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UW geologists outline two-year Sawyer County groundwater-mapping proposal; county staff to consider CIP funding
Summary
A hydrogeologist from the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey described a proposed two-year groundwater-mapping project for Sawyer County that would produce water-table, surficial geology, recharge and susceptibility maps. The project was presented for information and a two-year CIP request will be considered during budget talks.
Amy Wiersma, a hydrogeologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, presented a proposed two‑year groundwater‑mapping project for Sawyer County that would produce water-table maps, surficial-geology mapping, groundwater-recharge estimates and a groundwater-susceptibility product intended to guide land-use decisions and well siting.
What the project would do Wiersma said the maps answer baseline questions such as groundwater levels, directional flow, and areas of higher vulnerability to contamination. The project would rely primarily on existing well-construction reports and other public data; staff from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band have already begun geolocating wells on the reservation, the presenter said. Wiersma described the four principal inputs to the final susceptibility map as depth to water, surficial sediment type, groundwater recharge and depth to bedrock.
Cost and timeline Wiersma provided a planning-level two-year cost range of roughly $101,000–$106,000 for Sawyer County if the survey performs core mapping and the county participates for selected GIS or field tasks; she noted Burnett County previously paid about $250,000 for a comparable set of products. “Burnett County paid around 250 k for the products that I've showed you today,” she said. The presenter said some project tasks — notably geolocating wells and the surficial-geology mapping — could be covered by external grants and that those funds would reduce the county share.
County budgeting and next steps A county official told the committee the project could be funded from the capital-improvement program (CIP) outside the levy limit and that the county zoning and conservation department would include the request in the 2026 CIP. Committee members asked about map resolution and final deliverables; Wiersma said the maps would be county-scale (roughly 1:100,000) with raster outputs suitable for GIS and printable maps for offices and public use.
Why it matters Committee members and staff said the maps could inform municipal well protection, siting of potential development or confinement facilities, tourism and resource planning, and targeted groundwater monitoring. If funded, the maps would be published by the survey and shared as GIS layers for local use.
Provenance: the presentation and questions appear in the meeting transcript where Amy Wiersma presented the mapping proposal and answered technical and budget questions.
