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Sawyer County committee hears public calls for stronger groundwater action, forwards 10-year land-and-water plan to county board after state review
Summary
At a public hearing, staff and residents urged clearer groundwater monitoring and timelines for Sawyer County’s 2027–2036 Land and Water Resource Management Plan. The committee voted unanimously to forward the plan to the county board after State Land Conservation Board review.
Members of the Sawyer County Land, Water, and Forest Resources Committee opened a public hearing on the county’s proposed 2027–2036 Land and Water Resource Management Plan and heard residents press for clearer groundwater goals before forwarding the plan for formal approval.
Mr. Bridal, a county conservation staff member, summarized departmental duties — including tree planting, erosion-control practices, nonmetallic mine compliance checks, dam maintenance and farmer education — and stressed that the department currently operates with two full-time staff. He told the committee a statewide groundwater-mapping study being performed by the Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey will begin in mid-2026 with final mapping expected around 2028 and that mapping results could be used to guide municipal wellhead protection decisions.
Linda Zellmer, an Edgewater property owner, told the committee this is the third 10-year update she has reviewed and urged more specific, actionable commitments in the plan. “Primarily, I think groundwater is an area where Sawyer County needs to be more specific and set some timelines and objectives to complete some things about groundwater,” Zellmer said, and she asked the county to take responsibility for compiling and analyzing existing local water-sampling data rather than rely solely on lodging-facility tests.
After public comment and staff discussion about how lodging-facility test-kit results and DNR well-drilling records will feed into the mapping effort, a committee member moved to forward the action plan to the Sawyer County Board. The motion passed unanimously. Staff noted the plan still must be reviewed by the State Land Conservation Board before final ratification by the county board and said they will notify the clerk’s office when to place the item on a county board agenda.
The committee also agreed to provide a one-year update as mapping work proceeds and to coordinate wellhead-protection planning with the forthcoming groundwater-mapping study. No formal regulatory changes were adopted at the meeting; the action recorded was the committee vote to forward the plan for state review and county board consideration.
