U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sheet 051-99January 2000

WisconsinThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)is the Nation’s principal earth- andbiological-science agency. The USGSprovides long-term monitoring,integration, and interpretation of data,and scientific research in partnershipwith State and county governments,municipal public-works departments,public-health agencies, water andsanitation districts, Indian agencies,and other Federal agencies. This factsheet describes some of the currentUSGS activities in Wisconsin.

Abatement of Agricultural andUrban Water Nonpoint Pollution

Much of Wisconsin is faced with thegrowing problem of deterioratingwater quality in streams because ofincreasing runoff from nonpointpollution sources. The State hasapproximately 24,000 dairy farmsfrom which sediment, nutrients, andpesticides can enter surface-waterbodies. Additionally, runoff fromtilled cropland and urban areas canadd more sediment and pesticides tostreams. Runoff of this type generallydecreases dissolved oxygen in thestream water, and thus is detrimentalto the health of fish and other aquaticorganisms. The runoff also addsunwanted sediment and chemicals tothe water that must be dealt with bywater users downstream. The Wis-consin Department of Natural Re-sources (DNR) has proposed, and isimplementing, several “Best Manage-ment Practices” (BMP) projects in anattempt to reduce some of the prob-lems associated with this nonpointpollution. The USGS has severalstudies directed toward evaluating theeffectiveness of these DNR projects.

The objectives of some of the USGSstudies are to determine differences inthe quality and quantity of surface-water runoff from several areas ofdifferent pasture-managementpractices, both before and afterimplementation of the BMPs. Otherstudy objectives are to measure theamounts of solids and nutrients inurban runoff, and to measure runoffvolumes and water quality fromseveral pastures. The map (fig. 1)shows the locations of all of themonitoring sites, but it does notidentify their purposes.

The objectives and the benefits of theresults of the USGS studies areimportant to the future quality of theState’s rivers and streams. The USGSdocumentation of before-and-afterBMP applications can identify whichpractices work best under each typeof pre-existing condition. Afterthorough study, the DNR will be ableto protect stream-water quality byrecommending the BMP for indi-vidual sites.

Medicinal Drugs for Aquaculture

Fishing is a major pastime for 50million Americans, and recreationalfisheries have come to rely heavily onfish produced in public hatcheries. Ifhatchery-raised fish contract diseases,medicinal drugs regulated by theFood and Drug Administration (FDA)are required to restore their health.Only three drugs and one anestheticare legally available to treat many ofthe fish species cultured by publicaquaculture, and additional drugs areneeded to support the hatcheries. Thegeneration of data necessary to gainapproval of a drug is costly. Privatedrug and chemical companies cannotjustify the capital investment todevelop aquaculture drugs. Toaddress this problem, a partnershipwas formed between the States,Federal aquaculture advocacy agen-cies, and private drug companies todevelop seven drugs and one anes-thetic for public aquaculture. TheFederal-State Drug Approval Partner-ship, a project of the InternationalAssociation of Fish and WildlifeAgencies, represents the largest andmost comprehensive effort everundertaken on behalf of publicaquaculture. Because of its expertisein this area, the USGS Upper Mid-west Environmental Sciences Centerin La Crosse has the leadership roleto provide scientific oversight andcoordination for the project and toconduct a variety of studies requiredby the FDA to support the drugapprovals. Research has been com-pleted that, when accepted by FDA,will allow the use of three newwaterborne drugs for all 55 culturedfreshwater fishes. When the project iscompleted (now scheduled for 2002),

Figure 1. Nonpoint pollutionmonitoring sites.

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approvals will be obtained for fivewaterborne drugs, two oral drugs andone anesthetic. Supplied with a newlystocked medicine chest, publicaquaculture facilities across thecountry will be able to produce themany species required to supportAmerica’s popular recreationalfishing activities.

Geochemical Background andBaselines, Northern Wisconsin

Background geochemical surveysdescribe the concentrations of majorand trace chemical elements and theirnatural variations across wide areasand between various earth materialswithin individual areas. This informa-tion is essential for assessing theeffects of natural and human-inducedchemical signatures on the environ-ment and human health. This ongoingstudy is exploring methods needed toconduct background evaluations inglaciated areas, while assessing thebackground geochemical aspects ofthe Chequamegon National Forestand Isle Royale National Park. Thestudy is in collaboration with the USForest Service, which is concernedwith land-use decisions in the Forest;the Bureau of Land Management,which anticipates writing an Environ-mental Impact Statement on the Bendmassive sulfide deposit within theForest; the National Park Service,which is concerned with factors thatmay be contributing to high mercurylevels in fish, such as mercury levelsin soils and glacial material aroundknown mineralized areas; the Wis-consin Geological and NaturalHistory Survey, which has expertiseon the glacial geology of the regionand geology of Pleistocene depositsin the project area; and the Universityof Wisconsin/Wisconsin Dept. ofNatural Resources, which is datingand analyzing lake sediment coresfrom the mercury-impacted lakes inthe National Park.

