Back to 15th Annual DCEC Essay Contest Winners

By Katie Ann Holdridge
Corpus Christi Grade 7, 1st place

Door County has more miles of shoreline than any other U.S. county. As a peninsula, referred to as the thumb of Wisconsin, we are surrounded by water. Tourism is very important to this area and Door County is considered a premier vacation spot. People love the beauty and peacefulness of water and are drawn to it; but people are a major contributor to the ground water pollution issue.

Maintaining clean water for drinking and recreation activities is a growing area of concern for Door County. Most area residents depend on well water for drinking and household use.

People love to visit and make their homes in Door County. Many people want to build summer and retirement homes here. This means more construction and development.
The spread of new construction and development into countryside areas decreases the natural elements, such as trees, grasses, shrubs, and natural wetland areas, that would otherwise slow the flow of water and increase saturation and infiltration. Loss of these areas results in the poor distribution of water over the land leading to runoff.

Without natural elements to slow the flow of water, runoff is created when the water from melting snow and hard rains moves quickly over hard, non-porous surfaces, such as parking lots and roads. Runoff moves directly into our lakes and streams taking with it sediments and other contaminants like fertilizers, pesticides, and metals, leading to surface water pollution. The pollutants reduce valuable supplies of pure, fresh water by upsetting the natural cycles that work to keep water clean. By upsetting the cycles, the pollutants harm the animals and plants that live in the water.

One of our existing problems is rock. We are a part of the Niagara Escarpment, which is visible throughout most of the county by protruding bedrock at the surface, and rock bluffs along the Green Bay shoreline. We have shallow, poorly drained soils over limestone formations know as bedrock. The combination of poor soils over fractured bedrock makes the groundwater highly sensitive to contamination.

When it rains, the rain goes through the topsoils and then into the rock finding cracks and crevices and moving directly into our water table (a surface in a permeable body of rock of a zone saturated with water.) The poor soils do not filter and purify our water source. The possible contaminated water then moves to our wells and into our homes.

Other areas contributing to ground water pollution are failing septic systems and agricultural drainage. These areas of concern become more intolerable for Door County because of the shallow soils.

Dairy farming is a large industry in this area and agricultural drainage includes animal wastes, which decay and mix with runoff or filter through shallow soils, again, entering our water table too quickly. Farming and lawn care fertilizers and pesticides also create a problem. Fertilizers are carried in runoff and enter our lakes and streams, increasing the growth of algae and choking off other wildlife and upsetting the ecosystem. Pesticides kill other animals and plant life helping lead to runoff.

Many residents have old and outdated septic systems. A failing septic system will allow untreated sewage to filter through the remaining poor soils and into the bedrock and then into the water table, contaminating the water. These are just some of the areas which help create surface and ground water pollution. But, what can be done to help?

I believe the biggest thing that can be done to help preserve our fight for pure water in Door County is to educate our citizens and visitors of the importance of wetlands and other natural habitats. We need to learn to be good caretakers of the land we live on. Water is precious to life.

Things already being done to help is the preservation and restoration of wetlands and the planting of trees and shrubs on inactive farmland through government programs. Properties have been set aside in established land trusts through conservation efforts.

The county needs to maintain proper zoning and plan for smart growth. We need to issue guidelines for land developers by establishing requirements necessary to maintain runoff. Some requirements such as the construction of retention and detention ponds are already established.

Farmers currently have manure management regulations, such as requirements to have a storage facility and regulations regarding spreading to nearby farm fields. We should require that all waste septic systems be checked every so many years so that failing systems can be identified and replaced.

It would help if all waterfront properties would be required to maintain a natural buffer zone between home, lawn and the waters edge to help slow down water runoff.

These are only a few of the things being done to help in the fight against the pollution of our surface and ground water, but many more may be necessary to help maintain the quality of our water.
 

Door County Environmental Council
P O Box 114, Fish Creek WI 54212
Phone: 920-743-6003 | FAX: 920-743-6727
Info@dcec-wi.org