By Cara Spoto • For the Marshfield News-Herald • 

Communities with tight or depleted groundwater supplies would have
greater control over how such water is used and by whom under
statewide legislation introduced Monday.

Proposed by Rep. Spencer Black and Sen. Mark Miller, both Democrats
from Madison, the bill suggests allowing regions where groundwater
management is needed to mitigate excessive withdrawals by asking the
Department of Natural Resources for permission to form "groundwater
management areas." Management councils created for each qualifying GMA
would direct the use of groundwater in their area by drafting a
groundwater management plan. Plans would be created by each council
but require approval from the DNR.

Any new or existing high-capacity well located within a GMA would have
to be consistent with the plan for that area. If a farmer or city
wanted to build a new high-capacity well in a GMA where a plan said
such wells could not be located within 1,500 feet of a particular
waterway, they would be required to abide by that rule.

Residents living outside GMAs also could challenge proposed
high-capacity wells, however. The bill would allow residents to file a
petition with the DNR challenging the construction of a well if they
thought it would adversely impact surface waters.

The measure also would require springs with flows of 0.25 cubic feet
per second or more to be protected by high-capacity well laws. Only
springs with flows of 1 cubic feet per second currently are
protected.

Portage County has the highest concentration of high-capacity wells in
the state. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point water resources
professor George Kraft, who was in Madison for the introduction of the
bill, said he is encouraged by several elements of the legislation,
including those affecting struggling waterways such as the Little
Plover River, where pumping already has been determined to play a role
in anemic flows.

"(The bill) would allow a good look to be taken at new wells and has
processes for areas where we are already perhaps overpumping to get
that pumping in line with healthy lakes and streams," he said.

It could take some time for a region to establish a GMA with teeth,
however. The steps required to form a GMA and establish a management
plan are many, and Black estimates that a year likely would pass from
the time a GMA is formed to the time a plan is approved.

In the short term, the bill suggests public water utilities be
encouraged to offer incentives to customers who conserve water, and
recommends that plumbing codes be changed to allow appropriate uses of
used water.

State Rep. Louis Molepske Jr., D-Stevens Point, who sat on the
Groundwater Work Group, held off making a full endorsement of the
entire bill Monday, but said he has passed measured on to local
leaders and is awaiting their input.