NEWS RELEASE

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI  53707-7921
Phone:  608/267-7404    TDD:  608/267-6897

Program aims to prevent contamination

MADISON -- In mid-January, teachers from twenty-five Wisconsin schools received intensive training about the state’s groundwater supplies and took home a free groundwater flow model they can use to help their students learn about this precious natural resource and how to protect it.

The training and models were awarded to Wisconsin schools as part of a collaborative effort among federal, state, and university agencies to help communities protect their drinking water from contamination, state drinking water officials say. To be eligible to receive a model, at least two teachers from each school were required to work as a team to develop a plan describing how they would use the model in their classrooms, and to attend one of three separate workshops on Jan. 17, 18 or 23.

"This educational program is an important one to safeguard Wisconsin’s buried treasure -- groundwater," says David Lindorff, who coordinates the wellhead protection program for the Department of Natural Resources. "Teaching students -- and their parents -- to protect groundwater in their own communities can lead to real improvements in local groundwater quality."

Groundwater supplies 70 percent of Wisconsin’s population with drinking water and is used for a variety of commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes. It also supplies fresh water to Wisconsin’s streams, lakes and wetlands.

DNR’s wellhead protection program seeks to prevent contamination of public water supply wells. It is designed to allow communities to protect their water supply wells by managing the land area which contributes water to the wells, an area known as the "wellhead protection area."

“The physical groundwater model each participating school received offers a "slice" or cross-section representation of the earth, allowing students to "see" groundwater,” Lindorff says. Teachers and students can use the model to demonstrate a variety of groundwater flow principles, including water table levels, how groundwater supplies are replenished, how groundwater flows through different geologic materials, and how contaminants from a variety of sources can leak into groundwater. The model also contains "wells" which can be used to show the effects of pumping on the groundwater flow system.

The groundwater models, assembled by University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources students, would normally cost $350 each. DNR paid for the models with a portion of wellhead protection funds from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Staff from the Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center at UW-Stevens Point and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey provided training in the use of the models to the 50 teachers in separate workshops Jan. 17, 18 and 23 at Stevens Point, Tomahawk and Wisconsin Dells, respectively. Representatives from local DNR offices and basin educators were also available to help teachers become familiar with the models and answer questions at each workshop.

"Groundwater concepts aren’t just for science anymore -- they can be incorporated into various subject areas including math, social studies, language arts, home economics and art," Lindorff says. "This training will help teachers understand how to use the model and the information to help students learn these other subject areas."

In addition to each pair of teachers from the schools receive training in how to use the groundwater model to its full potential, the selected schools also received $75 per participating teacher to help cover some of the costs for a substitute teacher in the classroom during the training session.

Each workshop included training and active, hands-on experimentation with the groundwater model.

·         Jan. 18, 2001 Treehaven, W2540 Pickerel Creek Avenue, Tomahawk

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