2010 February | Lodi Valley News

River Currents

Rating 3.50 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/26/10
by Gary Engberg
©2010 GAry Engberg Outdoors

Early Walleyes and Saugers on the Wisconsin River

Saugers, like this one, are plentiful in the rivers and lakes around the Lodi, WI area.

This is the time of year when I and I know many of you have “cabin fever” and are looking forward to a true Wisconsin tradition, river fishing for walleyes and saugers. It’s been a typical Wisconsin winter with some cold weather and enough snow to keep you busy shoveling. Personally, I’ve kept busy with my new Lab, Katie, who has to be doing something outside with her boundless energy. Plus, I’ve been doing some ice fishing, looking for eagles and wildlife to photograph, feeding over 100 pounds of bird seed a week, and getting ready for the sport show and seminar season. But, I’ve had enough of winter and the stable and sunny days last week had me thinking of walleye fishing on the Wisconsin River.

It is not unusual to be fishing open-water on the Wisconsin River below the dams at Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin Dells, and Nekoosa in February. In the last decade, there have been a few years where walleye and sauger fishing started this early. Most people think that the “spring walleye run’ starts in March and April when the temperature hits the magic 40 degree mark and all the walleyes in the Wisconsin River system decide to migrate toward the first impassable structure or the dam’s on the river system. The truth is that walleyes and saugers start migrating upriver toward the Prairie du Sac Dam in the late fall and winter and find an area where they will hold till spring. This location is usually a deep water location with access to shallow water feeding flats that have bait fish. These “holding areas” can be close to the dam’s scour hole which is usually the deepest water below the dam that was formed when the water was high from the melting of winter’s snow and rushing through the open dam gates. There is water over 30 feet deep below the Prairie Dam which is deep water for the Wisconsin River where farther downriver 10 feet is considered deep. The scour hole is only 20 to 30 yards below the dam gates. Though many walleyes and its cousin, the sauger, can be very close to the dam, there are locations downriver 2 to 3 miles that will also hold fish this time of year before the spawn. This time of year, many of the smaller males will be active and arrive before the larger female fish. This is why you’ll often go through dozens of smaller, non-legal walleyes and saugers before you catch a legal fish. The legal size for walleyes on the Wisconsin River is 18 inches and the sauger must be 15 inches with a daily bag limit of 3 fish of any combination. Read more »

Moonlight Hike in the Lodi Marsh State Wildlife Area

Rating 3.50 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/22/10

The Lodi Valley and Dane County Chapters of the Ice Age Trail Alliance will be leading a moonlight hike on Sunday, February 28, starting at 7:00 pm from the Robertson Trailhead on Lodi Springfield/Riddle Road. Watch for the yellow “Ice Age Trail Event” signs.

Take time out to enjoy nature with others. Families are welcome. An astronomer will on hand with telescopes to help with viewing Mars, the Pleiades, and the
Orion Nebula. This full moon is known as the snow moon.

Walkers should wear clothing appropriate to the weather with sturdy shoes or boots. For more information contact Bill at 592-5666.

River Currents

Rating 3.50 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/19/10
by Gary Engberg
©2010 Gary Engberg Outdoors

The Sturgeon Spearing Opens and the State Recorded is Smashed

The Wisconsin sturgeon spearing season opened this past Saturday morning, February 14^th, to below zero temperatures and a sunny sky. As soon as the sun rose, the temperature rebounded and one could not have asked for a nicer February day. By mid-morning, the sky was bright blue, the warming sun was shining, and thousands of sturgeon spearers were in their shanties waiting for a big fish to come by their hole.

Sturgeon Record the new state record 212.2 pounds and 84.2 inches speared by Ron Grishaber of Appleton

The glorious day turned out to also be a record-smashing day for the opening of the 2010 Wisconsin sturgeon spearing season. DNR fishery technicians have been seeing and handling sturgeon over 200 pounds for a few years, but none have been speared until Saturday. Finally, one of these “super-trophies” was speared by Ron Grishaber of Appleton, Wisconsin on Saturday morning. Grishaber registered the huge sturgeon (212.2 pounds and 84.2 inches) at the Harrison Registration Station, west of the village of Sherwood.