Topographic Map Revision

The USGS has developed a strategyto help identify the 7.5-minutetopographic maps that are in highestdemand and that need revision. Thisplan uses monthly map sales as onecriterion to determine the demand andto set priorities in the map revisionprocess. Those maps that need to berevised and are in high demand willbe authorized. In Wisconsin, theMilwaukee, Wauwatosa, and Green-dale 1:24,000-scale topographic mapswill be revised using this strategy.

National Wildlife Health Center

The USGS’s National Wildlife HealthCenter, in Madison, provides Federaland State land-management agencieswith information, technical assis-tance, and research on national andinternational wildlife disease andhealth issues. USGS scientists haveforged strong partnerships withseveral Wisconsin programs includ-ing the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the DNR, and privateentities such as the InternationalCrane Foundation. This uniquefacility is equipped with state-of-the-art disease-containment laboratoriesdesigned to meet the criteria estab-lished by the Centers for DiseaseControl and the National Institutes ofHealth for working with all but themost infectious agents. The Centerhas a national mission to monitor andassess the impact of disease onwildlife populations; investigate theecological relationships leading to theoccurrence of disease in freerangingwildlife; and provide on-site supportfor wildlife disease emergencies, aswell as guidance, training, andtechnical information for reducingwildlife losses when outbreaks occur.Current Wisconsin activities includemortality investigations of wolves,bald eagles, and trumpeter swans forthe Wisconsin DNR; collaborative

studies with the University of Wis-consin and the Wisconsin DNR on thecauses of deformities and diseaseoutbreaks in frogs (fig. 2) and sala-manders; investigation of an exoticwaterfowl parasite in central Wiscon-sin’s Shawano Lake; and the assess-ment of fishing sinkers as a cause oflead poisoning in fish-eating birds.

Mercury Contamination

USGS research in the late 1980’sidentified widespread mercurycontamination of game fish fromlakes in Wisconsin. In most cases, theaffected lakes were remote and thesource of mercury was not apparent.Careful study showed that the domi-nant source of the mercury wasatmospheric deposition, and thatlong-range transport from pointsources (for example, coal-burningand waste-incineration facilities)were the primary contaminantsources. This research was the first ofits kind, and it led to the developmentof expertise in the specialized field ofthe chemistry of environmentalmercury. After completion of thework in Wisconsin, it was shown thatmercury is a global pollutant, and that

Figure 2. Deformed frog capturedduring a study of deformities anddisease in amphibians.

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all aquatic ecosystems are affected bymercury contamination to somedegree. Highly specialized samplingand analytical methods usually arerequired to quantify the extremelylow levels of mercury found in mostenvironmental samples (water,sediment, and tissues). Currentresearch activities are focused towarddetermining what differentiatessensitive ecosystems, in whichaccumulation of mercury in the foodweb is acute, from those that are morebuffered from this problem. TheUSGS Mercury Research Laboratory,in Middleton is participating instudies of mercury contamination ofaquatic ecosystems across the conter-minous U.S. and in Alaska andHawaii. The overall objective of thiswork is to identify those factors thatcontrol mercury contamination offood webs, including mercury load-ing, landscape effects (watershedsize, wetland density, climate, geol-ogy), and chemical effects (pH,dissolved organic carbon, sulfate).The mercury research team conductsthese studies in collaboration withother Federal and State agencies andwith private research laboratories.

Mineral Resources in the UpperMidwest

This USGS-led study is intended toprovide the information necessary tocomplete a qualitative (or, wherepossible, quantitative) regional ornational mineral-resource assessment;address regional land-use questions,mineral development and minerals-related environmental issues; deter-mine those areas for which informa-tion is lacking and need specialattention; and provide regionaldatasets for incorporation in nationaldatabases. Toward this effort, theproject has recently released a new,digital geologic map of the GreatLakes Region, and is acquiring newaeromagnetic data for southernWisconsin. Current collaborators

include the Minnesota GeologicalSurvey; the Minnesota Department ofNatural Resources; the WisconsinGeological and Historical Survey; theUniversity of Wisconsin-Oshkosh;the University of Western Illinois; theDepartment of Terrestrial Magnetism,Carnegie Institution of Washington;and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Clients include the DNR, theMinnesota Department of NaturalResources, the Wisconsin RecyclingMarket Development Board, the U.S.Department of Agriculture ForestService, the National Park Service,and the minerals industry.

