Health Department interns work on well-testing study

HURLEY - The Iron County Health Department has three summer interns this year, who are working on testing the area wells as part of an effort to study the county's groundwater.

Mariano Maniscalco, a biochemistry major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pursuing a certificate in global health; Kristina Femla, who recently graduated from UW-Stevens Point with a degree in hydrogeology; and Pang Vue, an environmental health major at UW-Oshkosh started their summer internships earlier in June.

This summer's testing will focus on the southern part of Iron County, with the northern part of the county completed two years ago.

The grant funding the testing effort paid for 150 testing kits, meaning not every well in the county will be tested.

Those selected to take part in the survey pick up the test kits and can collect the samples themselves. The kits are then sent to a lab at the UW-Oshkosh for testing.

"We basically hand out the kits to them, tell them how to take the sample, and then we ship it down to the UW-Oshkosh," Vue said.

In addition to the actual testing, the department is also sending out before and after surveys.

"That's going to help, going forward, in putting together education and outreach for the community about their groundwater," Femla said. "So we kind of have an idea about what we need to tell people."

While staffing changes at the health department altered the testing timeline somewhat, the current schedule calls for kits to be distributed in July and results delivered in mid-August.

The testing is funded through a Wisconsin Environmental Public Health grant.

The interns came to the position for different reasons, with Maniscalco saying the posting's reference to nature and the outdoors was what drew him.

"My degree (is in) hydrogeology, so I want to work with wells," Femla said. "So I saw (the opening) and the description of it and thought, 'This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to do." "So the fact it is in Hurley, is just like, 'Cool, let's go to northern Wisconsin.'"

As all three interns coming from larger cities - Maniscalco is from New Berlin, a suburb of Milwaukee; Femla is from Appleton; and Vue is from Cheybogan - they said the move to Hurley has taken a bit of getting used to.

"It's a little different than I'm used to. I mean I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee and then went to school in Madison," Maniscalco said, laughing. "It's a little different, downtown Madison is a little busier than downtown Hurley."

They said they have been enjoying the area's natural sights, visiting several waterfalls in the areas and seeing Lake Superior for the first time.