This was not the only record broken on Saturday. There were a record number of lake sturgeons greater than or equal to 100 pounds registered this day with 31 taken from Lake Winnebago and 3 from the Upriver Lakes. And the other record broken was the largest male sturgeon ever registered weighing 116.8 pounds and being 71 inches long. This fish was registered at Critter’s in the town of Winneconne. This sturgeon came from the Upriver Lakes of Butte des Morts, Winneconne, and Lake Poygan.

Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes were gin-clear last week which would have helped the spearer’s by giving them greater visibility. But, the water on the west shore dirtied up from the flow of the Fox River. The best spearing and visibility was on the east side of the lake and up north near Stockbridge. This is the area where the record fish was speared and where the most fish were harvested. Water clarity can change daily and many people were moving their shanties to the east side and north end of Lake Winnebago for the last few days of the season.

I talked to and interviewed Ron Bruch, who is the Fisheries Supervisor for the entire Winnebago System, and Ron said that “the number of these very large fish in the Winnebago population has been increasing over the last 15 years due to the regulations developed by the DNR fisheries staff and the Winnebago Citizens Sturgeon Advisory Committee, and implemented in the late 1990’s and designed to decrease the annual exploitation of adult female sturgeon (which are the largest fish in the fish stock and also the most vulnerable).” There also were large hatches of sturgeon over a 20-30 year period in the early 1990’s that are now entering the “super-trophy” size in their life. Lake sturgeon and especially females are believed to be able to live to be 150 years old or more. The 212 pound record-breaking sturgeon hasn’t been aged yet, but is thought to be well over 100 years old. The previous state spearing record was a 188 pound and 79.5 inch sturgeon that was speared by David Piechowski of Redgranite in 2004. This year’s record fish was not only a record speared fish for Lake Winnebago, but also a Wisconsin state spear record topping a 195 pound fish speared on Lake Pokegama in Vilas county in 1979. Read more »

Hack Chat with Tracy Sachtjen, Fifth Player of the USA Women’s Olympic Curling Team

Rating 3.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/18/10

February 17, 2010 ~ Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

Sunday and Monday we finally got to practice at the Olympic Curling Venue; it is only about 10 minutes from the Olympic Village, which is nice that we don’t have to travel too far. It is a very great venue, each team has their own locker room, and we had three love seats moved into ours and we decorated it with all our cards and signs from home so we could be comfortable when we were there, it looks sweet. The ice arena is nice and bright-the rings in the ice are blue and green, a little different than the typical red and blue.

Yesterday was our first game; we played Japan and lost in a measurement 9-7. It was a tough one, definitely not how we wanted to start competition but we have lots of games in front of us. There are ten teams at the Olympics for curling and we play a round robin, then the top four teams are in the semi-finals, #1 seed plays #4 seed and #2 seed plays #3 seed and winners play in the finals for the gold medal and the losers of that game play for bronze medal. After our game we went to the Proctor and Gamble house to spend time with our families and friends that are already here. My family will be here Friday, I can’t wait.

Today, we played Germany and had another heartbreaker; we lost 6-5 on the last shot of the game. I felt like the team played better and we are going in the right direction, we now just need to get a win under our belt and keep movin’ on!

Chat with you soon~

Tracy

Hack Chat with Tracy Sachtjen, Fifth Player of the USA Women’s Olympic Curling Team

Rating 4.33 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/17/10

February 13th, 2010 ~ Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

The days are flying by and I haven’t had time to fill you all in.

The US Men's and Women's Olympic Curling Teams pose for this photo with Vice President and Mrs. Biden

Friday the day of Opening Ceremonies was a whirlwind. We had the day off of curling practice, but had a great workout in the morning and a nice lunch before we had to get ready. We had to be dressed in our opening ceremony attire and ready to go by 1PM. We all met up to go on our first excursion for the day in the parking lot – all you could see is a sea or red, white and blue. That is when I spotted Snowboarder Shaun White and made sure that I had a picture taken with him, for my kids. Then we hopped on buses and were headed to meet the Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill, Gold Medalist Olympians Vonetta Flowers –2 man Bobsled, Peggy Fleming – Figure Skater and Mike Eurizone – Hockey player. Vice President Biden congratulated us on representing the USA and sent us good luck wishes and a go USA speech. Each sport then had there picture taken with Vice President Biden and Jill. (See below)

