1996-04-25_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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Water Bi1llBoard U.S. Geological Survey to seek contributors to the drilling program and to determine the best areas for drilling. in October 1995, the DNR held a meeting in New Ulm a# which target drilling sites were selected and five local interests agreed to contribute $10,000 each to match the state's $50,000. Ail avail- able subsurface information for these tar- geted drilling areas is currently being com- piled. Drilling will begin after road restric- tions are lifted in the spring. Upon conclu- sion of the drilling, division staff will prepare a summary report describing any potential aquifers located during the test drilling. The Minnesota Water Well Contractors Association initiated the proposal for this funding with the objective of drilling to find any buried sand and grave! or cretaceous bedrock aquifers that could provide long term, high capacity, high quality water for domestic use, municipal use, and economic development. Well sealing on state land The 1989 Minnesota Groundwater Protection Act requires that the DNR develop a plan and appropriation request to seal inactive wells on state owned land. Unused wells are a potential vehicle for groundwater degrada- tion, because surface water and pollutants can flow down the well and directly enter an aquifer. In addition, large diameter "dug" wells are a physical hazard; animals, and even children, have been known to fail into improperly covered wells. !n 1992 the DNR Division of Waters, in cooperation with other units of the DNR, prepared a comprehensive inventory and plan to identify, locate, and seal unused wells on the 5.2 million acres that DNR manages (note that this is 95 percent of the state land in Minnesota}. That plan was funded through the 1994 bonding bill. The plan includes sealing all known unused wells and search- ing former dwelling sites acquired before current laws were in effect for wells that were not sealed when the buildings were razed. The search for unused wells builds upon earlier efforts to inventory wells on DNR- managed land in 1983 and 1992. The cur- rent program employs new technology in the form of a magnetometer to find buried wells and geographic positions systems {GPS) receivers to survey well locations once they are found. The current comprehensive effort has identified 476 inactive wells for sealing; about 237 of those wells have been sealed under the plan to date. The inventory also documented 1,277 former dwelling sites that must be searched for wells that may not have been property sealed when the buildings were razed. To date, about 12 percent of these sites have been searched. The Division of Waters expects to be able to complete the searches and sealing of all unused wells on DNR lands in six years, provided funding is continued. The bonding bill to be considered this session includes $500,000 for well sealing for the 1996-97 fiscal biennium (which is the second bien- nium of this three-biennium project). Funds for dam repair and removal The DNR Division of Waters is requesting $2.2 million in capital bonding for dam projects over the next two years. This appro- priation would provide 50 percent of the costs of repair work on the Zumbro Lake Dam owned by Rochester Public Utility, the ByHesby Lake Dam owned by Dakota and Goodhue counties, and the Lanesboro Dam owned by the city of Lanesboro. It also would provide full funding for removal of the