Posted Mar. 20, 2005
Contaminated wells mean expensive fix for families
By Neil Rhines
Herald Times Reporter
WHITELAW —
In early February, Terri Brickner, 4615 Hempton Lake Rd., noticed water
running into her yard off of an adjacent field. It smelled like manure. Within days, that same smell tainted and discolored the Brickners’ well water. The
Brickner family owns one of four wells near Whitelaw that, after
several tests, were found to contain toxic levels of E. coli and fecal
coliform. The
Brickners stopped using the water that week, and began using water
provided by the Manitowoc County Division of Emergency Services, but it
was still too late for the family to escape unharmed. Terri’s husband,
Tim, had to be treated for exposure to E. coli. Brickner points to a number of concerns from the contamination: —A $13,000 price tag for a new well; —Expensive re-landscaping will have to be done; —Days of foul-smelling water that could only be used to flush their toilets; —Days of no water for cooking or cleaning; —Days of having to shower at friend’s home; and —Days of going to the town hall and filling five-gallon jugs a few times a week. These are issues that will resonate in Terri Brickner’s mind, and she isn’t about to roll over. She’s
contacted an attorney, and is determined to find out where the
contaminants came from and who is responsible for the damages caused to
her family’s health and property. “There
has to be a source. The person responsible should be responsible for
providing us with a new well,” she said. “Anyone who commits a crime
has to pay.” Brickner is convinced the problem is a direct result of agricultural runoff. “It can’t be that difficult (to find the source),” she said. “There aren’t that many large farms around here.” The
Brickners believe the problem is directly related to poor manure
spreading practices, namely winter spreading. She is frustrated and
angered that this would happen, and doesn’t believe the DNR (one of the
investigating agencies) is doing enough to correct the problem or find
out who caused the problem in the first place. “I don’t understand why this isn’t taken seriously enough,” she said. “This is a health issue.” The
Brickners have spent $13,000 to dig a new well. The new one is 252 feet
deep with a 200-foot casing, compared to 120 feet deep for the original
well. There is no means of public assistance to help with the expense. A
stone’s throw away, Dan Griepentrog, 12008 San Rd., said the $10,000 it
took to drill a new, 222-foot-deep well after his existing,
98-foot-deep well tested twice for E. coli and coliform was an expense
that was “unexpected, not budgeted for.” Dan,
his wife Susie, and their two children first noticed their water was
yellowish and smelled bad on Feb. 17. His nine-month-old child
developed pneumonia, but he said he couldn’t be certain the water was
the source of the illness. The
Griepentrogs quit using the water for cooking and drinking immediately
after they noticed the smell and color, but continued to use it for
washing clothes and showering. When everyone in the house, however,
suffered ear infections and burning eyes, they quit using the water
even for those purposes. The
Brickners and Griepentrogs, as well as other affected families, have
been receiving help from the Manitowoc County Division of Emergency
Government, and town of Franklin Chairman Harvey Jannette who, at 11716
San Road, also had contaminated water. The depth of the problem According
to Liz Heinen, water supply specialist with the Department of Natural
Resources, of the 13 wells tested in that immediate area, eight tested
positive for bacteria. Two remained only slightly contaminated, but the
Griepentrog and Brickner wells were “grossly contaminated.” The
Brickners’ well tested in excess of 2,500 counts of fecal coliform per
100 milliliters of water, and 920 counts of E. coli per 100
milliliters. The EPA standard says beaches should close if a sample
returns with more than 235 counts of either bacteria per 100
milliliters. “Any bacteria is unsafe (for drinking),” she said. Heinen
said the presence of coliform means the source of the contamination is
from a warm-blooded mammal, but whether it’s from farm runoff or a
faulty septic system is hard to determine. “We have to be a little more careful with what we do on the earth’s surface,” Heinen said. According
to Tom Ward, director of the Manitowoc County Soil and Water
Conservation Department, early tests taken about Feb. 7, when the
problems were first reported, were much higher in bacteria counts.
Tests to determine whether or not the source was cow or human, however,
were not done at that time. Testing, testing Ward
said testing is possible to determine what the source of the
contaminant is. This sort of testing has been used in some areas of the
county to help determine the source of beach contamination, but was
only done on later samples (towards the end of February). Later
tests came back negative for livestock as the cause, but “we didn’t
have a good runoff period (towards the latter part of February), I’m
not confident some of the data is accurate,” Ward said. The
Griepentrogs, Brickners and many other families living in “hot zones”
in the towns of Franklin, Kossuth and Gibson all face the common
problem of little soil on top of fractured bedrock. And the problem is
not merely confined to Manitowoc County. At
the same time reports of contaminated wells came in from Manitowoc
County, similar incidents were reported in Calumet and Dodge counties.
In fact, Heinen said contamination issues are a recurrent problem every
February and March as snow rapidly melts off of fields, developed
sites, woodlots and lawns under the warming sun. Older, shallower wells
are often hit first. According
to Ward, abandoned and old, rusted well casings often cause problems
for well owners. Water flowing across land, when it get to an old well
casing, can sometimes seep through the rusty cracks in it and cause
wells to go bad, he said. Neil Rhines: (920) 686-2105 or Nrhines@htrnews.com
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