SB 620

Groundwater management areas

Designation

This bill establishes standards and a process for designating areas in this state

as groundwater management areas. The standards vary depending on whether an

area has a confined aquifer or an unconfined aquifer. An aquifer is a water bearing

geologic formation. A confined aquifer has above it a layer (of rock, for example)

through which water does not pass easily. An unconfined aquifer does not have such

a layer above it.

The standards for designating an area with a confined aquifer as a groundwater

management area are related to effects that the pumping of groundwater has caused

in reducing the level to which water would rise in an open well or in reducing the

water level in wells while pumps are operating. The standards for designating an

area with an unconfined aquifer as a groundwater management area are related to

reductions in stream flows caused by pumping and to declines in water tables.

Current law provides for a Groundwater Coordinating Council (GCC),

consisting of the secretaries of agriculture, trade and consumer protection, natural

resources, commerce, and transportation, and the president of the University of

Wisconsin System, or their designees; the state geologist; and a person to represent

the governor. This bill requires the GCC to appoint a subcommittee on groundwater

area review (council subcommittee), consisting of individuals with technical

expertise in the area of groundwater science and management.

The bill requires the council subcommittee to examine areas that may qualify

for designation as groundwater management areas and to forward its conclusions to

the GCC. If the council subcommittee forwards a conclusion that an area qualifies

as a groundwater management area and the GCC agrees with that conclusion, the

bill requires the GCC to recommend that the Department of Natural Resources

(DNR) designate the area as a groundwater management area. If DNR receives such

a recommendation from the GCC, DNR may, by rule, designate the area as a

groundwater management area.

The bill requires the council subcommittee to first consider two areas, one in

and adjacent to Brown County and one in and adjacent to Waukesha County, for

designation as groundwater management areas.

After DNR promulgates a rule designating an area as a groundwater

management area, it must establish a date by which it is reasonable to expect that

the groundwater conditions in the area will improve sufficiently that the area will

cease to qualify as a groundwater management area (a target date).

Planning

The bill requires a local groundwater management council to be appointed after

an area is designated as a groundwater management area. If the groundwater

management area is entirely in one county, the county executive, or, if the county