monitoring program that includes domestic wellmonitoring. They have agreed to provide support for this effort on a fee for servicebasis for field data collection. They can also be instrumental in garnering citizeninvolvement as we work to identify karst features and monitor springs. And theCity Council of Viroqua is concerned and motivated to support this study and hasagreed to be fiscal agent for the grant with citizen volunteer leadership from KelvinRodolfo, Professor Emeritus of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department atthe University of Illinois at Chicago, and Lynn Chakoian, PhD Land Resources/MS SoilScience. The results from this pilot should provide a model for other areas of the KickapooWatershed and expedite a more comprehensive county or regional geologic surveyin the future.

Vulnerability Mapping

We propose a two-fold study of the local groundwater system. The U.S. GeologicalSurvey Circular 1224 (Focazio, Reilly, Rupert, & Helsel, 2003) states the situationsuccinctly:Clearly, ground-water vulnerability is a function not only of the properties of the ground-water-flow system (intrinsic susceptibility) but also of theproximity of contaminant sources, characteristics of the contaminant, andother factors that could potentially increase loads of specified contaminantsto the aquifer and(or) their eventual delivery to a ground-water resource. The physical characteristics combined with the potential for load from contributingland uses yield the most potent measure of vulnerability. To this end this study willPage| 2 Groundwater Vulnerability, January 2008

gather and make useable in GIS format land management data within the studyarea to overlay and analyze with the determined physical geology. Guides tocreating vulnerability maps (Focazio, Reilly, Rupert, & Helsel, 2003) (Commission onGeosciences, 1993) cite three approaches: overlay and index methods, methodsemploying process-based simulation models, and statistical methods. This studywill endeavor to use two of the three approaches.Overlay and indexing will be the most useful method because maps can beassembled using what data are available or easily compiled for a study area. Depthof soil or infiltration characteristics of soil groups, land use attributes, and karstfeatures on the landscape all contribute to the likelihood that pollutants will reach adrinking water aquifer. The limitation of this method is that the subjectivevaluations of the importance of physical, or management characteristics can becriticized as biased in the determination of which areas are scaled most-to-leastvulnerable.Simulation models provide a more scientifically-justified basis for managing landbased on assessments of vulnerability. A full county or regional study wouldundertake this method, but it would be unrealistic for this small scale, limitedbudget study to attempt groundwater modeling.Statistical methods provide a study with predictive capacity although they require acertain amount of data to generate sufficient statistical power to confirmhypothesized patterns. If the Vernon County LWCD is awarded the grant to samplethe domestic wells in Viroqua, then the map generated via “overlay and indexmethods” could be tested against the well nitrate level data. This opportunity toground-truth the map will enhance the managers’ confidence in the product Wewill also employ electrical resistivity analysis to analyze the vertical hydrodynamicsin areas with abundant karst features. John Ong is a Filipino professionalhydrogeologist and currently is a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska --Lincoln, specializing in geophysical hydrogeology. He has agreed to bring electricalresistivity equipment in the early summer to use in detecting water-saturatedvertical fractures. He will be helped in this work by two other former graduatestudents of Kelvin Rodolfo: Zenon Mateo at the Integrated Ocean DrillingPrp\ogram housed at Texas A & M University, and Caroline Jaraula, who just finishedher PhD in biogeochemistry at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Products

This study will create a vulnerability map that uses overlay and index methods todelineate areas at risk. We will ground-truth the results using all available data andthose collected by the research team headed by John Ong. This project will provide training for local people to identify karst features at thesurface, and provide an internet interface to report these features to the local LWCDPage| 3 Groundwater Vulnerability, January 2008