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Packed House at Well Meeting

A standing-room-only crowd filled the Jacksonport Town Hall on Dec. 2 to learn more about the well contaminations that took place in September due to a subcontractor for Haberli Farms spreading manure over a sinkhole.

The original concept for the meeting was to have representatives from various agencies at different stations, allowing for one-on-one conservations with the Department of Natural Resources, various county departments and Ariella Schreiber, director of property and casualty claims for Rural Mutual Insurance, the Haberlis’ insurance carrier. However, the format changed into a group discussion, with the audience asking questions after the formal presentations.

Door County Soil and Water Department head Bill Schuster opened the meeting by explaining there would be presentations on what happened and what can be done moving forward to avoid future events, and that the meeting was called to get everyone on the same page with the same information.

Schuster said the county has a long history of well water concern, and referenced news stories from the 1930s and 1950s expressing concern about groundwater threats due to the thin soil and highly creviced bedrock beneath it.

“Twenty-two percent of the entire county has less than 18 inches to bedrock. An additional 17 percent is between 18 and 36 inches to bedrock. That’s what we rely on to keep our drinking water clean. That’s the filter for what we drink,” Schuster said.

He described the Haberli incident as “a series of errors” that led to the recent well contamination.

Schuster pointed out that the agriculture industry was largely unregulated when it comes to groundwater until about 15 years ago, and reiterated that the state’s current one-size-fits-all rules for groundwater protection does not recognize the different geological features of different areas of the state, which is why the issue of groundwater protection in this karst region will be a priority in the 2015 Door-Kewaunee Legislative Days, when a group from both counties travel to Madison to meet with legislators and make them aware of issues peculiar to the two counties.

Schuster also talked about another powerful tool that can be used to help maintain groundwater quality, and that is by having the landowners who rent their land to farmers be more critical of how that land is being used. Schuster pointed out that while the county cannot enact stricter standards than state regulations, there is no limit to how strict private landowners can be in the use of their land.

Former farmer Jerry Viste who is now executive director of the Door County Environmental Council, said after the meeting that enforcement issues have always been a problem, and he hopes it is true that Soil and Water is really going to crack down in 2015, as Schuster said at the meeting. But he fears it’s going to take an even bigger event to get everyone’s attention.

“Nothing is really going to change unless there are people who die from this,” he said.