Well Testing Project

On the evening of May 29, 2008 over sixty local residents crowded into the commons of the Platteville Middle school to receive their individual results from our well testing project and participate in an educational program to learn about the results. Three levels of testing were offered in this program: a Basic Homeowners Package to give a good indication of overall water quality; a Heavy Metals package for those with concerns about the levels of metals in their drinking water, and a Triazine Screen which indicates the presence of pesticides in drinking water.

In total 76 Platte River watershed residents took part in the program.

The program was sponsored by The Friends of the Platte River, Southwest Badger RC&D, and UW Extension to provide residents of the watershed a ten dollar discount on their well testing.
Funding for the project was provided by the Wisconsin DNR through a River Planning Grant and a donation from Grant County Land Conservation.

Peggy Compton, our local basin educator explained the process of how water moves from the surface of the ground, into the ground, and through our wells using a ground water model.

Kevin Masarik, groundwater education specialist in the College of Natural Resources at UW-Stevens Point explained the meaning of each of the tests and remedies for people with unsafe or undesirable results. He also mapped the results by general location throughout the watershed for comparative purposes.

In general, Kevin felt the ground water in the Platte River watershed was better than he expected for the geography and land use of our region when compared to results from other watersheds in the region—good news indeed!