Follow the Raindrop

This project is the brainstorm of web developer Sam Lerner.

What Lerner did was a compilation of watershed data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) into mapping software that allows you to trace the travel of a single raindrop anywhere in the US.

Lerner’s tool makes use of animation created with the Mapbox map and 3D elevation data to follow your raindrop navigate a watershed.

Rainfall here finds its way into the Ahnapee watershed by means of Silver Creek and eventually lands in Lake Michigan.

Give it a try yourself. Just click on the River Runner link here.

 

Airborne Electromagnetic Survey

Just before noon on Friday I was sitting at my desk when I sensed an approaching helicopter.  No big deal I thought - It is likely the air ambulance from Green Bay coming over the house on their usual flight path.

Nay nay, this was different. 

As the sound grew closer it became clear this was not the same chopper.  This aircraft was slower, louder and flying way too low.  

Rushing out of the house this scary sight greeted me.

The aircraft came directly over the house dragging a ginormous contraption swinging dangerously from cables.  

Shouting into the prop wash I yelled - What the hell! 

Was this construction equipment being moved and was the pilot losing control of the load?  

Was it the return of the nefarious and mysterious black helicopters? 

Nope.  This chopper was white. 

For a moment I thought that the 'thing' swinging wildly from the cables was going to crash into the roof.

Jill and I jumped on the Brussels Facebook page and sure enough the community was abuzz about the apparition.

Seems the US Geological Survey people were flying a half-mile grid pattern over the peninsula with technology designed to look beneath the surface and into the bedrock as part of a groundwater study.  

I copied this from the Wisconsin DATCP homepage as background.

What is the survey?

The survey will use airborne electromagnetic (AEM) technology to update depth to bedrock maps for areas in northeastern Wisconsin. The data will provide a depth to Silurian/Karst bedrock contours that update existing map information. The use of a helicopter-towed AEM sensor (looks like a large hoop hanging from a cable) for this type of evaluation is new and provides accurate science-based data about below ground properties that are otherwise difficult to assess over large areas. This project is in response to public feedback on groundwater quality, limited data on depth to bedrock, and to further define aquifer properties in relation to surface activities.

When and where will it happen?

Flights are expected to start in early January 2021 and exact dates will be weather dependent. At this time, surveying will take place in the following counties: Brown, Calumet, Door, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan.

Why is measuring the depth to bedrock important for water quality?

The project is a result of the technical standard to support implementation of Wis. Admin. Code NR 151.075 - Silurian bedrock performance standards​. The technical standard identifies science-based methods for measuring depth to bedrock and serves as a resource for landowners who mechanically apply manure to cropland. Under NR 151.075, you cannot apply manure mechanically to cropland where the depth to Silurian bedrock is two feet or less and other restrictions apply for depths 20-feet or less. Because Silurian is a type of bedrock that allows materials to pass through it more easily, this rule and technical standard work together to help prevent potential pathogens (disease causing organism) from reaching groundwater.

How does this help you?

This survey supports public health efforts to help protect groundwater from potential pathogens and promote water quality. The results of the survey will:

• Reduce the financial burden on private landowners to verify existing maps
• Create a better understanding of aquifer properties
• Address groundwater quality
• Decrease mechanical manure applications in very shallow depth to bedrock areas

This project uses the strength of local, state, and federal resources to help many citizens in the northeastern part of the state.

Between me and you I am reassured to learn that on the second day of the Biden Administration scary government helicopters where not looking for the secret microchips embedded in the shoulders of the citizenry.  

Whew! 

More here.....

POWTS

Which is the acronym for Private Onsite Waste Treatment System. 

The Turd Hearse cometh. 
 

 
This is how you handle your shit when you live in rural America and don't have a municipal sewer system.  Everything flows downhill in the plumbing to a 1000 gallon tank where the solids settle.  From there the filtered effluent spills into another tank before being pumped into a mound system.  Once in the mound it slowly filters back into the ground water.       

Our own miniature sewage treatment plant.      

Got the three year clean bill of health after having the tanks pumped and inspected.       

That would be right.  Every three years.      

The county sanitarian requires it due to the fractured dolomite limestone bedrock that makes-up the Door peninsula.        

No leaking or failing septic systems allowed.  

The fella pumping the effluent out of the tanks was chatty-enough.  With all the rain business has been excellent.  But the stink. 

All I gotta say is……Whew!

Agua Libre

I got a couple of these from an acquaintance. 

Yup, boxed water.  

As a kid rowing-up most milk was packaged like this.  My orange juice and countless other products continue to be packaged the same. This is what is known as an aseptic carton.  It’s an old-school technology and the attraction is the notion that boxed water is better than water contained in plastic. 

