Full Description

In the early 1980's, a series of limited special purpose investigations was initiated to determine whether certain chemicals were entering Wisconsin's groundwater and, if so, to determine their concentrations. As a result of concern over the quality of the state's groundwater and concurrent with the limited special purpose sampling effort, a legislative committee was established to develop proposed legislation for groundwater protection. The committee produced a bill that become 1983 Wisconsin Act 410, which provides for the establishment of groundwater standards, compensation for owners of contaminated private wells, expanded groundwater monitoring and sampling programs, laboratory certification requirements, and establishment of an environmental repair fund along the lines of a state Superfund. Based on the initial findings from the special purpose investigations, a statewide two-year sampling strategy was developed to sample all community wells (approximately 2300 ) for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and approximately 1200 private wells. Private wells located near specific areas known to be or suspected of being sources of VOCs and also wells located in soil and geologic formations that permit the movement of contaminants from the land surface to the groundwater were included in the sampling sites. The discovery of aldicarb in the Central Sands area led to the development of a strategy for pesticides in which more than 100 public and private wells will be investigated over a two-year period. An analytical approach to trace contaminant monitoring was developed using a special gas chromatographymass spectrometry technique. As of June 1984, screening of 1174 community and 617 private wells showed that 65 community wells had detectable levels of VOCs and that 5 had concentrations above the recommended health advisory levels. In addition, 82 private wells had detectable levels of VOCs, 14 of which had concentrations above the health advisory. Of the 1508 analyses for pesticides, one or more pesticides have been detected in 24 wells, four of which had concentrations above the recommended health advisory. On the basis of these results, sampling near probable sources of contamination will be given more attention as contamination appears more site specific than widespread. Includes 7 references, tables.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. 78 - No. 9 Published: 09/01/1986 Number of Pages: 6 File Size: 1 file , 2.3 MB