Abandoned water wells in farm yards are seen as liabilities by realtors and lenders and risks to public safety and health by farm families.
Nolan Shaheen, director of ground water management with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, said there are tens of thousands of such wells in Saskatchewan.
He said failing to decommission them could affect nearby active wells, form potential hazards for farm families and equipment and create liabilities when borrowing money or selling land.
“Every time you put a well in the ground, you increase the risk of contamination to the aquifer.”
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Shaheen said increased public attention to water quality is behind the push to fill in old well sites.
“Failure to do so could have safety issues outside of consumption.”
The costs of decommissioning wells depend on the type of well, the measures required and the geology.
A recent job to decommission a 100-year-old, 30 inch diameter bored well in the Yorkton, Sask., district cost $300 for labour and equipment, $400 for bentonite, $30 for chlorine for disinfecting and $75 for sand, gravel and backfill.
Decommissioning a six inch drilled well cost around $1,000 plus $3 per foot for materials.
To decommission a bored well, the casing is first backfilled with clean sand or gravel. The top eight to 10 feet (2.4 to three metres) of casing are removed and a bentonite pad placed above the remaining casing.
It is then backfilled with clay or glacial till, which is mounded above the ground surface to prevent water from pooling around the wellhead.
For a drilled well with a smaller diameter, a special pump is used to pressure grout a slurry of bentonite into the casing. The remaining procedures follow those for a bored well.
Shaheen noted well decommissioning was once an eligible expense under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration’s previous water development program. He is optimistic funding will be available for it again in the future, perhaps through environmental farm planning.
More than 110,000 well and test hole locations, drilled or dug in Saskatchewan since the 1960s, are compiled on a watershed authority database at www.swa.ca.
For more information, contact a regional watershed office or phone 306-694-3900.
