Waste & Materials Management Program
Environmental Monitoring

GEMS Database

Internet Access to the Groundwater & Environmental Monitoring System Database

Welcome to the introductory page for on-line access to the Groundwater & Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) Database of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Waste Management Program. Through this on-line version of GEMS, the public has access to all of the monitoring data available for each facility on the system.

The GEMS data base is the principal repository for most of the environmental monitoring data collected at solid and hazardous waste facilities throughout Wisconsin. The facilities in the database include operating landfills, closed privately operated and municipal landfills that were required to install monitoring wells, and a few hazardous waste facilities that have monitoring systems as part of their licensing requirements (there are no hazardous waste landfills in Wisconsin). A limited number of Remediation & Redevelopment (R&R) clean-up sites with long-term monitoring requirements have also been added to the database, and additional sites may be added in the future.

If you are not familiar with some of the terms on any of these web pages, you may click the "Help" button at the top of a page to get the glossary of available terms, acronyms, and abbreviations used in the GEMS Database.

If you would like to learn more about the history of environmental monitoring at the DNR and the kinds of records that we maintain, please continue to Brief History. If you would like to start searching for specific monitoring data, then follow the GEMS Data Search link here or at the bottom of the page.

Please send your comments (feedback) or questions about environmental monitoring associated with the Waste Management program to Jack Connelly at Johnston.Connelly@Wisconsin.gov or (608) 267-7574. If you have questions about GEMS, please contact Steve Drake at (608) 267-7567 or Steve.Drake@Wisconsin.gov.

GEMS Data Search

Disclaimer

Please be advised that despite the DNR's best efforts to provide accurate data, there may be errors and omissions. There may also be delays in adding new data or correcting older data that is found to be incorrect or incomplete.

There are various steps along the groundwater monitoring data collection and analysis pathway at which the accuracy of the data could be compromised:

• Sample collection: groundwater samples may not have been collected and preserved properly in the field according to standard protocols.
• Sample storage: samples collected in the field may not have been stored properly according to standard protocol prior to and during shipment to laboratories for analysis.
• Sample analysis: samples may not have been analyzed properly for contaminants in the laboratory according to standard laboratory methodologies.
• Sample data transcription and loading: in the course of transmitting data from laboratories and various intermediaries, including consultants and municipal officials, to the DNR, data may be inadvertently lost, omitted, uploaded to the GEMS database incorrectly, or in the case of paper transmittals, transcription errors may occur. All groundwater data submitted to the GEMS database is currently provided in electronic format, but prior to 1996, many sites submitted paper forms from which data was transcribed by hand before being entered. Therefore, the older the data being viewed, the more likely it is to contain transcription errors.

The facility or lab representative or consultant that submits environmental monitoring data to the DNR must sign a certification form stating that to the best of their knowledge the data is correct. That certification is the best demonstration of accuracy of the results listed in GEMS. Nevertheless, it is not possible to prevent all errors.

It is very important that the user of this web site not make conclusions based on limited information such as one piece of data from one monitoring point. Instead, the data as a whole should be evaluated by a scientist who is experienced with such evaluations and considers changes over time and takes into account the location of each monitoring point as well as the natural variability of water quality. Data that appears to be elevated may be caused by naturally occurring substances or by a contaminant source other than the facility being monitored.