It is true that paperboard is renewable and biodegradable, plastic is made from fossil fuels, smaller carbon footprint, yada- yada.  Better packaging – better planet.  I think you get the drift.  

This is clever marketing for sure but is it a better choice?   

Think about it - single-use water containers are quite wasteful of raw materials and energy, no matter what they’re made of. Moreover, they’re completely unnecessary except in emergency situations.  That’s because for most everyone in America we have exceedingly inexpensive and clean water straight from the tap.  I drink good, old tap water from a insulated cup or reusable water bottle.

Better idea – better planet.

Quack

Less than fifty feet from the back porch at the edge of the yard is a homemade, makeshift rain garden feature that filters water from the gutters on the north side of the house gradually across the prairie planting and in the general direction of the large pond and Silver Creek. 

And you thought I didn't know anything about managing stormwater.  Humpf!

In any event it is seasonally full at the moment so it has a tendency to be ephemeral in nature.  It is presently home to Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.

Apologies for the crappy composition...

Karst

By definition this would be a landscape underlain by limestone - eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes, and other characteristic landforms. 

Although karst processes sculpt beautiful landscapes they are also vulnerable to ground water pollution due to the relatively rapid rate of water flow and the lack of a natural filtration system. This puts your drinking water supplies at risk of being contaminated.   

Someone once told me that the average soil depth on the Door Peninsula is eighteen inches.  That would mean that in some places you might enjoy the benefit of several to many feet of clay soil filled with glacial rocks.  And other locations the bedrock is right at - or quite close to - the surface.  Like these examples I photographed while bike riding last weekend:   

If you click on the second image for a better look you may note that the color of the vegetation in the farm field is mottled.  It happens to be greener where the cracks and fissures of the underlying rock formation are located.

This dolostone composition of the Door Peninsula explains why the peninsula exists in the first place.  As I have blogged-about previously - even the mighty glaciers thousands of years ago could not scour this rock formation from the face of the earth.  It’s tough stuff – but full of cracks, fissures, sinkholes and caves that allow surface contaminants introduced at a great distance to travel quickly and efficiently and show-up in your own water supply.   

This is a big deal with the expansion of large dairy operations.  When you have thousands of cows you are producing waste on the scale of a mid-sized town.  And if your only mechanism for dealing with millions of gallons of liquefied manure is to spread it on local farm fields you might just create problems for someone else.  Fecal contamination has already found its way into sixty percent of the wells sampled in Kewaunee County to the south.  Yup, 60%.  And the governor and legislature really haven't shown a great deal of concern over this.  You'd think that after the political fallout from the Flint Michigan water contamination fiasco this might just get their attention.  It is frustrating to know that most days government seems more intent on continuing to deregulate these operations and hold them harmless from ground water contamination.  Maybe some day a humongous class action lawsuit will turn a few heads.

In any event - if you enjoy geology you can learn more about the science of karst formations and groundwater here.

Donald Hump

A humpback whale has apparently taken-up residence in the Hudson River for the past week - with sightings reported from the Statue of Liberty to well north of the George Washington Bridge,

With better sewerage treatment and less industrial pollutants and street runoff the waters are cleaner.  While rivers are not optimal whale waters the cleaner water is supporting plankton which has possibly drawn at least this one whale to the food source.

Social media has dubbed the leviathan - Donald Hump

Polluted Wells

This is certainly depressing news.

Of course cows outnumber people in in Kewaunee County and our neighbors to the south boast the highest number of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) anywhere in the state of Wisconsin.

With all of that manure is anybody surprised?

This is the crap (pun intended) of which nightmares are made-of...

 

Where There's a Well There's a Way

File this under domestic infrastructure.

It is always better for the well pump to be kaput when you do not have a house full of guests.

click on images to enlarge

Raising a toast to running water...

Flood!

The Frau and I took the girls out for a walk today and we had to ford the creek crossing carefully with tall rubber boots.

Holy crap!

click on the flood to enlarge

Everything is under water due to an ice jam and debris clogging the ancient culverts where we normally cross.

Will have to go down there tomorrow with some rakes to see if we can clear the jam and get things flowing properly.

Water Quality

We haven't had the well tested in about a half-dozen years so The Frau and I took some samples to drop-off at the lab in Dykesville.

The first tests were for bacteria (specifically e-coli) and nitrates.  Important to test for in farming communities.

The results were negative.

Next up is lead and arsenic.

The well itself is 267 feet in depth, with a casing encased in Portland cement.  It's a nice, deep water column - important when considering the fractured dolostone formation of the peninsula.  Point-source pollution can travel miles through the horizontal fissures of the rock. 

I prefer the water on The Platz to city water.  It is clean and sweet and doesn't stink of chlorine.