DICKINSON (AP) - The Forest Service is taking public comments through Wednesday on a project to plug about 25 abandoned water wells in Slope, Golden Valley and Billings counties.

"Since 1997, we've had a watershed program on Dakota Prairie Grasslands, and going in and plugging these old wells that were part of the early homestead days and some of the nonfunctional wells on the grasslands," said Kevin Sullivan, the project leader. "We do it to protect the aquifer from any contamination."

Sullivan said that since the program started in 1997, about 200 wells have been plugged on the grasslands.

"There have been some range water wells that we've plugged in the past where we've drilled a new well right next to it to prevent anyone from throwing anything down in there to contaminate the aquifer," he said.

The plugging process includes filling the well with chips that form into a hard clay, preventing anything from getting into the aquifer.

"The effort is to make sure folks have good water," Medora ranger Ron Jablonski said.

Besides plugging the wells, the workers contracted by the Forest Service clean up old homestead sites.

"A lot of them have old wire and old wood," Sullivan said. "We have our archeologists go out first and clear these sites for historical items before we go out there."

This year, 13 wells were plugged on the McKenzie Ranger District. Sullivan said half the wells currently being proposed will be done next year and the other half the following year.

"We've been averaging 10 to 15 wells per year that we've been plugging," he said. "We usually go out in May, June and July before it gets too hot, then fire danger is a factor."

The wells average about 100 feet to 200 feet deep, Sullivan said, and old homestead wells are shallower, averaging anywhere from 50 feet to 100 feet deep.

"In the old homestead days, people had about 160 acres, and we figure there was a well for each quarter section," Sullivan said.