Yet another contractor update.

A month and a half ago, they came to dig up my leaking heating oil tank. A couple of weeks later, they came back in to dig a well for monitoring purposes: to see whether any of the leaked oil was migrating its merry way down to the stream at the back of the property. Fairly impressive compact drilling rig, which they had to maneuver around to put the well in the likely path of migration while avoiding damaging my trees or knocking down my power lines. Dug a 20-foot well, abour 5 inches in diameter. Barely big enough for the neighborhood bunny rabbit to fall into, if it weren't for the fact that the hole was covered with a locking cover and a cement seal.

A couple of weeks later, they came back to test the water in it. The testing lab decided that there wasn't any oil in it, and the Dept of Environmental Quality decided that was good enough for them; I could abandon the well. So yesterday, the contractor came out and did those things necessary to abandon the well properly: filled it with gravel and clay, topped that off with about a foot of cement, took out the top foot of pipe, more clay, gravel, and dirt, and covered it over so you can't tell it's there.

Having a well for a month, from which one sample was taken for testing? Between $1500 and $2000, your tax dollars at work.