City Council Votes Down New Wellfield

By Gordon HopkinsAfter more than a year of planning and testing, the Fairbury City Council has voted not to proceed with the Water Sourcing Project intended to bring lower nitrate drinking water to Fairbury. The project proposed to dig five new wells in an area approximately four miles south of Daykin.The vote was four-to-two and took place on Tuesday, November 2, 2022.Chris Miller with Miller and Associates presented a revised cost estimate which said the project is now expected to cost $19,862,000, shared between Fairbury and the Little Blue NRD (Natural Resources District), a portion of which would be covered by grants.Councilperson Doug Brown voted for the project, “I see this as a best opportunity to provide quality water to the City of Fairbury and Little Blue NRD.”Others were more reluctant. Councilperson Kelly Davis asked, “Do we have to decide this tonight?”“How long have we been dealing with this?” Brown asked.Davis said, “We just received a whole lot of information it's going to take a little while to absorb and a lot of figures to think about. I’m in favor of tabling it for another meeting.”However, no one made a motion to table the decision.A number of landowners have opposed the project, despite assurances from Miller and Associates and LRE (Leonard Rice Engineering) Water, engineering firms that studied the project and determined that impact to local irrigation wells would be minimal. One such landowner was David Ebke, who told FJN after the vote, “Well, I’m thrilled, although I’m not sure where we go from here.”FJN also reached out to Fairbury Mayor Spencer Brown for a reaction, “Last night’s discussion and vote proves that our council members are taking the topic of a new water source very seriously. Council had brought up lots of valid concerns and questions that will be investigated in the near future. We will work to collect, prioritize and answer each question so they have a solid understanding of our way forward. A project of this magnitude deserves the utmost attention and must be done right the first time.”In the meantime, the nitrate problem remains. Other possible solutions under consideration are finding another location for a wellfield, constructing a nitrate treatment plant or finding a way to address the “biofilm” accumulation that has kept the Crystal Springs well offline since 2021.

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