Marshall County’s Memorial Forest will soon have a water feature.
Members of the Marshall County Park Board have been working toward providing running water to the Memorial Forest and Tim Filson of Montgomery Well Drilling appeared before the board to present a pair of options for the well.
Filson said that the water table in the forest was high – from 10-12 feet – and would make for a shallow well. Drilling of the well would be relatively simple and entail less cost. The well would be a standard four-inch well similar to those dug for a home.
Option one would attach a hand pump to the well that could be constructed to allow use even in the wintertime.
Option two for the well would involve an electric pump buried system that would also allow the pump to be used in the wintertime.
In either case, Filson recommended that the board place a sign stating that the water was “Non-potable”. He said that drinking the water posed no hazard but posting the sign would protect the park board from liability. He said the Indiana Department of Environmental Management would also need to be involved without the signage.
Just as in any standard well for homes, Filson said that there would be a chlorinator introduced into the well to ensure that no bacteria would be present for those using the well. He stated that bacteria can be introduced through plumbing and his machinery used to drill the well included a chlorinator to keep it from introducing such bacteria during the drilling process. Filson told the board that as with all residential wells this one would have to pass a health department inspection.
His suggestion for placement of the well was to the north of the location of the historic Trustees’ cabin away from the driveway.
The Board had also considered a well located on the trails at the forest that would entail more cost because of the lower water table.
Filson told the board the cost of the hand pump system would be at a cost of $4100 and the electric pump system would be at a cost of $6150.
The arrangement would allow the Park Board to extend the system to a restroom in the future if they so desired. In that case, the hand pump would have to be removed and an electric pump installed.
The board voted unanimously to pursue the project with a hand pump. Filson said that he was about two weeks out from being able to start on the project and before construction could start the Marshall County Health Department would have to provide a permit.
