Final Status Report of Well Sealing on State Land

Document
Description
The DNR has completed the well sealing project using all reasonable methods for locating wells on state land. Additionally, the DNR has systematically searched more than 2100 sites for abandoned wells. The most valuable benefit of the program has been the sealing of nearly 1400 wells to prevent contaminants from migrating into ground water through deteriorating well casings and protecting the citizens of Minnesota from the physical danger of old, open wells. A secondary benefit has been the increased awareness of DNR staff to the difficulties resulting from any delay to sealing wells. Adding to the expense of sealing wells in this program were the many staff hours required to locate abandoned wells; the difficulty of onsite searches because the buildings on these sites were often razed nearly 50 years ago, the access roads were destroyed or eroded, and the well sites commonly were overgrown with trees; and the cost to redrill or extract debris from long-abandoned wells. A final critical benefit of the program is that the DNR Bureau of Management Resources now has an active database to track wells.
Date Issued
2007
Number of Pages
6
Decade
Rights Holder
Minnesota Water Research Digital Library
Rights Management
Public Domain