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Marathon County conservation staff outlines wellhead-protection pilot in Athens, proposes seed-money program
Summary
Staff described a 60-acre conversion around Athens municipal wells (30 acres prairie, 30 acres pasture) funded by a combination of county, EPA, and grant money and proposed a one-time $20,000 allocation from the county’s environmental impact fund to seed future municipal wellhead protections.
Marathon County conservation staff on Oct. 14 described a pilot wellhead-protection effort in the Village of Athens that converted 60 acres surrounding municipal wells from row crops to perennial vegetation to reduce nitrate infiltration into the village water supply.
County staff said the Village of Athens had rising nitrate readings in its municipal wells, and the county worked with the village and landowners on a low‑cost, non‑treatment approach. Staff said the village agreed to pay $200 per acre to the landowner — above the $150 per acre rent the landowner was previously receiving — to convert 30 acres to prairie near the village and 30 acres to lightly grazed pasture further from the wells. The conversion was seeded in May 2025; staff said prairie seed alone cost about $8,000 and total first-year costs for the site were near $10,000 depending on acreage.
Staff framed the prairie conversion as far less costly than engineering for a full reverse‑osmosis (RO) treatment system, which staff estimated would cost more than $2 million to treat the village water supply. Staff also said the county received a $30,000 award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Small Communities, Big Challenges grant program; those funds paid for seed and the village’s first-year rental payment.
Staff noted that the EPA’s primary drinking-water nitrate standard is 10 parts per million; the county and DNR monitor wells and will continue quarterly testing. Staff described preliminary, anecdotal reductions in algal blooms in drainage ponds but said statistically significant nitrate declines will take several years to document and that the DNR-supplied historical data set extended to 2022.
County staff also described ongoing discussions with the Village of Rib Mountain about converting up to 80 acres adjacent to Depke Park: roughly 38 tillable acres in a wellhead area that includes mapped wetlands. They said Rib Mountain’s board has voted to offer rental payments to landowners to convert wellhead acres to prairie or other protective uses; negotiations with landowners are ongoing.
To help replicate these conversions countywide, conservation staff asked the Environmental Resources Committee to consider a one‑time allocation of $20,000 from the county’s environmental impact fund (EIF) to create a “seed money” pool for municipal wellhead protection projects. Staff said the EIF balance of unallocated funds is approximately $150,000 and that any EIF allocation would require subsequent approval by HR Finance Committee and the full County Board.
No formal committee action was taken Oct. 14; staff asked the committee to consider the concept and said they would return with additional information, updated water-quality data, and a report on EIF commitments if the committee requests it.
