Kawartha Well Stewardship Fund

Kawartha Conservation and the Victoria Land and Water Stewardship Council partnered in 2008 to create the Kawartha Well Stewardship Fund.

Successful applicants received up to $800 dollars in match-funding for each well decommissioned or upgraded in the City of Kawartha Lakes.

The Kawartha Well Stewardship Fund was a one-time fund offered only in 2008.

Why Protect and Maintain Your Well?

Wells are a means of obtaining sufficiently clean water for residential, agricultural and industrial needs. Contrarily, wells can also become a target for non-point source pollution, such as urban and agricultural runoff, pesticides and animal wastes.

Well water pollution is most often the result of sources of contamination located too close to a well, improper construction or operation, or substandard maintenance of the well. Abandoned wells can also be a significant source of pollution.

As a private well owner, it is your responsibility to protect and maintain your well. Unsealed, abandoned wells and improperly sealed or maintained residential, business, institutional and farm wells provide a direct link between surface pollutants and groundwater.

Common surface pollutants include yard and farm runoff, which may contain pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes containing bacteria such as E. coli; and parking lot runoff, which may contain automotive fluids.

Identifying and sealing these wells by a licensed professional reduces the risk of contamination to groundwater, rivers and lakes.

Sampling and testing well water is also critical for ensuring that the well water is safe to drink. These and other measures will help to keep your well contaminant free.

Source: New York State Water Resources Institute Centre for Environmental Research, Cornell University. 1998. Ground Water Contamination, Bulletin No. 2. p. 9.

 

See Well Wise for more information about wells.

 

Funding is currently not available throught the Kawartha Well Stewardship Fund.

 

Contact Kawartha Conservation for more information.