2021 Meeting Highlights

44th Annual Meeting 
Meeting Information
March 3-4, 2021, online via Whova Platform.
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Following a one-year hiatus due to COVID, the 44th annual meeting was held online in 2021 using the Whova platform. We had 199 attendees with the new online format, attending 78 talks on a wide variety of groundwater and surface water topics.

We also had plenary talks from Marissa Jablonski from the Freshwater Collaborative discussing the benefits of the Freshwater Collaborative on teaching and research in the state, Eric Olson from UW-Stevens Point asking for help spreading the word about the Wisconsin Water Week outreach, Sandra McClellan from UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences discussing the use wastewater surveillance for tracking of SARS-CoV-2 in the state, Anita Anderson from the Minnesota Department of Health discussing the vulnerability of groundwater drinking sources to microbial pathogens, and Adam Bechle from UW Sea Grant discussing some of the issues with high water levels in the Great Lakes.

Board Elections took place during the business meeting, and Matt Diebel was elected as Director-at-Large, Eric Booth was re-elected as Treasurer, Mitch Olds was elected as President-Elect, Aaron Pruitt was elected as Vice President.

Three Distinguished Service Awardees were honored: Dave Johnson (who was selected for the 2020 award before the meeting was canceled), Tim Grundl, and Carol McCartney.

Dave Johnson has spent decades at the Wisconsin DNR working with drillers, private well owners, and fellow DNR employees, and his extensive knowledge of Wisconsin geology, geochemistry, and well drilling techniques has been invaluable solving problems and delivering safe drinking water and protecting water resources across the state.

Tim Grundl has been involved in AWRA and Wisconsin’s groundwater quality issues since 1988 when he joined UW-Milwaukee. He has worked on geochemistry of the deep sandstone, microbes in shallow aquifers, and heavy metals, and has mentored students and been involved in presenting at AWRA many times over the years.

Carol McCartney served Wisconsin as the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey’s Outreach Manager, where she built bridges with stakeholders, colleagues, and students across the state, developing educational activities and mentoring students and staff on science communication strategies and how to build relationships with the public, scientists, and regulators.

Student Awards:
​Amy Plechacek “Using isotopes to investigate radium activities with respect to recharge history in the Wisconsin Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system”.
G. Aaron Alexander “Incorporating the Hydrologic Impacts of Low Impact Development in a Large-Scale Land Surface Model”
Hannah Lukasik “Using artificial sweeteners to determine septic system impact to Wisconsin lakes”
Katherine Langfield “Measuring Stream Baseflow Conditions in West-Central Wisconsin”