The Rural Voice, 1993-03, Page 23public health inspector at the Huron
County Health Unit who regularly
tests the water from the rural well
that serves the school near Belgrave.
When he received the bad test results
he contacted the Huron County Board
of Education and barely an hour later
a contracting firm was on its way to
the school to "shock" the well with
chlorine. By 8 a.m. the next morning
the entire system had been flushed
with chlorine. As added insurance, a
chlorinator was installed at a cost of
$700. It's the third chlorinator that
has been installed at a rural Huron
county school.
The situation led Dave Bartlett to
wonder if, since the school's water
supply was contaminated,
the wells of rural students
might be affected.
Paquette was concerned
that out of 12 contaminated
samples sent in by
students, seven came from
drilled wells. "I'm always
concerned when we don't
get good water from drilled
wells," he said. "It's a sad
reflection on what is
happening to the
environment these days."
The OSCIA project
showed that dug or bored
wells were more likely to
be contaminated than
drilled wells but drilled
wells weren't immune
from contamination. Wells
more than 60 years old
showed the highest fre-
quency of contamination.
The most obvious
sources of fecal coliform
contamination are septic
tank systems and livestock
manure handling systems.
The OSCIA study showed
fecal coliforms were encountered
more frequently on properties where
there were manure systems than those
without. It's obvious that wells
should be located well away from
manure storage areas, where manure
is spread or near septic tank systems.
Dave Rudolph says there are defi-
nite points of possible contamination
on a property such as manure storage
areas and septic tanks, but it's hard to
know just how far pollution is travel-
ling from its source. Experiments
with multi-level wells drilled especi-
ally to take levels of pollution at vari-
ous levels of the soil, showed pollu-
tion even underneath farm fields that
weren't close to a source of pollution.
The Ministry of the Environment
advocates homeowners test their
wells for bacteria using the services
of the local health unit. Ministry
officials say rural residents should
examine their wells to make sure they
meet current standards. Ensure that
the top 2.5 metres of the tile joints are
water tight and that the top of the
well is raised at least 30 centimeters
above the ground surface and sealed
with a weather -tight cap. The soil
around the well should be raised and
should slope away from the well.
problem. Usually the problem comes
from older pesticides which remain
active for years: newer chemicals
seem to break down sooners, he says.
Nitrate pollution is a serious
problem in some parts of the U.S. and
Europe, he says. Germany and
Holland have had to take steps to
reduce nitrate contamination.
But there aren't any simple
answers to that problem. Dr. Gary
Kachanowski of the University of
Guelph, speaking at the Huron
County Soil and Water Conservation
Day at the farm of Don Lobb last
August said even plowed down green
fertilizer like alfalfa can cause a
problem with nitrates. Excess
nitrogen turns to nitrates in
Water sample bottles are becoming a common sight in rural
Ontario homes as drinking water quality becomes a concern.
Dave Rudolph says it's hard to
know if the problem of bacterial
contamination of groundwater is any
more serious today than in the past,
or if we just know about it. There's
no doubt that the problems of
pesticide and nitrate pollution are
increasing, however, he says. It's
only relatively recently that farm
chemicals have come into common
use. "We can assume it will likely get
progressively worse," he says. In
many parts of the U.S. pesticide
pollution of groundwater is a serious
the soil and nitrates can move
into the water supply. The
limit of allowable nitrates in
drinkable water is only 10
parts per million, he said. "If
your fields are losing only 20
pounds (of nitrogen per acre),
the water is not fit for
drinking."
Test wells at the Lobb
farm tied in to the tile
drainage system under the
fields and measured the
chemicals in the water that
would eventually enter water
system.
Organic nitrogen sources
like vegetation and manure
may actually be a more
serious threat than chemical
fertilizer, Kachanowski said,
because they break down in
the soil all year long, even
when there aren't plants to
make use of the nitrogen for
growth. When the plants
aren't using the nitrogen, it
may leach into the water as
nitrates. The perfect system,
he suggested, would be for chemical
nitrogen applications only when the
plants actually needed them.
Studies like Kachanowski's show
there are no easy solutions. There is
still a lot to be learned and the
professionals, and the enlightened
practitioners such as the Ontario Soil
and Crop Improvement Association
and individuals like Don Lobb are
working to find the solutions. In the
meantime, however, it's clear that
rural residents can never take pure
water for granted again.0
MARCH 1993 19