Gaze across Midwestern farms and you'll find plenty of old wells. Then there's the potential that contamination can move into the aquifer and into other wells.
Aquifers are water-bearing geologic formations into which wells are dug.
Most Indiana aquifers are fractured rock, sand or gravel. Brichford and fellow water-quality specialist Gene Matzat have been working with Indiana landowners to create a video showing how to plug these potential sources of ground water contamination. In 1900, Indiana boasted 220,000 farmsteads, each with one to three of its own wells. Now the state has fewer than 63,000 farms, some of which are on city water. That means 157,000 or more wells are no longer in service and are contamination risks.