Council halts well construction

The construction is on hold until a quality study is completed.

By Trevor Eischen

Published Nov. 3, 2009

The City Council unanimously voted for a proposal to halt the construction of a water well in Columbia's water treatment facility in the McBaine Bottoms, which recently underwent a water quality investigation.

The proposed placement of alluvial Well No. 16 has led to concerns over water treatment quality and costs.

The Columbia/Boone County Environment and Energy Commission outlined in its presentation to the council how diminishing water source quality could lead to increased treatment costs.

The EEC's Vice Chairman Dan Goldstein wrote a letter last month to the council suggesting it table preparations for the construction of Well No. 16 until the completion of a study being conducted by Carollo Engineers, the company working with the city to determine the wastewater levels in Columbia's 15 water wells.

Goldstein said the EEC wants to halt the construction until further evidence is available and does not advocate against getting water from the McBaine Bottoms.

"Our goal here is not to say anything bad about the wetlands," Goldstein said.

The EEC said the water was by no means dangerous, but placing the well in an area proven to have contamination problems is impractical.

"If we re-site Well No. 16, then we would presumably get cleaner water," Mayor Darwin Hindman said.

Both the council and the presenters during the public hearing said the water currently poses no risk to the public.

"You can't say it enough times, the water is safe," Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said.

Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade said he thought a re-examination of the problem was important.

"I think we need to go back and re-look, given the hydrologic situation," Wade said. "For the long-term well-being, we need to pause a minute and look back."

In a follow-up provision, the EEC also suggested the staff involved with the building of alluvial Well No. 16 search for an alternate location for the proposed well.

Engineering Manager Mark Schmidt said the chloride tracer is only one factor in determining the quality of the water.

Schmidt said the city also plans on building Wells Nos. 17 and 18 in the future with lands purchased in the McBaine Bottoms.

Chlorine levels in certain wells have posed a problem for the continual usage of water from the McBaine Bottoms, according to the EEC report.

Chlorine in water reacts and combines with naturally occurring organic material, which poses health problems and increases treatment costs. Those different chemical bonds are called disinfection by-products, or DBPs. The study conducted by Columbia Disinfection By-product Project Manager Enos Inniss looked at levels of trihalomethane.

Goldstein said the wells with the most significant wastewater and chloride influence include Wells Nos. 1, 11, 5 and 6. Well No. 12 is at a moderate level of wastewater influence. The proposed well would have been placed in the area where the wells have the highest chlorine levels.

In addition to increased costs, future government regulations on water contaminants could impede water supply from proposed Well No. 16 and other wells with concerning levels of disinfection by-products.