Well abandonment costs considered in La Crosse’s city hall

A city committee will consider the cost of abandoning a long unused water well in La Crosse.

The city’s board of public works will review bids on abandoning well No. 12 at Green Bay St. and Losey Blvd. on the south side.

The well has been through a remediation process but has been offline for more than 20 years, ever since chemical contamination from a nearby dry cleaner was found in the water there.

As late as a couple of years ago, the city had planned to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the well back online. That work was apparently never done.

City water utility manager Mark Johnson said Monday the well’s capacity isn’t needed.

With a choice from the state DNR to fix it or abandon it, the utility is opting to shut it down.

The city’s board of public works today accepted a bid of less than $15,000 for a company to do the work on the nearly 70-year-old well.