Remember when the Green County landscape was punctuated by windmills? Most of those windmills are gone, but nostalgia for "old fashioned" windmills has led some entrepreneurs to carefully disassemble and reassemble windmills as "lawn ornaments" or museum pieces.
When I gather around the Thanksgiving table with my family in Green County, talk will certainly turn to "the old days." Discussions of generations of neighbors, their farms, businesses and even pets will entertain young and old.
Have your family gathering conversations ever turned to windmills? Windmills often are associated with the ingenuity, hardship, success and failure of early residents to this area. People often have a "favorite" windmill they remember from their childhood. The Green County Land Conservation office estimates there once were 4,600 windmills in Green County. Windmills weren't just interesting yard ornaments, they harnessed the wind to pump water that enabled early residents of Green County to settle where there was no nearby surface water.
The tower visible above ground only was half of the windmill. A water well punched a hole through the ground to water. Once the tower was gone, the well often remained, unseen and forgotten.
Why remember them now?
Unused water wells that have not been properly plugged leave open holes in the ground. These holes are dangerous! People (especially children), pets and wild animals can get hurt or trapped after falling into a well. (Remember "Baby Jessica" who fell 22 feet into an 8-inch well in the late 1980s?) These holes also are direct channels for anything on the surface to end up in our drinking water. Usually we rely on our soil to filter out bacteria, silt and chemicals before they reach our drinking water, but an old well provides a direct pipeline deep into the ground.
Ask any local well driller, and he will tell horror stories of new wells drilled, and later found to be contaminated by a nearby unused, unfilled well. It ends up being a very costly mistake that could have been avoided.
The only way to reduce safety hazards and groundwater contamination caused by old wells is to plug them. However, there's more to plugging a well than simply dumping something down an open hole. As of June 1, 2008, a licensed well driller must be hired to properly fill in old wells. Usually bentonite is poured into the well. Bentonite chips are a special type of expanding clay the size of gravel . Bentonite swells to form an impenetrable layer when exposed to moisture. For wells of a smaller diameter, grout may be used.
Getting unused wells filled is so important to the quality of drinking water in Green County, the Land Conservation Department will pay 70 percent of the cost to plug a well. The total cost for a landowner to fill an "average" well that is 100 feet deep and 6 inches wide is estimated to be $600. If that landowner signs up with the Land Conservation Department before Dec. 31 (and before they plug the well), Land Conservation would pay $420 and the landowner would pay $180.
As you gather to give thanks for the bounty of our area, think about our precious resource of clean water. When you talk of the "old days," encourage memories of windmills and old farmsteads. If you know of sites that may have unplugged wells, let the landowner know. If you are a landowner with an unused well, contact the Land Conservation Department at (608) 325-4195. They will help you fill out the request for funding.
Happy Thanksgiving!
When I gather around the Thanksgiving table with my family in Green County, talk will certainly turn to "the old days." Discussions of generations of neighbors, their farms, businesses and even pets will entertain young and old.
Have your family gathering conversations ever turned to windmills? Windmills often are associated with the ingenuity, hardship, success and failure of early residents to this area. People often have a "favorite" windmill they remember from their childhood. The Green County Land Conservation office estimates there once were 4,600 windmills in Green County. Windmills weren't just interesting yard ornaments, they harnessed the wind to pump water that enabled early residents of Green County to settle where there was no nearby surface water.
The tower visible above ground only was half of the windmill. A water well punched a hole through the ground to water. Once the tower was gone, the well often remained, unseen and forgotten.
Why remember them now?
Unused water wells that have not been properly plugged leave open holes in the ground. These holes are dangerous! People (especially children), pets and wild animals can get hurt or trapped after falling into a well. (Remember "Baby Jessica" who fell 22 feet into an 8-inch well in the late 1980s?) These holes also are direct channels for anything on the surface to end up in our drinking water. Usually we rely on our soil to filter out bacteria, silt and chemicals before they reach our drinking water, but an old well provides a direct pipeline deep into the ground.
Ask any local well driller, and he will tell horror stories of new wells drilled, and later found to be contaminated by a nearby unused, unfilled well. It ends up being a very costly mistake that could have been avoided.
The only way to reduce safety hazards and groundwater contamination caused by old wells is to plug them. However, there's more to plugging a well than simply dumping something down an open hole. As of June 1, 2008, a licensed well driller must be hired to properly fill in old wells. Usually bentonite is poured into the well. Bentonite chips are a special type of expanding clay the size of gravel . Bentonite swells to form an impenetrable layer when exposed to moisture. For wells of a smaller diameter, grout may be used.
Getting unused wells filled is so important to the quality of drinking water in Green County, the Land Conservation Department will pay 70 percent of the cost to plug a well. The total cost for a landowner to fill an "average" well that is 100 feet deep and 6 inches wide is estimated to be $600. If that landowner signs up with the Land Conservation Department before Dec. 31 (and before they plug the well), Land Conservation would pay $420 and the landowner would pay $180.
As you gather to give thanks for the bounty of our area, think about our precious resource of clean water. When you talk of the "old days," encourage memories of windmills and old farmsteads. If you know of sites that may have unplugged wells, let the landowner know. If you are a landowner with an unused well, contact the Land Conservation Department at (608) 325-4195. They will help you fill out the request for funding.
Happy Thanksgiving!
