Left, Hull residents have already passed judgment on whether a Stevens Point municipal well is to blame for water shortages in residential wells. (contributed photo)

By Jacob Mathias

An update of the Town of Hull dry well situation provided few new details and- so far- no solutions at Thursday’s Groundwater Citizens Advisory Committee.

A rash of shallow sand point wells have run dry over the past 6 months in the Town of Hull prompting citizens to ask if the cause could be the recently activated Stevens Point high capacity well #11. Residents say wells started drying up shortly after well #11 went online.

Water specialists for Portage County and Stevens Point say test wells near the high capacity well have shown little fluctuation in comparison to nearby residential wells.

“One of the things that complicates the analysis, the individual wells and the depth of water recorded by the drill depends on the time of year that they’re out there because we do have seasonal variations in water table even without any other impacts,” said Ray Schmidt, Portage County Water Specialist.

“Two to three feet is normal. We also have multi-year variations…we also don’t record information on what the water use is at private residences.”

Stevens Point Utilities Director Joel Lemke said the test wells have shown no more than a 1.3-foot change in water level, up or down.

Lemke and city officials have said that the reduction in water levels in Hull is not attributed to the activation of well #11.

“It comes down to the data,” Lemke said in an earlier interview about the city’s high capacity well. “When you look at those numbers of those monitoring wells- I mean, it’s right there- you can’t say well #11 has any major affect, nor is it the only variable on water levels.”

Lemke also said if the city’s well were to blame, all surrounding residents would be facing similar water shortages within sand point wells, but added the occurrences are too sporadic to support the city’s culpability.

Data collected from well drillers and county records over the past 10 years was presented by Schmidt, showing the number of wells replaced each year. Since 2003, 1-5 new wells have been drilled each year.

In 2013, 17 new wells had been drilled as of December 21, according to Schmidt’s records.

Tim Zimmerman, Town of Hull representative on the committee, said that John Holdridge, Town of Hull Supervisor had reported to him that up to 35 wells had been replaced, though Zimmerman didn’t know which wells had been affected.

Steve Gaffield, a retired hydrologist from Montgomery Associates in Cottage Grove, Wis., has also been hired by the Town of Hull to analyze the water table data and to determine the cause natural or otherwise of the dry wells. Gaffield hadn’t yet started his analysis but was unavailable for comment.

Montgomery Associates specializes in water resources engineering management including storm water management, erosion and restoration, rivers and streams, lakes and wetlands and groundwater.