Karst
Explore the wonders of our underground world!
Through educational events, instigating public and community science projects, as well as forays into literature, theater, and art, CSP raises the level of knowledge and understanding around karst geology, improves the publicly available data, and pushes the data to inform public decision-making processes from the hyper-local to state level.
Our work:
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Raising public awareness of the unique hydrogeological complexity and vulnerability of the Driftless Region.
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Generating new data on our local karst geology by instigating community science projects while simultaneiously pushing for public study.
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Integrating karst data into local policy development, emphasizing informed decision-making about landscape interaction.
What is "karst geology" and why is it important?
Here in the heart of the Driftless Region we are stewards of one of the planet's best aquifers. We are living amongst hills and valleys that have been carved by water flows. For 500 million years, seepage through cracks has been dissolving our carbonate bedrock, resulting in connected fractures that easily transport water through underground rivers, caves, sinkholes, and other complexities. While these karst features and their ability to rapidly transport surface water underground benefit us through springs, coldwater trout streams, and a host of micro-niches and special habitats, they also make our groundwater exceptionally vulnerable to surface pollution. Contamination of our local sandstone aquifer would be virtually permanent, so responsible stewardship is key!
At CSP, responsible stewardship begins with understanding the hidden world we're managing. Our education and community science projects focus on exploring these largely invisible karst processes, empowering us all to make good management decisions around our vital water resources.
🚧 🦺 This page is under construction 🦺 🚧
Drinking Water
Well testing & education campaign - 2019
Driftless Area Water Study
Until recent years, less than 1% of all wells in Crawford and neighboring counties had been tested: we bragged about our water but did not know what our drinking water quality really was. In 2019 Crawford Stewardship Project (and independently, the Tainter Creek Farmer-Led Watershed Council) decided to find out and launched our Groundwater Testing and Education Campaign. CSP tested 58 wells throughout the county but knew this was not enough and that we needed more official partners in this project.
In 2020, despite Covid restrictions, CSP launched the Driftless Area Water Study (DAWS) along with core partners the Crawford, Richland, and Vernon County Conservation and Health Departments, and with additional input and support from UW Extension, WI Farm Bureau, and other local organizations. Since the first round of nearly 400 well tests, there have been several more coordinated and subsidised testing cycles among our three counties, each one adding valuable data, to the point that we now have enough tests to make some claims, if vague, about the quality of our drinking water!
Drinking water quality in our three counties is not worse than the state average, but it is also not notably any better as a whole. There are some impacted areas, and some wells were found to contain e-coli and several were well above the health standard for nitrates, but the majority of people in the area are drinking safe water, and many do indeed still have some of the best water in the world flowing from the tap.
Some trends are becoming visible when comparing land use to drinking water quality, confirming, as has been shown in broader studies, that risk for nitrate contamination increases with proximity to row-crops and manure lagoons. [citation needed]
WEAL drinking water map link
The greatest finding is that we are only scratching the surface…
Test your well!
Private well testing info…
Karst maps
Karst fact sheets
Karst posters