Pelican residents urge Nicolet officials to scrutinize city well proposal

On May 20 Town of Pelican residents had their first opportunity to speak directly to the Nicolet College officials who will ultimately decide whether to allow the City of Rhinelander to locate a high-capacity municipal well on the school’s Lake Julia campus. A “neighborhood listening session” on the well issue, hosted by the college, drew a large crowd to the school’s Northwoods Center and the school’s trustees also took public comment on the topic at the beginning of their monthly board meeting, which followed the listening session.
The listening session attendees shared their personal histories as residents of Pelican and expressed concern about potential lake drawdowns and dry wells. Some asked the Nicolet officials to reject the city’s proposal outright, all were consistent in requesting the college, at least, place strict, enforceable conditions on any potential agreement with the city.
Dr. Ted Shinners, who was the first to speak, argued the proposal is simply not in the school’s best interest and could well result in costly litigation.
“You’re going to have to install monitoring wells, and then you’re setting yourself up for liability, because if there are negative effects, you own the land and you’re gonna be the one named in the lawsuit,” he said. The members of the college’s board of trustees have a “fiduciary duty” to properly manage the school’s assets, he stressed, citing his own extensive experience serving on boards.
A few speakers asked the school officials to clarify if the college has received anything in exchange for allowing the city to drill test sites on campus. The response was that no money has changed hands and, as college president Kate Ferrel has stated previously, the college only gave permission for the city to determine whether the water located through the test well process was of sufficient quantity and quality to meet the city’s needs.

Ferrel reiterated that the college administration and board of trustees are carefully and deliberately gathering the data required to make a sound decision. To that end, she announced the college has secured the services of Dr. Christian Langevin, a highly respected research hydrologist, who has agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of the project.
The results of Langevin’s work will be made available to the public, she added.
A common refrain among the Pelican residents was that they will have no recourse if the new city well causes their private wells to go dry. One after another they told the Nicolet officials they don’t have thousands of dollars available to pay for a new well.
“It just seems to me that this is gonna be a hardship for us here,” one of the Pelican residents told the school officials.
While no one disputed that the city’s water issues are very real, several speakers said the city should have implemented a water conservation plan some time ago. In particular, one speaker referenced comments made during the May 12 city informational meeting regarding the amount of water used by commercial businesses and industry in the summer for cooling purposes.
“I was just floored that nobody brought up a point that may be (the city should be) looking at a conservation plan before they start looking for more water,” one of the speakers shared.
The topic of putting city wells Nos. 7&8 back in service was also mentioned, but city officials have previously stated it would be prohibitively expensive for those wells, offline for nearly five years due to PFAS contamination, to be restored to the point where the water would be safe to use. Also, there’s no consensus among governmental and environmental officials as to what constitutes a safe amount of PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals that have shown to have negative effects on human health.
Rhinelander fire chief Brian Tonnancour, the only city official to speak during the listening session, told the crowd that the city is not “flush with cash.”
“(Filtration) is super expensive,” he said, referring to a potential treatment for the two shuttered wells. “Yes, Wausau does it. Wausau also has a whole lot more money than the City of Rhinelander. We’re not, we don’t have tons of cash in the safe down in the basement of City Hall. Last year, we had to cut a position just to make our budget (balance). This year, we don’t even know what we’re gonna do, probably gonna have to cut more people.”
Approximately 15 minutes after the listening session ended, the meeting of the board of trustees was called to order.
A number of those who participated in the listening session then offered prepared remarks to the board members.
Pelican resident Christy Moe offered a stark warning.
“It feels like we are racing ahead with a project that has the potential to alter our environment, our community, and our water security, without the public having access to key data, impact studies or a clear plan for accountability,” she told the trustees. “That should raise an alarm for everyone in the room.”
“I urge this board to hit pause, demand real data, include the public in these decisions, and act with caution, because once this is done, we can’t undo it,” she added.
Several speakers reminded the trustees of the college’s long history of environmental conservation and its position as one of the “jewels” of the country.
“(The board) is being asked to authorize something that could have permanent consequences for the land, the water and the people around you,” another speaker shared. “While testing is one thing, advancing this towards a permanent municipal well, especially with so many unanswered questions, is not just premature, it’s irresponsible and morally wrong.”