Letter to the Editor: Contaminated Rainwater a Concern for Quarry RV Park

Submitted.

I would like to correct a statement by Mike Bahrke about the contaminated rainwater draining into the bay. In the photo of the quarry that I took for my book The Geology of Door County (1978), you see the dark area by the pen tip [at the right edge of the photo in the middle]. That is a large area of cherry pits. 

When I checked on how they got there, I was told that one of the large orchards owned the quarry and the cherry factory, and they got rid of the cherry pits here – a lot of cherry pits. One summer there was no call for pitter juice, but they had a tanker full of juice, and the workers were told to dump the juice with the pits. 

Within three days, wells all down Bayshore Drive were pumping cherry juice with their well water. The Niagara dolomite that is Door County tips downward from west to east, so water flows downhill from bayside to lakeside.

Bill Skadden

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin