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As state employees, we have been mandated to temporarily reduce our work hours by 16 days over the next two fiscal years. Within the University of Wisconsin–Extension, half of these furlough days have been predetermined.
Our office will be closed the following days:
November 27, 2009 (Friday after Thanksgiving)
January 4, 2010 (Monday after New Year's Day)
March 22, 2010
(Monday)
May 24, 2010 (Monday)
November 26, 2010 (Friday after Thanksgiving)
January 3, 2011 (Monday after New Year's Day)
March 21, 2011 (Monday)
May 23, 2011
(Monday)
WGNHS hydrogeologists Ken Bradbury and Madeline Gotkowitz,
working with Dr.
Randy Hunt from the US Geological Survey and Dr. Mark Borchardt and
Susan Spencer at the Marshfield Clinic, have completed a one year
study of the occurrence of viruses in deep water-supply wells. Viruses
in these wells were unexpected because the wells draw water from
below a shale formation thought to provide protection from contamination. During
2007 and 2008 the investigators sampled six deep municipal wells
for viruses on a monthly basis. They also collected virus samples
from local lakes and from untreated sewage.
Viruses were detected at least twice in every one of the six wells,
but no well was virus-positive in every sampling round. Virus
results varied significantly with time, and there was apparent correlation
between virus levels in sewage, lakes, and groundwater. The most
likely source of the viruses in the wells is the leakage of untreated
sewage from the Madison sewer system. The investigators stress
that these viruses pose no threat to public health as long as the
water is disinfected, as it is in Madison.
The final report from this project is available as
WGNHS Open-File Report 2008-08 and can be downloaded here. This
study was also the focus of an article by Ron Seely in the Wisconsin
State Journal. [Used with permission of Ron Seely and the Wisconsin
State Journal.]
Staff at the WGNHS often participate in discussions
about local natural resource issues. In June 2008, several intense
rain storms (17 inches of rain in 8 days) resulted in flooding of
about 4,400 acres of land in the vicinity of Spring Green, in southwest
Wisconsin. Madeline Gotkowitz and John Attig prepared a presentation
on the geologic and hydrologic conditions in the area that contributed
to flooding in the Wisconsin River valley. Slides from
the presentation and a fact
sheet on these conditions are presented here. The WGNHS and USGS
maintain a groundwater monitoring system across Wisconsin. Current
groundwater levels in the lower Wisconsin River Valley are available
at this site.
The background information on which this presentation
is based can be found in WGNHS Bulletin 102, Hydrogeology
and Simulation of Groundwater Flow in Sauk County, Wisconsin and WGNHS Information
Circular 67, The Geology of Sauk County, Wisconsin.
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