The Windmill Derby is an effort in Participatory Action Research where communities organize locally administered Water Resource Action Committees to engage local 4-H, FFA and BSA Troops to build unique and innovative renewably powered water systems on old abandoned water wells identified through rapid roadside assessments designed to identify wells that may exist drilled or dug prior to regulatory standards that are maintained in such a way that they could pose a risk to water quality in the aquifer in which they lie.

This unique and innovative approach to remedy a problem that is widely found throughout the Great Plains states, where windmills or the remnants of their towers are the last vestiges of a vibrant history of homesteading where these pillars of the prairie once stood as the life giving heartbeat of the family farm. Now many stand only as relics of a largely forgotten past and due to the way that they were constructed prior to common regulatory standards, they now mark what is quite often a point where nearby pollutants enter the aquifer and threaten critical sources of water for thousands of Great Plains communities.

This program seeks to use several key systems designed by WaterWellSafety.com, including the HACCP based water well assessments and our newly developed Rapid Roadside Water Well Photo Assessments (RRWWPA) taken by trained members of the community to identify some of these wells from public right of ways. These assessments give project participants a systemized method for cataloging some of these mostly undocumented water wells drilled prior to regulatory reporting requirements. Many of them are in various states of disrepair and sit unused. However, we see this as a great opportunity for demonstrating how communities can work together to pool resources and time to make these potentially harmful reminders of our homesteading past into something that can rebuild faith in our ability to build something beneficial to our communities and also a way to preserve critical resources for the future generations of Plainsmen who will inhabit these prairies.

The concept of the Windmill Derby created by me, Andrew Clifford, founder of WaterWellSafety.com and Spin Pumps LLC a solar pumping system company. My interest in solar powered water systems has led me to many of these old windmill sites in landowners’ desires to use these old often neglected wells for current agricultural uses. I seek to build on this experience and skill set gained in my work on these sites, to empower the youth of the community with the guidance of professionals and other interested parties in the community to find these sites that pose the greatest threat to public health and safety then work together to secure resources, supplies and expertise necessary to turn them from something that is deleterious and damaging into something that can bring life, prosperity and sustainability to rural areas hard hit by depopulation and an exodus of former homesteaders. Building on the principles of dual use scenarios, we as the contest and research project organizers seek to encourage students to design water well systems for these abandoned sites that provide water for two designated beneficial consumptive uses. This framework provides a legal basis for establishing at each of these sites an expansion of an existing water right and providing a documented and demonstrated use of the water that fulfills state regulatory requirements and helps to expand the future of these assets through collaboration with entities that can provide funding through grants, cost-match programs and other funding opportunities needed to bring these innovative programs to light.

Imagine an abandoned windmill site that has sat unused, under appreciated and quietly letting pollutants into the aquifer through a ground level casing that isn’t properly sealed. These wells are more abundant than anyone knows and there are likely thousands of them throughout Oklahoma. Our effort to engage these wells and the landowners that control them in a way that is productive and beneficial to them, rather than in a way that is confrontational. We seek to align these landowners with industry professionals and students from local 4-H, FFA Chapters, and BSA troops that want to participate in a project that lets them build on skills in STEM and learn skills in plumbing, electrical engineering and construction that can propel them to future success. In this alignment, we hope to accomplish many things and to create a new future for many in our rural areas that have suffered constant negative consequences from depopulation and lack of economic growth.

This well is a blank canvas for real creativity in artistic and physical creation that will build confidence, skills and community bonds that will build the foundation for a new rural America where Americans can prove that the same characteristics that built this powerful and storied country can rebuild the rural communities that supplied the engineers, builders and workers that built a global juggernaut. I believe that people have an innate creativity that is aching to express itself. This project is the canvas where we can showcase this creativity and build real infrastructure for the future where young people want to live in these rural areas that have been slowly been being abandoned for decades due to the lack of amenities and infrastructure. Could we create solar or wind powered wells that fill cattle tanks, yes this is easily accomplished. But, the goal of this program is to take excess water from this purpose and channel it into purposes that create unique and beneficial uses that are demonstrations of something that is new and could provide a form of recreation or purpose that might draw people to rural areas where they might otherwise not have been inclined to visit.

Below I am going to list some of my dual use scenarios that I have envisioned and my hope is that others will be interested in participating in this program as contestants, advisors, landowners, community leaders and industry professionals. Please be open minded and hopeful that these efforts can start small as a seed of an idea and grow then blossom into something that is fruitful and beneficial to many who live in these areas or those who may be interested in visiting or recreating in these areas.

1. Dual Use Scenario for Frost Free Cattle Waterer with Drip Irrigated Wildflower Garden for Cut Flowers or Pollinators.

• In this scenario we seek to find a well that can be used to provide a constant flow system to a stock tank watering system that has a constant flow of water that reduces the risk of the water freezing in the tank, in doing this we use a specialized valve in the tank that has a secondary valve that can be opened to allow the system to provide a constant but light continuous flow of water that goes into the tank then pours out of the tank through the tank drain which also serves as the inlet for the gravity fed sub-irrigation system that can be routed to provide efficient and effective water to allow a mix of wildflowers for pollinators or other flower species that can be used as a small cut flower farm.

• This type of system set up with dual uses let’s a landowner expand his potential for collaborative funding by gaining funding through opportunities through groups such as the USDA-NRCS EQIP program, The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund, Pollinator Partnership's Native Wildflower Seed Grant, Pheasants Forever's Pollinator Habitat Outreach Program, the National Environmental Education Foundation's Biodiversity Conservation Grant, or the Okies for Monarchs' Wildlife Habitat Grant.

2. Dual Use Scenario for Frost Free Cattle Waterer with Irrigated Emergency Rescue Forage Reserve.

• In this scenario we build on the same type of frost free livestock watering system as before, but instead of planting a plot of wildflowers, we seek to plant a forage crop that can be fenced off from normal grazing activity on the tract and serve as a reserve of high quality forage, ideally a high palatability and highly digestible mix of forages that can be used for animals that are suffering from health distresses that could be mitigated by introduction to forages that might supplement deficiencies in their diet due to seasonal availability issues or issues related to other animal health conditions that might be remedied by simply giving affected animals access to a small plot of highly nutritious forage that is readily accessible.

• This type of project provides dual uses that are doubly beneficial to livestock producers and could open landowners to potential collaborative funding through programs like USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, The Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG), Farm Aid grants, or the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) for environmentally beneficial farming research.

3. Dual Use Scenario for Frost Free Cattle Waterer with Wildlife Bubbler Waterers and Livestock Exclusion Zones.