Little Blue NRD Seeks Permit for Well Project

By Gordon HopkinsThe Little Blue Natural Resources District (LBNRD) will be requesting permits for user of the county right-of-way at a meeting of the Jefferson County Commissioners on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.After the failure of a deal with the City of Fairbury to locate a new, lower-nitrate source of water in 2022, LBNRD is now going forward with its own plan to pump water from lower-nitrate sources.That source is property owned by Bill and Mary Glenn, the same location that was previously looked at by the inter-local agreement with Fairbury.LBNRD Project Manager Kevin Orvis and General Manager Scott Nelson both attended a commissioners meeting on March 5 to request the permit, but commissioners opted to postpone approval of the permit for a week to allow time for members of the public to provide input.Commission Chair Gale Pohlmann said, “The landowners near that area where you're going to drill the well. They're not real happy about this.”The proposed wells have been controversial with neighboring landowners who fear the pumping will impact their own wells.Orvis said, “We feel we've done all due process to ensure there will be no impact to adjacent (wells), who say they're still not happy. We're concerned and we probably will see litigation from this. As I said, I think we've handled everything on our side, that we're not going to damage anybody.”Pohlmann said, “I would like to defer this, because they didn't have the opportunity to come in here today.”When asked about the timeline for the project, Orvis said he didn't have the figures, but, “I imagine it'll be all winter and next spring. It's going to be a while to trench in the lines. We got to build some pumphouses. We got to drill a couple wells. It'll be a good project.”Orvis added, “This is, as I like to tell everybody, this is a multi million dollar project. But the nickels and dimes always add up.”The commissioners emphasized that, although they were giving the public the opportunity to speak at the next meeting, they will only be discussing approval of the permit for use of the right-of-way and not for the project, itself.Orvis asked, “We're not ignoring their concerns about the water in the area. Are their concerns going to influence you about approval of the right away?”Commissioners said they did not remember an instance when use of the right-of-way was denied.

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