Then we were off to the arena where all the athletes from all the countries had to get organized in alphabetical order to get ready to enter in the Vancouver BC Place for the ceremony. Being at the end of the order, it took a while before we actually got in line, when we did get in line, we were all excited chanting USA, while other countries were chanting back, and this went on for quite awhile. It was nice to meet athletes from the all the other sports, find out when they compete and tell them you will be cheering them on either in person or by television.. When we were getting closer to the entrance to the Ceremony, it got louder and louder, all you could hear was the chanting of USA, USA, plus you could feel all the energy that was coming from us and in the BC Place. When we got to the entrance we had to stop and then you could hear them announce the United States of America, it sent chills down my spine and then the crowd was wild and we made our entrance, waving, jumping up and down with a big smiles on our face. We marched around the stage waving with joy and then made our way to our seats. The ceremony was breathtaking at times, there was sorrow for the athlete that passed away earlier that morning from a luge accident, then there were many moments that I was in “awe” of the show and when the torch came into the BC Place, especially with Olympian Wayne Gretzky and when the flame was lit, it still gives me chills. After the ceremony was over we took a lot of pictures it was hard to leave, it was such a special moment. (See picture below).

Saturday, we had our last practice at the Richmond Curling Club, which was quite busy, with the Scottish, Norwegian & USA men’s teams practicing the same time we were. There was much more media there and people watching our practices. That night our team went to the Short Track Speed skating which was very thrilling to watch, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and trying to move with the speedy skaters. We first watched the semi-finals 1500 M men’s short track , then the women’s short track relay, which is unbelievable that they don’t crash and how they do their hand off, then it was back to the 1500 m men’s final, which had my heart racing, the race goes so fast. The USA won two medals, Apolo Ohno won the Silver Medal and J.R. Celski won the Bronze Medal, quite exciting for the USA!

Tomorrow is our big day to practice at our Olympic Curling Venue.

Chat with you soon ~ Tracy

Tracy Sachtjen at the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Wendy Soucie Interview with Lodi’s Olympian Tracy Sachtjen

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/13/10

Social Media Expert Wendy Soucie (www.wendysoucie.com) recently interviewed Tracy Sachtjen prior to her departure for Vancouver, BC for the 2010 Winter Olympiad. Good luck, Tracy-

Hack Chat with Tracy Sachtjen, Fifth Player of the USA Women’s Olympic Curling Team

Rating 4.67 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/12/10

February 11, 2010 ~ 1 Day until the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

Tuesday, we had the morning off of training, so we slept in a little, hung out at our Penthouse Suite and relaxed. Then teammate Allison and I decided to go for a run outside the Village and checkout Vancouver. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the mid – 40’s plus Vancouver has a great running path around the creek. We saw many nice dining places and shops on our run. Then we were off to breakfast at the cafeteria, it was so busy, I would have to say most of the athletes have to be at the village now. We ended up sitting by other USA athletes and chatted with them a bit, it is great to hear about their sports and their training before they compete.

That afternoon the team went to practice at the Richmond Curling Club in the afternoon, I ended up staying back at the village to do media shoot, a station was interested in photo shooting our patriotic room and checking out our scenic view. I ended up meeting with the ladies at the curling club; we had a few meetings and off to dinner. We were invited to have dinner at my friend Doris’ house, I met Doris years ago at World Championships in Switzerland and then she ended up marrying my high school coach. It was so nice to hang out at a house and relax, have a great home baked dinner and to be able to taste test 3 delicious cakes.

Wednesday, was a busy day, practice again at the Richmond Curling Club and then off to pick up tickets and have lunch before our Press Conference. The official Press Conference went well, the 5 of us ladies and Coach Wally sat up on a stage at table while the media could ask any one of us questions. After that, each one of us walked around and had personal interviews. After the Press Conference we were off to the Nike House, which was another unbelievable experience, we were welcomed with open arms and a big duffel bag full of gifts for each one o f us. We were asked to try on the clothes and footwear in the duffel to make sure they fit us, you can imagine the oooh’s and ahhh’s from each one of us, we were spoiled again, but loving it. Nike personnel then took us to the USA House to show us where it was, what it was all about and show us how to register. The USA house is really neat, with many different activities to do while your there, I can’t wait till our families get to check it out.

We finally got back to the village in the early evening after the busy, busy day. Natalie and I had to rush off to a meeting, representing the men’s and women’s curling teams, with a representative from all other teams in Vancouver and conference call with the athlete representatives in Whistler to vote on our Opening Ceremony Flag Bearer. After all of the voting our USA Flag Bearer will be 5-time Olympian Luge athlete Mark Grimmette.

