A reminder for Greene County residents of a free program to help ensure those with drinking wells have quality water to consume.

Greene County Environmental Administrator Chuck Wenthold says the Grants to Counties program provides free well testing for bacteria, nitrites, manganese and arsenic. He explains the details of the program.

“It is funded from a surtax on farm chemicals and that money goes into a pool and then it’s divided out into all 99 counties. It helps us offset the cost for the water testing, and then it also, we can help a well-owner, if they’ve got old wells on property, we can plug an old well, or if they have an older well that is their primary well but may need some upgrades, we can also do some cost sharing to help them upgrade that well to better serve them.”  

Wenthold says samples from the test are sent to two state hygienic labs and the results are known within 5-7 days. If there are elevated levels of any of the tested elements, Wenthold points out he can work with the homeowner to correct those issues. 

Wenthold does well testing all year and those with wells can contact him to schedule an appointment at 515-386-5669.