NAPP Coverage and MappingPartnerships

New aerial photographs of Wisconsinare being obtained by the NationalAerial Photography Program (NAPP).The USGS, through the NAPPsteering committee (which includesrepresentation from many Federalnatural-resource agencies), hascontracted to acquire the remainder ofthe 1:40,000-scale leaf-off, black-and-white photographs that werebegun in the spring of 1998. Com-plete statewide coverage may take aslong as 3 years because of weatherconditions and a short flying season.When the project is complete, thephotographs will be used by theUSGS for revision of maps andproduction of digital orthophotos(DOP). A DOP is a computer-gener-ated image of an aerial photographthat has the geometric qualities of amap. The USGS and the State Carto-grapher’s Office of Wisconsin areworking together to facilitate thecompletion of DOP coverage of theState. One proposal is to use existingDOP’s that were made for use bycities or counties and to reformatthem to comply with USGS DOPquarter-quadrangle standards. TheState Cartographer’s Office and theUSGS are investigating whether thoseDOP’s can be converted into the

USGS digital orthophoto quadrangleformat at a cost savings for allconcerned.

Ground-Water Hydrology ofSoutheastern Wisconsin

Southeastern Wisconsin has one ofthe most rapidly growing populationsof the State, and in 1996 the areacontained about 37 percent of theState’s population. The economicgrowth and urban development of thisarea are partly due to the abundantwater supply. Lake Michigan is thesource for about 70 percent of thewater supply, mainly for the lake-shore counties of Ozaukee, Milwau-kee, Racine and Kenosha, which areprincipally in the Great Lakes Basin(fig. 3). The counties of Washington,Waukesha, and Walworth (in theMississippi River Basin) rely onground water for most of their needsbecause of the strict legal limits onthe transfer of water from the GreatLakes basin to the Mississippi RiverBasin.

Because substantial economic growthis occurring and probably willcontinue in the areas that rely onground water, there is a need forbetter management of ground-waterresources. If it is assumed that theincrease in ground-water use will beproportional to increases in popula-tion, then ground-water use might beexpected to increase from about 93Mgd (million gallons per day) in1995 to about 140 Mgd by the year2020. Water-level declines in the deepaquifer over the last 50 years rangefrom 6 to 10 feet per year. Cones ofdepression centered on Milwaukee,Waukesha, and Chicago have inter-sected so that pumping in one areaaffects water levels in other areas.

Early researchers generalized thedeep ground-water system in South-eastern Wisconsin as a “sandstone”aquifer comprising Cambrian-

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USGS State RepresentativeUSGS office locations8505 Research WayMiddleton, WI 53562-3581(608) 821-3801FAX (608) 821-3817USGS Home Pagehttp://www.usgs.govReports and products1-888-ASK-USGS

Ordovician age sandstone anddolomite, confined by an over-lyingthick shale formation. Later studiessplit the sandstone aquifer intoseveral aquifers and confining units.Although several ground-water flowmodels have been developed, noattempt has been made to simulatethe interaction of the shallow aqui-fers, which consist of dolomite andunlithified materials, with the deeperground-water systems. The intercon-nection and relation between theshallow and deep ground-watersystems in the Southeastern Wiscon-sin is not well understood, andrequires further evaluation.

Because of the complexity of theground-water system, it probably ismost effectively studied by thedevelopment and application of anumerical flow model in which thesystem is represented by multipleaquifers and confining units. Al-though most existing high-capacitywells are completed in the sandstoneaquifer, it is likely that a higherproportion of future water-supplywells will be installed in the shallowaquifers. This shift is expected notonly as a way of limiting the exces-sive drawdown in the deeper system,but also as a way to blend deeperwater characterized by increasingradium and salt concentrations withlower-concentration shallow water.

Long-term management and protec-tion of the entire ground-waterresource requires an understanding ofthe interactions between the multipleaquifers underlying the region. Aplanned new study (fig. 3) conductedby the USGS in cooperation with theWisconsin Geological and NaturalHistory Survey and the SoutheasternWisconsin Regional Planning Com-mission is intended to create aninformation base and a better concep-tual understanding of the ground-water flow systems, both shallow anddeep, and their response to urbandevelopment and water use; develop

and refine management tools (con-ceptual and numerical models) thatwill be useful in water-resourcemanagement decisionmaking on acontinuing basis and; use these toolsto evaluate proposed managementapplications to prevent or minimizethese adverse effects of urbanizationand ground-water withdrawals.

Figure 3. Area of intense ground-water study in the seven southeastern countiesof Wisconsin.

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The USGS has 325 employees in Wisconsin

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Ground-water flow model simulationresults and information will be usefulto a wide variety of Federal, State andlocal agencies. The study is intendedto provide needed information andguidance on potential managementstrategies to the Southeastern Wis-consin Regional Planning Commis-sion, the DNR and municipal waterutilities.