Groundwater and Dry Lakes Part 1

The abundance of water is one reason why Native Americans settled in Wisconsin. But in recent years, some lakes in central Wisconsin have been drying up and streams have disappeared. It’s been nearly ten years since Wisconsin Public Television aired the documentary, Water Rich, Water Poor. And if 2009 is any indication, the problem is getting worse. This week “In Wisconsin” reporter Art Hackett shows you how the drought and new wells are draining the area from Hancock through Stevens Point.

Art Hackett:

Barb Feltz grew up along the Little Plover River, a four mile long stream near Stevens Point.

Barb Feltz:

I’m completely emotionally attached to the Little Plover because my grandmother used to take me trout fishing at the 80 that’s east of here.

Art Hackett:

She still lives next to the stream, although there is an automatic flow monitor on her property, she still logs it personally every day at an old manual flow station. On September 15th, she said the creek had gone dry.

Barb Feltz:

The sand silt in the bottom was hard. You could go and walk completely up the creek.

Art Hackett:

There are still trout in the Little Plover but some of those trout are in Feltz’s freezer. She collected the dead fish not long after her discovery.

Barb Feltz:

I don’t know how many other holes there was trout in that the coons ate up before I came home that day.

Art Hackett:

The Little Plover River may be low but at least it’s still flowing most of the time. That’s not the case just to the south in Washara County. Here Long Lake is long gone.

Butch Bredow:

We bought a cottage right over there in 1973. Yeah, the water in the lake was really, really nice. Good, nice fishing.

Art Hackett:

Butch and Karen Bredow say the problem started to show up five years ago.

Butch Bredow:

It went down and down and down and it was gone completely.

Karen Bredow:

It was a shock when we looked out in the fall and everything was gone.

Butch Bredow:

Kaput like the Germans would say, it’s gone.

Art Hackett:

Today Long Lake is a prairie. No longer can you catch trophy bass in its waters but a Christmas tree farm is developing in the Bredow’s backyard. They’ve seen sandhill cranes from time to time. A mirage perhaps? This is the town of Oasis. It’s home to several used to be lakes like Long Lake, Plainfield Lake is water-free. Huron Lake is in the process of drying up.

Cris Van Houten:

There was always farmland, always irrigation. The water level stayed high. Sometimes too high for us. But didn’t get to be an issue until it got down about beyond that point and it never came back up.

Art Hackett:

Cris Van Houten has a picture from the late 1990s showing him and his daughter pulling a sailboat. This is the stump of the tree that’s in that shot. It is now about 30 feet from the waterline.

Art Hackett:

What was your reaction when you first saw that?

Tim Asplund:

Well, it was surprise and shock a little bit.

Art Hackett:

Tim Asplund is a water resource specialist with the Wisconsin department of natural resources. He says he was first called to Long Lake in 2006.

Tim Asplund:

People call all the time when there are dry conditions saying, my lake is down, the water levels are going down, what is the reason? You sort of ask and probe a little bit more and usually people are talking about a couple feet drop and that is typical.

Art Hackett:

Asplund says it’s normal because these lakes are seepage lakes. The water comes from springs feeding water out of the surrounding soil. Theyre profoundly affected by prolonged drought.

Tim Asplund:

What I saw was pretty significant decline and something that did cause some concern in terms of this might be something more than just climate.

Cris Van Houten:

They put in much bigger irrigation systems. They put in new irrigation systems the last few years and they’ve killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

Jim Burns:

You could quit irrigating tomorrow in the whole state and it wouldn’t change these lakes one bit.

Art Hackett:

The debate explains why the central sands are ground zero as Wisconsin reviews its laws on groundwater.

Patty Loew:

The problem has gotten so bad in some areas, Abbottsford and Colby are considering a 35 mile long pipeline to Wausau because wells serving those cities are going dry. The state legislature is reviewing groundwater laws. Next week Art Hackett explores the role farm irrigation wells are having on the problem and you’ll hear from vegetable growers about their concerns over tougher water regulations. Thats next week on “In Wisconsin.”