By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan.— Reno County Public Works Director Don Brittain sent a clarifying email to Hutch Post Thursday afternoon explaining the process by which a test well will be drilled to assist in mitigating the nitrate problems with the current well in water district 101 near Yoder.
The current plan is to have a 2 inch test well drilled in order to see if good water and the proper supply of water can be found. If that test well is successful, then it will be plugged and a 8 inch well will be drilled in the same location. The well will likely be around 120 feet deep. The perforated pipe will be around 100 feet below the ground for 20 feet and gravel will be packed around the perforated pipe. There will be a seal above the gravel and cement around 100 feet of well casing, to the ground surface.
The existing well is 117 feet deep and gravel packed from 20 feet below the ground surface to the bottom of the well. Having gravel pack around the well casing within 20 feet of the surface could very well allow nitrates from farming to migrate into the well. Having the new well cased with cement for 100 feet may prevent the nitrates from entering the well.
It's not that the existing well was installed incorrectly. Farm nitrates might not have not been a problem 40 years ago, as they are now. Now there are different standards for drilling wells that didn’t exist back then.
Brittain tells Hutch Post if this doesn’t work, county staff will have to find a new place to drill or another solution.
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Original story is below:
Reno County Public Works is going over its options for dealing with the high nitrate levels in the well water supply near Yoder.
Public Works is working with the KDHE to find solutions to the problem after the nitrate levels rose above allowable levels. Reno County Public Works Director Don Brittain thinks he knows why the well is prone to contamination.
“What I think the problem is, is when that well was drilled it has a round well casing. They went up too high with the rock, within 20 feet of the surface of the ground,” Brittain said. “And that allows nitrates running down the side of the casing.”
Brittain says he may have a solution to the problem.
“The plan right now is to drill a test well,” Brittain said.
If the test well fixes the problem, the current well would become a backup water source for Yoder. If not, then another well will have to be drilled that will find a better quality of water.
Britain says he hopes to have the test well drilled sometime in October.
The high nitrate levels come from the use of fertilizer and manure on farm fields.
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