City Council Votes for Testing of Crystal Springs Water

By Gordon HopkinsFairbury's Water Sourcing Committee has recommended testing of the water at the Crystal Springs Well in Fairbury.After the failure of the Water Sourcing Project to move forward, Fairbury Mayor Spencer Brown and the City Council created a Water Sourcing Committee to work on locating a lower-nitrate drinking water source for the city. The city has four wells. Three of those are in the East Wellfield. A fourth well at Crystal Springs has been offline since 2021 due to biofilm causing issues with the wells.Biofilm is a collection of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other and also to a surface.At a meeting of the Fairbury City Council last year, Project Manager Mary Renn explained the water in that area is safe to drink, but can't be pumped due to biofilm in the pumps. Renn estimated it would cost about $260,000 a year if they were to replace the filters once a month, but the city would most likely need to replace the filters two to three times per month. Before being shut down, the city was replacing the pump's filters every two weeks or less to keep them in use. Renn also indicated a new pipeline would likely need to be installed to replace the aging infrastructure.The City Council met on January 17, 2023, to discuss sampling the water from Crystal Springs.Councilperson Brian Schmidt, who also serves as chair of the Water Sourcing Committee, said, “This is for some water sampling to be done at Crystal Springs Park, the goal of which is to try to locate or identify some of our biofilm troubles we've been having out there, as well as some additional nitrate information.”While the resolution is for not more than $10,000, Schmidt said he anticipates the sampling and testing to cost less, “This first round, we expect not to exceed $4,000. But we want the additional to do some future testing or some retesting included.”The City Council voted to go forward with the sampling and testing.

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