Where's Wisconsin's Water?

For decades, residents of Wisconsin's Central Sands region have seen disappearing freshwater ponds, lakes, and streams due to declining groundwater levels. But for a decade beginning in 2011, the state Department of Natural Resources claimed it lacked the authority to impose restrictions on high-capacity groundwater wells, often used in agricultural and industrial operations.

Lawsuits from environmental groups tested this argument by challenging the DNR's approval of a number of large-scale industrial operations, including a handful of high-capacity well permits. In July 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with them, and ruled the DNR does in fact have the authority to "consider the environmental effects of a proposed high-capacity well." Research has shown these effects can include diminishing groundwater reserves and arsenic contamination in nearby wells.

While high-capacity well construction has declined slightly since these and other water issues became major political issues in some parts of the state during the 2016 election, well owners who were granted permits prior to the Supreme Court's decision continue to operate them. Today, the DNR provides much more comprehensive data about high-capacity well construction and use, although no downloadable statewide dataset of high-capacity wells and their groundwater consumption has existed prior to this project.

Using Python and the Selenium library for web app manipulation, the data for the map below were copied and saved from the DNR's Drinking and Ground Water Use Information System in Wisconsin. Examining these data at a new scale reveals the huge operating capacity of industrial wells in at-risk regions like the Central Sands.

In the future, based on these datasets and techniques, other tools may be created to help give homeowners, environmental watchdogs, and journalists greater insight into groundwater withdrawal patterns at large-scale industrial operations.