Thursday was another busy day in the Village; we had a workout, practice at the Richmond Curling Club and more media. Then we were off to the opening of the Proctor and Gamble House, all the USA athletes were invited to come and see all the neat accommodations they have for the athletes and their families. The Proctor and Gamble house is a place for your families to go and feel at home and a place to meet up with the athletes. Here is a little view of what they are offering: a Pringles Room with 24 flavors of Pringles – yummy, then a WII Room, a Spa Room, which definitely was a stop of mine, Pampers room for toddlers to play, place to drop off your laundry and pick it up in 24 hours, and lots of food and drinks. My family is going to love this place, thank you Proctor and Gamble.

We also, had the USA Flag raising Ceremony at the Athlete Village in the evening. All the USA athletes, coaches and staff gathered together and the ceremony was lead by Sandra Oh from Greys Anatomy. I met the youngest USA athlete, Freestyle Skier Ashley Caldwell who is the same age as my daughter, 16; we got a picture taken together. The ceremony was very festive and you can feel the excitement as we gathered with all the other USA athletes.

That was our past three days in a nutshell, I can’t believe tomorrow is OPENING CEREMONIES!

Chat with you later ~ Tracy

River Currents

Rating 3.67 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/12/10
by Gary Engberg
©2010 Gary Engberg Outdoors

Sturgeon Spearer’s Look Forward to Opener This Weekend

All signs point to a successful sturgeon spearing season on Lake Wiinebago

This coming Saturday, February 13^th, the Wisconsin sturgeon spearing season opens on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes of Lake Winneconne, Lake Buttes des Morts, and Lake Poygan. The spearing season lasts until February 28 or until the pre-set Winnebago System wide harvest caps are reached. Spearer’s had to apply for their spearing permit by August 1 for the Upriver Lakes where only 500 permits are allotted and licenses for both Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes must have been purchased by October 31^st. An individual can apply for a permit on either Lake Winnebago or the Upriver Lakes, but not both.

If you haven’t ever tried spearing for sturgeons, it is a tradition that is deeply rooted in the outdoor culture of Wisconsin. Spearing sturgeon goes back many generations to spearing families and groups of friends. Some families have traditions that go back to the early days of spearing with the Stockbridge Indians on the east shore of Lake Winnebago in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The “season’ is much like a huge tailgate party with thousands of anglers and their shanties dotting huge massive Lake Winnebago and having fun outdoors. The atmosphere is festive with families and groups getting together in the outdoors to socialize, see old friends, and hopefully get a chance to spear one of these prehistoric fish. Last year, an aerial shanty count had almost 5,000 shacks on the ice opening weekend. This year over 10,000 licenses have been sold, which shows that the sport is increasing in the number of participants and preserving this Wisconsin tradition.

The first spearing season in Wisconsin was in 1903 and later the season was closed from 1915 to 1931. But, the work and effort of the DNR and many other local groups have helped the growth of the sturgeon population to the point where it is now self-sustaining while still giving people the opportunity to spear. Read more »

Soil Contamination Could Trump Future Uses at Badger

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/11/10

The U.S. Army has proposed limiting camping and other future uses in lieu of cleanup for certain areas at Badger Army Ammunition Plant. If approved by state regulators, the request will relieve the Army of its responsibility to clean up soil contamination on land parcels slated for transfer to the State of Wisconsin, the Bluffview Sanitary District, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

The Army’s recently-disclosed proposal challenges a 1995 permit approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) which specifies both the contaminants of concern and the maximum amount of contamination that the Army can leave in soils after cleanup. The Army wants to increase allowed levels of the carcinogenic explosive 2,6-DNT, for example, from 4.29 to 620 parts per million(ppm). Soil cleanup goals for lead would increase from 30 to 500 ppm.

“The Army is spending millions of dollars trying to avoid a cleanup that is so easily accomplished,” said Laura Olah, Executive Director of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, a community-led group that has worked for sustainable reuse of the closing military base for almost 20 years. “Much of the contamination is limited to the top few feet of soil where it can be easily and safely removed. The military simply doesn’t want to spend the money required to do a good job.”

The Army’s proposal relies on land use controls to help limit human exposure to residual contamination. These controls could include prohibiting camping, restrictions on hunting, restrictions on grazing/agriculture, fences, deed restrictions, and re-classification of certain areas as “industrial.”

