Friday, October 16, 2015

New water blog in WI is expert's news-and-science-must read

There's a wonderful new blog called "WisWaterGuy" created by noted UW Stevens Point professor and hydrologist George Kraft.  

It's down-to-earth, but with plenty of documentation and science about many water issues facing Wisconsin right now, some of which have appeared also on this blog.

You may remember that Kraft had held a position on a groundwater advisory board until being replaced last year by Gov. Walker with a central sands groundwater user/potato farmer/campaign donor.

This sample from a recent illustrated and annotated WisWaterGuy posting gives you a flavor of the content, Kraft's approach and the depth of what I know will be an important resource statewide and nationally:
In my professional life I get grumpy about claims that there is no science that groundwater pumping is drying central sands lakes, streams, and wetlands. It’s been 10 years since the Little Plover first dried, nine years after Long Lake did the same, and a dozen years or more since the public was last able to swim at the Wolf Lake county beach. And still one hears and reads the claim of “there’s just no scientific evidence connecting groundwater pumping and drying surface waters” or “we just don’t know enough about the geology and how water moves underground.”
These claims ignore that the science of groundwater flow in general has been well known for 150 (some would argue 400) years, and that we’ve had 50 years of studies in the central sands. And that the geology of the central sands is incredibly well known because few places in the world have so many holes poked in the ground, thanks to the large number of high capacity wells. 
Soooo….

1 comment:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Thanks for that link. Looks good...