The newly formed Groundwater Advisory Committee recently held its first meeting and will meet again at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, said advisor Retta Isaacson at the Nov. 28 Land Conservation Committee meeting.

County Board Supervisor and UW-River Falls chemistry professor Michael Kahlow is the committee chair, while Teresa Davis is vice chair.

Isaacson said the group is “off to the races” and plans to meet every two weeks.

“I would suggest that we get all our stuff that we have in place to these people so they can see what we’ve got,” said Land Conservation Committee member Dean Bergseng. “If they would end up with some real major changes and it’s going to take 2-3 staff members, it’s probably not going to happen.”

Land Conservation Director Rod Webb said the group is an advisory committee, so the final report that they put together and approve will come to the Land Conservation Committee first, then it will be presented to the full county board.

“They do not have any power to actually enact any legislation,” said Webb. “We would look at the cost of enacting and enforcing any legislation.”

One of the committees main objectives is to learn more about the water issues in Pierce County and come up with recommendations to maintain or promote better water quality.

LCC member Mel Pittman said he attended a recent Maiden Rock Town Board meeting and people there wondered if the county will enforce more water quality standards.

“Given the money we have budgeted, if you’re looking for another enforcement officer, something else may have to give. There’s only so much money to work with here,” Pittman said.

He said people in his District (17) are upset by the manure tankers on the roads.

“It’s not like it’s every day of the week, 52 weeks of the year,” Pittman said. “This is an agricultural county.”

Webb noted the GAC must be aware of what all county departments and state agencies currently do. He spoke of the “excellent DNR CAFO specialist” Jeff Jackson, who has been out on area farms doing manure spreading audits.

“He’s been learning about how manure injection actually works in the field and how valuable that was to him,” Webb said.

The LCD tries to keep good relationships with large farmers as well as small so they know what the expectations are, Webb said.

“Some of these farms have expanded past their land base, so we have some work to do there so they understand that manure application rates have to be associated with crops that are to be grown and fields aren’t to be used just as disposals,” he said. “Bob Siewert used a minimum till applicator and it did a very impressive job of getting the manure into the soil but allows the rye cover crop to continue growing.”

Other business

Pittman asked Webb how many acres of farmland flow into Nugget Lake, which is set to be dredged this winter. The answer is 10,944 acres or 17.1 square miles. Rock Elm and Plum creeks both drain into the lake.