“This initial proposal is specific to the Settling Ponds – an area that spans the width of Badger from U.S. Highway 12 to the Wisconsin River,” Olah emphasized. “However if this is approved, we expect the Army to ask for similar concessions in other areas that are still under investigation.”

The Settling Ponds are located along the installation’s southern boundary and were first used in 1941. Altogether the site is comprised of Final Creek, four Settling Ponds, and five Spoils Disposal Areas, covering approximately 70 acres. During active production years, these man-made ponds received sanitary and industrial wastewater from the entire facility and surface runoff from the Nitroglycerine, Rocket Paste, and Magazine storage areas, and ultimately discharged into Lake Wisconsin at Gruber’s Grove Bay.

A Market-A Musing

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/11/10
by Gail Lamberty

Gail Lamberty, Market Manager for the Lodi Valley Farmer's Market in Lodi, WI

While our president was giving his state of the union address last Wednesday evening, folks from L.O.D.I. (Lodi Area Opportunity and Development, Inc.) gathered at the Northern Edge Supper Club. It was the annual opportunity to review the business climate in the area. Certificates and awards were handed out and general encouragement was given to new businesses. A really terrific table of green energy saving options was set up for viewing. It was fabulous to meet young people starting new business adventures with the support of this seasoned group.

The Lodi Valley Farmers’ Market has for many years been the recipient of the generosity and support of L.O..D. I. Rog Severson invited me to report on the “state of the Lodi Valley Farmers’ Market”. It was a delight to thank them on behalf of the market team for their faith in the market from its early days. Their generous support has not only been financial by providing a critical portion of our very limited budget, but significantly participatory as well. Looking at the audience I recognized faces of both regular vendors and regular shoppers at our market.

At our December market team meeting, we decided to thank Rick and Annette Fassbender who are the owners of the Northern Edge Supper Club where we gather on Friday afternoons during the growing season. We wanted to publically acknowledge them and the L.O. D. I. annual event was the perfect opportunity. In 2009 the market initiated the 5th Friday Market Dollars give away program. In each month that has a 5th Friday a drawing is held to give away dollars that are spent exclusively at the market. It is donations from the community and groups like L.O.D. I. that make it possible.

As I presented Annette with her $50 certificate for market dollars, she announced to the group that she would use it to purchase items to be used in her restaurant kitchen this summer. Bravo Annette!! Buy Fresh, Buy Local at its very finest at the Lodi Valley Farmers’ Market, wouldn’t you say?

Hack Chat with Tracy Sachtjen, Fifth Player of the USA Women’s Olympic Curling Team

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/10/10

February 8, 2010 ~ 4 Days until the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

I am not sure where to begin explain my last three days.

We left Saturday for Vancouver, we arrived at the Vancouver airport and we were greeted by many volunteers, they were so helpful and nice. We then had to get our credentials before we picked up our luggage, which made it official that I am an Olympian! The Women’s and Men’s USA Curling teams were bussed to the hotel where we went through processing. During processing you get your Olympic gear, which was overwhelming. Three suitcases later, which were all filled with Nike and Ralph Lauren clothing, shoes and accessories was awesome, if anyone knows me, I love all that stuff! We then had to try on our opening and closing ceremony attire to make sure we knew how to wear it and to check if we needed any alterations, then off to ring fitting and to pick out our Olympic watch, fun, fun. We then took our three pieces of luggage to our room, instead of 4 pieces of luggage between two of us, we now had 10 pieces of luggage and as you can imagine not much space left in our hotel room.

Sunday morning, we had our last Team USA briefing, with 1996 Gold Medalist Dan O’ Brien in Decathlon and 1998 Gold Medalist Aerial Skier Nikki Stone, it was a motivating send off before packing up to move to the Athlete Village. We arrived in the Athlete Village and were taken to our Penthouse Suite; where all five of us are staying. We were told before we arrived how lucky we were to get this suite, that the view is unbelievable and it was quite spacious. Well, when we got to the door to our Penthouse Suite, we were in amazed by the view and when we opened up the door and saw the size of the suite we were pretty excited. On each of our beds there were gifts from P & G, which was very thoughtful; it was many of the things that you will need extra of when you are gone from home for over 3 weeks.

We then toured the Olympic Village, checked out the shop and maybe spent a little money. We decided to check out the Olympic Village Cafeteria, which has every type of food you can imagine. I made sure I went to McDonald’s so I could tell my son that I went to McDonald’s today and it was “free”. We went to the athlete hangout where everyone was watching the Super Bowl; there are pool tables, WII games and much more, and it’s decorated pretty funky.

