City working to get Well No. 23 back online, after EPA warnings in May

Water utility manager unsure when contaminants can be reduced

La Crosse’s water utility will work to get a well back online.

Well No. 23 by the airport was shut down months ago after a finding of an unacceptably high level of a chemical traced to fire suppression foam. The chemical was used during training exercises at the airport decades ago.  

Water utility manager Mark Johnson says the chemical in the well just seeped naturally from ground level into the groundwater over time.

“It’s absolutely truly sins of the past,” Johnson said.

The EPA issued a health advisory back in May about the well after the agency lowered the acceptable levels of the chemical that was found in the water. Prior to that, the chemical level was within government limits.  

“We found that before other contaminants that we dealt with, the tetrachloroethylene, almost all of those have been traced back to old dry cleaning operations,” Johnson said. “Actually have talked to the old timers that said, ‘Yeah we’d take that stuff and throw it on the ground. We’d use it for wheat suppression.'”

Johnson says he’s unsure whether contamination in the wells can be reduced to acceptable levels soon.