Today[Monday], we had our first practice since we left home. It was at the Richmond Curling Club, it was nice to get back out on ice with the five of us girls and our coaches. We then went shopping to buy a few things to decorate our room. Went back to our Penthouse Suite (love saying that) for the next 3 weeks and did some patriotic decorating, it definitely looks very festive! Nicole, Allison and I went and had a workout with one of our USOC trainers at the athlete fitness center, which was quite busy, you can tell more athletes moved into the village today. Then off to dinner with the team at the athlete cafeteria, it seems every time I go there I never know what to have to eat because there are so many options. Then we went back to the Penthouse watched a movie and relaxed together, nice way to end the day.

Chat with you later ~ Tracy

Debbie McCormick, Allison Pottinger, Nicole Joraanstad, Natalie Nicholson and I showing our patriotic spirit!

Lodi HS Forensics Conference Champs Again

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/10/10

The Lodi High School Forensics Team captured its fifth straight conference title last Monday night at Marshall High School. In a close competition with Lakeside Lutheran and Watertown Luther Prep, Lodi edged out Lakeside by six points, scoring a 259 to Lakeside’s 253. Earning individual medals were Andrew Bulovsky (extemporaneous speaking), Greta Reed (solo humorous), Janine Yeh (solo humorous), Holly Hargis (radio), Phoebe Mogharei (public address),and Emily Stephenson (oratory).

In addition to the conference meet, the team recently competed at the Berlin and DeForest Invitationals. Even though they had a partial team and did not place, individuals were finalists or place winners. At Berlin Andrew Bulovsky (extemp), Emily Wimmer (radio), Katy Lang (4 minute) and Taran O’Reilly (solo humorous) were all finalists. At the DeForest meet,

Our finalists included Kim Breunig (poetry), Emily Stephenson (oratory), Stacy Veach (prose) and Emily Wimmer (radio). Andrew Bulovsky took first in extemporaneous, and Holly Hargis took a first in radio speaking.

The team begins the state tournament trail with sub-district in Lodi on February 15.

Congrats to the LHS Conference Champion Forensics Team!

Merrimac Wants ARMY to Clean Up Contamination Affecting Lake Wisconsin

Rating 4.00 out of 5

Lodi, WI
2/10/10

Merrimac town board members Terry Frosch, Steve Peetz (Chair), and John Gaedke, consider and later passed a resolution urging the Army to clean up groundwater contamination that is affecting groundwater, wetlands, and surface water in the rural township.

Last Wednesday (2/3/10) night, Town of Merrimac board members unanimously passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Army to clean up groundwater contamination that is affecting private drinking water wells and is discharging into the wetlands and surface water of Lake Wisconsin at Weigand’s Bay.

The action follows the release of a new Army study showing that concentrations of the carcinogenic explosive DNT exceed state groundwater standards and that low levels of solvents may have also migrated outside Badger Army Ammunition Plant.

The primary source of the contamination is the Deterrent Burning Ground – a closed hazardous waste disposal site located in the northeast corner of Badger. In September 2009, groundwater testing at the site detected DNT at 3.8 parts per billion (ppb) which is 76 times higher than the safe drinking water advisory of 0.05 ppb.

The resolution urges the Army to “take immediate and proactive steps to assure that drinking water wells are clean and free of contaminants from Badger Army Ammunition Plant,” adding that the Army should offer “regular free water testing to all residents at and near the Weigand’s Bay area” in order to assure that families who have not been tested are included in the Army’s water monitoring program.

The town is also concerned about how the contamination could affect surface water. Weigand’s Bay is a natural fish hatchery and provides habitat for several species of wildlife that includes numerous fish and reptiles, as well as several bird species that include herons, cranes, osprey, and the American Bald Eagle, the resolution emphasizes.

“Failure by the U.S. Army to prevent and eliminate contamination in this valuable watershed jeopardizes not only the quality of life of town residents, but negatively impacts the recreational opportunities that supports the economic base of this township and surrounding communities,” the resolution concludes.

The resolution was passed in response to a request from Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, a local environmental group that has been pushing for cleanup and restoration of the ammunition plant since 1990.

The town will be asking federal and state officials to support the action by sending similar letters to the U.S. Army.